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.
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