NXT TakeOver: War Games 2020 Review

The final NXT TakeOver of the year, War Games, took place on December 6th in the Capitol Wrestling Centre in Orlando, Florida. There are 5 matches, including 2 War Games matches, so let's take a look.

The first match was the Women's War Games Match between Team Shotzi (Shtozi Blackheart, Rhea Ripley, Io Shirai and Ember Moon) taking on Team Candice (Candice LeRae, Raquel Gonzalez, Dakota Kai and Toni Storm). Dakota Kai and Ember Moon start the match for their team followed by Blackheart, Gonzalez, Ripley, Storm, Shirai and LeRae. Shirai is prevented from going into the cage by Team LeRae with some help from Indi Hartwell and they go on to destroy the rest of Team Shotzi. Shirai eventually manages to dive into the cage and War Games officially begins. In the end, Gonzalez hits an one armed powerbomb on Shirai from the top turnbuckle through a ladder to get the win. I thought this was a really good match and a lot of fun to watch.

Winners: Team LeRae (0 for 1)

The next match is between Timothy Thatcher taking on Tommaso Ciampa. Both guys spent time putting each other in submission holds. In the end, Ciampa traps Thatcher in the ropes and applies a Guillotine Lock. He then follows that with the Willow's Bell to get the win. This was a brutal yet entertaining match between the two.

 Winner: Tommaso Ciampa (1 for 2)

We now get a Strap Match between Cameron Grimes and Dexter Lumis. Grimes insists on using his own strap then beats up Lumis before the bell rings. Lumis fights back and puts on the strap to officially start the match. Lumis then goes on to win by getting Grimes to submit to the Anaconda Vise. I was a bit surprised at the match as I thought it would have a bit of comedy in it. Despite that, I quite enjoyed it.

Winner: Dexter Lumis (1 for 3)

The penultimate match is Leon Ruff defending his North American Championship against Johnny Gargano and Damien Priest in a Triple Threat Match. Holy shit, this match was a lot of fun. You had Ruff being underestimated by his opponents: Gargano thinking he can easily beat Ruff; and Priest wanting Ruff out of the way so that he can beat up Gargano. Eventually, Priest gets pissed off with Ruff and sends him through a barrier with a Razor's Edge. Ruff gets taken to the back and it becomes a one-on-one match. A few minutes later, Ruff returns and beats up on both his opponents becoming close to winning a couple of times. It looks like Priest is about to win it when some men dressed up as Ghostface appear and try to stop Priest. In the end, another Ghostface appears and hits Priest with a lead pipe. Gargano goes on to hit Ruff with the One Final Beat to get the win. It's then revealed that the man who hit Priest with the lead pipe was Austin Theory, who apparently quit a few weeks beforehand. As I stated earlier, I really enjoyed this match. I really wanted Ruff to win as he had been a inadvertent middleman between Priest and Gargano and him winning would have a good underdog moment. Having said that, if Gargano and LeRae want to be the Power Couple of NXT, they have to win titles and this is a good first step.

Winner: Johnny Gargano (1 for 4)

The main event is the Men's War Games Match between The Undisputed Era and Team McAfee (Pat McAfee, Pete Dunne, Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch) Kyle O'Reilly and Pete Dunne start for their respective teams. They are followed by Oney Lorcan, Bobby Fish, Danny Burch, Roderick Strong, Pat McAfee and Adam Cole (Bay Bay!). When War Games officially beigns, both teams come close, especially when Cole hits a Panama Sunrise on McAfee. In the end, O'Reilly hits a knee off the top rope, slamming a steel chair onto Lorcan's face to get the win. Whilst I would have preferred McAfee taking the pin, I enjoyed the match. I was impressed by McAfee taking some difficult moves such as the Panama Sunrise. I think he would be better being a manager but he has shown that he's not just there to make up the numbers.

Winners: The Undisputed Era (2 for 5)

I really enjoyed War Games. All of the matches were enjoyable and I had a lot of fun.

WWE Survivor Series 2020 Review

 Survivor Series 2020 took place on Sunday November 22nd at the WWE Thunderdome. There are a lot of interesting matches on the card so, let's take a look.

The match on the Kick Off Show was a Battle Royal. The wrestlers involved were: Angel Garza, Apollo Crews, Chad Gable, Cedric Alexander, Dolph Ziggler, Dominik Mysterio, Elias, Humberto Carrillo, Jeff Hardy, John Morrison, Kalisto, The Miz, Murphy, Rey Mysterio, Ricochet, Robert Roode, Shelton Benjamin and Shinsuke Nakamura. The final four end up being: Jeff Hardy, Dominik Mysterio, Chad Gable and The Miz. Gable eliminates Hardy but he is then eliminated by Dominik. Miz then slides in and eliminates Dominik to get the win. I thought this was a fun match to watch.

