“Eight men, two teams of four, I think gentlemen, you know how this goes.”
“WARGAMES!”
While William Regal has successfully become an internet meme for his overly British pronunciation of “Wahgames” over the years, the matches have managed to deliver every year, and this year was no surprise.
Wargames this year was an ambitious pay-per-view that managed to tell a plethora of stories. Even the destructive wargames matches had moments that could lead to potential feuds, continuing NXT’s history of good booking over the years.
The night started with the women’s’ Wargames match where team LeRae consisting of Candice LeRae, Raquel Gonzalez, Dakota Kai, and Toni Storm, took on team Shotzi featuring Shotzi Blackheart, Rhea Ripley, Ember Moon, and the NXT Women’s Champion Io Shirai.
The match started off with Ember Moon and Dakota Kai representing team Shotzi. The match started off slow, and the pacing was all over the place at times. However, the sheer wrestling acumen of the women carried the match and made it stand out.
Team captain Shotzi Blackheart was the second to enter the ring, she came with a crowbar and a sledgehammer to get things running. The subsequent arrivals of Raquel Gonzalez, Rhea Ripley, Candice LeRae, and Io Shirai each changed the tide in their respective team’s favor.
The women definitely gave their all to keep the match running. Dakota Kai stood out taking bumps left, right, and center while Raquel Gonzalez finally stood up to the occasion. Her performance solidifies her as a main eventer, while Toni Storm and Ember Moon showed their acumen once again.
The match had its fair share of moments, whether it’s captain Shotzi’s arrival with her newly modified tank or Indi Hartwell jumping on Io Shira and closing the cage to help her new “BFF” Candice Lerae.
However, the final moments were absolute chaotic brilliance. From Io Shirai entering the ring after climbing the cage and jumping with a trash can on her head to Dakota Kai hitting a vicious double foot stomp on her, only to be hit with an Eclipse on top of a steel chair.
The ending was the perfect icing on the cake, as Raquel Gonzalez hit the champion with a one-handed powerbomb on a propped-up ladder between the rings.
Minus the pacing issues, the ending will leave you asking for more. What’s next for the Poisoned Pixie and her BFF? Does Rhea finally get her main roster call-up that was teased for so long? Will Raquel challenge Io for her title? Where does Toni Storm end up next? While there are so many questions, this match should solidify that the NXT Women’s division is the best roster in world wrestling at the moment.
Next up, we have two of the toughest in the roster taking on each other as Tomasso Ciampa took on Timothy Thatcher. It was methodical, a perfect show of technical wrestling that both of these men have mastered over the years. The sheer intensity and brutality were on a whole new level.
The match started off slow, with chain-wrestling and rest holds, but it only kept getting better. There weren’t any fancy spots or massive moves, just two people willing to hurt each other with their massive arsenal of technical moves. The match finally ended with Ciampa putting an end to Thatcher with a Willows’ Bell. However, it was Thatcher who came up strong, showing he’s ready for whatever comes ahead for him. In terms of brutality and technicality, this is one of the best matches of the year, a close second to Finn Balor vs Kyle O’Reilly at Takeover 31.
Whether it was Thatcher’s fierce strikes or Ciampa busting open Thatcher’s ear, the match was a great example of what two extremely talented technical wrestlers can do, when they’re given the chance. While I’d rather have Thatcher win and solidify his position, what’s next for Ciampa is the question.
Moving on, we have the strap match between Cameron Grimes and Dexter Lumis. Well, if I’m being honest, this feud has been going on for much longer than it should’ve been. Their feud peaked at Halloween Havoc and although today was a good match, both of them should move on.
Strap matches don’t generally bring much to the table, but kudos to Lumis and Grimes for making it a fun watch. It started off with Grimes bringing his own strap and getting an advantage before Lumis could put on the strap. They had some good back and forth before the match started.
They both tried showing some ingenuity with the strap instead of making it look like a liability, but the match didn’t have anything standing out in particular except for Lumis tying out Grimes and hitting him with his submission.
