Last time on NXT TakeOver: WarGames…
People could still safely go into arenas, Rhea Ripley and the kindest woman on the NXT roster, Candice LeRae won WarGames for their team, Mia Yim received a Reckoning that was undeserved, Pete Dunne won a match to face off against the leader of the Undisputed Era…who were beaten at the end of the night by Team Ciampa guest starring NXT Legend Kevin Owens, and DAKOTA KAI DID NOTHING WRONG.
Tonight: Will Team Shotzi get vengeance for the death of Tank by the most cruel woman on the NXT roster, Candice LeRae? What will happen when Tomasso Ciampa picks…a fight…with Timothy Thatcher? Will Leon Ruff continue the dream title run of a lifetime? How dead is Pat McAfee?
POP: This
POP: A Beautiful Mess
So fair warning, if you only like technical classics and matches with a bunch of grappling and submissions, WarGames matches are not for you (not that there’s anything wrong with that). However, if you do enjoy high spots, action and inventive use of foreign objects, well step this way.
The story going in was that Candice and Shotzi had beef because Shotzi kept getting involved in Candice’s title hunt (culminating with her getting involved at Halloween Havoc), so Candice decided to murder her Tank (after already brutaling assaulting her helmet). So with WarGames coming up, Shotzi decided to challenge Candice at WarGames from her garage at an undisclosed location where she spent the next month building a new Tank. Meanwhile, Candice built up her team and attacked anyone she expected to join Team Shotzi, including NXT Women’s Champion Io Shirai.
Now, this match didn’t start out hot, but that’s fine because people don’t normally care that much about the opening minutes of WarGames matches. What was interesting about this match was that even though usually the heels get the WarGames advantage (being the first team in an alternating order to have members enter the cage), this time around, the babyfaces had it.
I was wondering how this would work, as a common trope of WarGames matches are the babyfaces having to fight from underneath to combat the heels having the numbers advantage for most of the match, but it was obvious this was solved as soon as Raquel Gonzalez entered the match. Having her hoss everyone around (even Rhea to a point) was a pretty easy way to still put the faces in an underdog spot.
Speaking of spots, holy shit did this match have spots. Rhea Ripley probably being the first person on WWE TV to use a sledgehammer properly, the double submission spot with Candice and Shotzi, IO JUMPING ONTO EVERYONE FROM THE TOP OF THE CAGE WITH A TRASH CAN ON HER BODY, Dakota hitting a Top Rope Stomp on Io, with another trash can on her, Ember hitting Dakota with an Eclipse onto two setup chairs (ow), the list goes on and on.
Ultimately, the match went to Team Candice here, and it’s simply because they played a smarter game (which makes sense as Shotzi (the character) is shown to be a bit more “ballsy” than “brainsy”), and were probably a bit better at teamwork. We didn’t even really fully see Team Shotzi together until the go-home show. Certain decisions like having Raquel come out second, making sure Io stays out of the cage for as long as possible (Toni tying the door shut with her belt was a nice touch), and having Indi show up as a “5th” to steal the key to the cage and run off with it shows that Team Candice clearly went into this match with a plan and it paid off.
It had a hell of a finish too. Raquel put Io through that ladder so hard, I felt it.
This match wasn’t perfect or polished by any means (yeah, I saw and heard Ember count down and ask Raquel if she was ready for the double Tower of Doom spot too), and I wish they leaned into the history between Rhea and Toni a bit more, but I still thought it was great.
POP: Graduation
Yeah I was expecting this match to be good since I like Timothy Thatcher and I like Tommaso Ciampa matches for the most part, and I don’t think these guys disappointed. Not much of a story here, it seemed to be “Ciampa got bored so he decided to troll Timothy Thatcher so he’d give him a match” but hey not every match needs some deep backstory I guess.
The match started out kinda slow, and I totally get why that might not be everyone’s forte, but I dig Thatcher’s style of grinding down his opponent’s limb before he goes for the kill. However, it felt like once Thatcher’s ear somehow got cut and he started bleeding down the side of his head, the match got kicked into another gear and they really spent the rest of the match going in on each other. Literally every single face Thatcher makes from that point on is meme worthy.
Ciampa ultimately got the win here, and I’m not entirely sure what’s next for these two. It seems like they’re slightly de-powering Ciampa a bit (which I guess I get, dude was damn near invulnerable for a while there) and since the guy who originally put him on the shelf is now on the shelf himself, they’ve kinda been putting him in a holding pattern till Kross is healthy. It just feels wrong if Ciampa isn’t chasing “Goldie”.
As far as Thatcher, I have no clue what they’re doing with him. I thought him sending Matt Riddle to SmackDown via Fight Pit match was gonna set him up for a big push, but he hasn’t really done much since then, other than lose big matches. At least he’s featured every week I guess. They kinda gave each other a weird look after the match too. Maybe they’re gonna be a tag team?
Or Maybe Not…
Oh yeah speaking of that guy who originally put Ciampa on the shelf…
𝑻𝒊𝒄𝒌…
𝑻𝒐𝒄𝒌…#NXTTakeOver pic.twitter.com/Hgx3eNpqIC
— WWE (@WWE) December 7, 2020
Mid: Beez In The Strap
Full disclosure, I’m not the biggest fan of Strap Matches, so this match already had a knock against it with me. I’m not entirely sure why, but these kinds of matches just never really appealed to me.
The best aspect of this match was how I liked that they showed that Grimes isn’t just a dumb, cowardly yokel. He actually had a strategy and a plan to try and win this. He beat up Deter before the match could start, using the strap he already came with as a distraction, and then used the sack containing the other strap to temporarily blind Dexter so he could whip him a bunch of times. Granted, that also made Dexter look kind of dumb because there were multiple times where he could’ve just removed the sack from his head and just didn’t so…yeah. Wasn’t a huge fan of this one.