Winner: The Miz (N/A)

The first match on the show was the Men's Survivor Series Elimination Match with Team RAW (AJ Styles, Keith Lee, Sheamus, Braun Strowman and Riddle) taking on Team Smackdown (Kevin Owens, Jey Uso, King Corbin, Seth Rollins and Otis). Rollins is the first to be eliminated after deciding to martyr himself and get hit by a Brogue Kick by Sheamus. Styles eliminates Owens thanks to a Phenomenal Forearm and Riddle eliminates Corbin with a corkscrew splash. Strowman eliminates Otis thanks to a Running Powerslam. Jey Uso tries to splash Styles but Keith Lee catches him and hits a Spirit Bomb to get a clean sweep and the win. This was quite a decent match between the two teams although I was surprised to see a clean sweep.

Winners: AJ Styles, Keith Lee, Sheamus, Braun Strowman and Riddle (1 for 1)

The next match was between the RAW Tag Team Champions The New Day and the Smackdown Tag Team Champions The Street Profits. The New Day spend most of the match focusing on Montez Ford before he manages to get the hot tag to Angelo Dawkins. In the end, Dawkins put Xavier Woods on his shoulders and Ford hits him with a top rope blockbuster to get the win. I thought that match was a bit slow to begin with but it developed into an entertaining contest.

Winners: The Street Profits (1 for 2)

We now get the Intercontinental Champion Sami Zayn taking on the United States Champion Bobby Lashley. Sami tries to provoke Lashley's buddies, The Hurt Business, into hitting him (therefore, winning by disqualification) but to no avail. In the end, Lashley gets Zayn to submit to the Hurt Lock to get the win. This was quite a good match.

Winner: Bobby Lashley (1 for 3)

Next is a battle between the RAW Women's Champion Asuka and the Smackdown Women's Champion Sasha Banks. During the match, both women try to get the other to submit. In the end, Sasha manages to roll up Asuka to get the win. I was quite surprised at the ending as Asuka had never lost to Sasha before this match. Having said that, I thought it was a really good match.

Winner: Sasha Banks (1 for 4)

The next match is theWomen's Survivor Series Elimination Match as Team RAW (Nia Jax, Shayna Baszler, Lana, Lacey Evans and Peyton Royce) take on Team Smackdown (Bayley, Bianca Belair, Ruby Riott, Liv Morgan and Natalya). The first elimination occurs when Royce takes out Bayley with a Deja Vu. However, she is eliminated a few minutes later by Natalya thanks to a Sharpshooter. Lacey Evans eliminates Natalya after she hits The Woman's Right and Baszler eliminates Riott. Morgan eliminates Evans after hitting a Crucifix Bomb but she gets eliminated after being flattened by a Samoa Drop from Jax. Baszler decides to be an idiot when she gets disqualified for not releasing the Krirfuda Clutch on Belair when she got to the ropes. Jax then grabs Belair and they fight outside the ring. Unfortunately, they both get counted out leaving Lana, who had been treated like shit by her teammates during (and even long before) as the sole survivor. So, Lana effectivley wins by being disrespected...? Erm, ok. As for the match, aside from a few obvious mistakes, I enjoyed it and I liked Lana getting some comeuppance on her teammates, who had no respect for her.

Winner: Lana (1 for 5)

The final match is Universal Champion Roman Reigns taking on WWE Champion Drew McIntyre. Reigns is dominant for most of the match before McIntyre gets back into it. The match goes back and forth and McIntyre goes for the Claymore Kick but Reigns counters with a Superman punch. Reigns goes on to send McIntyre through the announce table with a Samoa Drop followed by a Spear through part of the barrier. McIntyre eventually hits a Claymore Kick but it sends Reigns into the referee, who goes out of the ring. Jey Uso, who Reigns had told to fuck off home earlier in the night, comes in and helps Reigns with a superkick to McIntyre. Reigns then applies a Gillotine Choke and a second referee comes in to call for the bell when McIntyre passes out. This was a really good main event and, whilst I picked McIntyre to win, Reigns winning was the best call to make.

Winner: Roman Reigns (1 for 6)

The event ends with the retirement ceremony of The Undertaker, who debuted 30 years ago at Survivor Series 1990. The Undertaker is an icon of the industry, who is highly respected. My first match that I saw of his was when he took on Jake "The Snake" Roberts at Wrestlemania VIII. Whilst I'm not been a big fan of him, I've always enjoyed his work, especially some of his Wrestlemania matches. He will be greatly missed and I hope he continues to find some way to stay involved in WWE. As for the ceremony itself, it was good although Kane being in his custome in the middle of other wrestlers wearing normal clothes was a bit weird. 

I actually really enjoyed Survivor Series. The last few events I've enjoyed but I felt like they were nowhere near as good as the NXT TakeOvers. This is the first time in a while that I felt that WWE had put on a really good event. I'm probably wrong but I hope the next one is just as good.