While both Lumis and Grimes need to move on, Lumis has shown enough promise to be a contender for silverware.
Next up was the triple threat match for the North American Championship featuring the champion Leon Ruff, Johnny Gargano, and Damien Priest. Although this entire feud seems extremely silly, it was fun to watch. Gargano as a comedic, cowardly heel has grown on me, and I’m enjoying every minute of it.
The match was great in every sense of the way. All three of them had their moments and the pace was just about right. Nothing felt too much or too slow at any moment. From Ruff showing his high-flying chops to Priest and Gargano pretending to ignore Ruff the whole time, the match had enough moments to keep you excited.
The ending, however, was something you’d expect Johnny Gargano to do. He brought his swarm of Ghostface killers in scream masks to attack Priest and Ruff. The Ghostface kept Priest down while Gargano managed to hit Ruff with the One Final Beat to end the match. After the match, the leader of the Ghostfaces unmasked as Austin Theory.
This entire Ruff- Gargano-Priest fiasco was to solidify Leon Ruff as a mainstay and that’s exactly what they delivered.
Ruff was very good both on and off the ring, and from the looks of it, he can be the one to dethrone Escobar for the Cruiserweight gold. While for Priest, this feud should catapult him into the NXT title scene.
With that, we move on to the match of the night. The Undisputed Era vs the Kings of NXT led by Pat McAfee. While the women set the tone with their wrestling, this one had amazing storytelling paired with top-notch wrestling.
The match started off with Kyle O’Reilly starting for the UE while the Bruiserweght Pete Dunne starting the match for McAfee and his crew. Given the rivalry that has been brewing between Dunne and O’Reilly, they had a very solid start. From chain wrestling to absolutely destroying each other, they had it all!
Next to join the fight was half of the NXT tag team champions, Oney Lorcan. Although O’Reilly tried to keep things working for the UE, the two-on-one advantage gave the Boston Brawler and the Bruiserweight enough time to continue on with the fight.
Bobby Fish and Danny Burch were the next to enter, and they came with their share of surprises. While Bobby gave O’Reilly some much-needed breathing space, Danny brought some hometown love with him in the form of cricket bats.
While Roderick Strong couldn’t make an immediate impact with his entry, he kept going until the arrival of Pat McAfee. The former NFL punter arrived with four tables, each with the Undisputed Era emblem and their names written on them.
And finally, came the leader of the Undisputed Era, Adam Cole was the last to enter the ring. He entered with a fire extinguisher and lashed out on Lorcan, Burch, and Dunne only to get his hands on McAfee. This was the moment he had been waiting for so long. But Dunne managed to get in the way, saving McAfee from any damage for the time being.
The last few minutes of the match was pure chaos: it was hectic in every sense of the word. O’Reilly kicked out of the bitter end and McAfee hit Cole with a low-blow. Strong hit the end of heartache exactly the same way he did when we turned on Dunne at Takeover: New Orleans.
Finally, as O’Reilly pinned Burch for the win, it was the picture-perfect ending after a match of this caliber. The UE won, courtesy of their teamwork.
Although this was McAfee’s second in-ring match, he has been surprisingly sound. From jumping off the top of the cage to selling almost every bump to perfection. He has been one of the best celebrity acquisitions by WWE in recent years, and for all the right reasons.
However, the glue that kept the match together was Dunne and O’Reilly. Dunne has always been the definition of a big match player. He stepped up whenever it mattered and today was no different. But, O’Reilly’s meteoric rise to the top has been phenomenal. From his instant classic vs Finn Balor to the ladder match vs Dunne before Wargames to being an absolute engine today. He has a rocket on his back, and we’re up for it.
In conclusion, only time will tell whether TLC will outclass Wargames, but in all honesty, it was everything you’d expect from a 3 hour-NXT special. The matches, the storytelling, the nuances to smaller feuds inside team matches and everything in-between, Takeover: Wargames is one of the strongest PPVs WWE has provided this year: And that’s undisputed!