As far as other good things I could say about this match…that spot where it looked like Grimes slammed his face on a chair when Dexter tripped him up looked really good. That’s all I got. The rest of it was pretty meh for me.
Also Regal continually putting Zombie Ref in Grimes’ matches really shows how he just doesn’t want my guy to succeed. Always has the deck stacked against him.
POPBOTCH: Johnny Dreamkiller
This one is weird to me. The reason being, this was a great match. In fact it was a really great match. I love it. Right down to the story being told in it: Damian Priest actually kinda likes Leon so he doesn’t want to hurt him and is trying his best to focus on Johnny, Leon feels like both Johnny and Damian don’t take him seriously (and they don’t, one is just slightly nicer about it) so he keeps getting in Damian’s face about it, which forces Damian to respond in kind. Everytime Leon gets hit or hurt either directly or indirectly due to Damian’s actions, the guilt is shown all over his face. Even he’s shocked by his own actions when he sends Leon through the plexiglass and fencing (just saying, Johnny hit you with a fake rock and you didn’t do all that to him Damian).
There was a great fired up babyface moment from Leon once he comes back out to the match after being sent to the back to get checked on and he even hangs in there for a while and has a really good showing, but Johnny eventually takes advantage of the resulting confusion and chaos due to Damian’s guilt (along with some help from like seven Ghostfaces) to eventually hit Leon with the OFB DDT and become the first ever 3-Time NXT North American Champion.
However, the reason I’m having trouble with this…is that it almost feels like Leon’s reign was kind of a waste of time. It already took me a while to actually warm up to the idea of Leon as NA Champion, and now his reign is already over. I also feel like seven Ghostfaces may have been overkill. We got a reveal of one of them (ugh), but…who were the other six supposed to be?
In memoriam of Leon’s dream run as NXT North American Champion, I will now play Ruff Ryder’s Anthem by DMX.
🎵Give a dog a bone
Leave a dog alone
Let a dog roam
And he’ll find his way home🎵
I just teared up a little bit.
POP: Rise of The Short Kings
To think, this all started because Pat McAfee made fun of Adam Cole’s height.
WHEW, what a match.
So, a while back Adam Cole beat Pat McAfee in a surprisingly good and critically acclaimed match, which came about because he called him short. Fast forward some months and Pat pays Ridge Holland to take out Adam Cole offscreen. Ridge gets hurt, and Pat then recruits three other guys who also have reasons to hate the Undisputed Era, Oney Lorcan, Danny Burch and a returning Pete Dunne, and here we are. Oh and Regal yelled “WOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH GAAAMES” at them.
I felt conflicted on who to root for here. On one hand, karmically, the UE deserve everything that’s been happening to them, especially from three of the four members on the other team. On the other, Pat called Adam short, and as an actual short guy, I kinda have to immediately be on Adam’s side.
As far as the actual match itself, like I said before: WHEW. I mean the first two guys in the match were Pete and Kyle. They STARTED with Pete Dunne vs. Kyle O’Reilly. That alone should tell you what we were in for. These eight men all delivered. Yes, including Pat McAfee once again, who I’m beginning to think might be a little crazy.
Even though Team Pat’s plan was clearly “protect Pat from the UE”, he still took a lot of bumps that he did not have to if he didn’t want to, and I gotta give the guy nothing but respect for that. He played the celebrity in way over his head character very well. The moment when each member of the UE all started going in on him was very satisfying.
The actual wrestling in the match was also a bit more technical than the opener too, but with guys like Dunne, O’Reilly and Bobby Fish in the match that’s not a surprise.
Danny bringing in a couple of Cricket Bats legit made me laugh, and then gasp when Kyle sold that Cricket Bat hit like he just got shot. Team McAfee having ready made tables for the UE was also a hilarious moment, but mostly because the idea of them outside the arena spray-painting the UE logo and their names on them is funny to me.
Then there was that moment where Pat’s got Cole in a Figure 4 in one ring, while the other three were blocking the rest of the UE was great, Adam launching Pat through a table was great, Fish spearing Danny through a table was great, the classic face off moment where they meet in the middle in the ring to punch each other, and then PAT MCAFEE, THE PUNTER GUY, HITS A SWANTON ON EVERYONE FROM THE TOP OF THE CAGE made me jump off my couch. Man, it sounded like he kinda got mostly mat too, I know that did not feel great. That shit was so crazy, it’s the only highlight from the match they put on YouTube. That finish, with O’Reilly hitting a top rope knee on Oney’s face with a chair on it looked brutal.
Yeah, it’s pretty obvious this was my MOTN. I have one kinda small gripe though. I’m not sure if Pat McAfee should’ve kicked out of that Panama Sunrise. I know it isn’t technically Cole’s finish, but after all the damage McAfee had taken, plus that, him kicking out of that felt like a bit much. That being said, it didn’t hurt my enjoyment of the match. Kudos to everyone here. I didn’t even mention all of the spots that blew my mind, check this match out if you haven’t already, you know what, even if you’ve watched it already, watch it again.
Pat McAfee is a pro pic.twitter.com/At4GRuImW0
— Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com (@SeanRossSapp) December 7, 2020
NXT TakeOver WarGames 2020 was overall a solid as hell show, anchored by two very memorable WarGames matches. I’m interested in where quite a few of these storylines are headed this Wednesday, so it definitely did its job, and I really want to know who’s gonna be next to face Finn for the NXT title.
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Peace.
