NXT Takeover: War Games Review and Reactions

Hello everyone and welcome back to Talk Wrestling World, I hope you are all well and good and have had an awesome week as per usual. Now, as we all know, this weekend is a big one for pro wrestling with NXT Takeover: War Games and Survivor Series taking place. Last night was the start of this epic weekend with the stars of NXT taking over once again. The night was full of fantastic matches, brilliant spots, shock title changes, an epic main event and more than one potential match of the year candidate. With so much to talk about I thought it best to skip the idea of a highlights post and instead right a full NXT Takeover: War Games Review. I personally really really enjoyed the entire show but you can check out my final thoughts right at the end of this post. Just a heads up before we get started, I will be live tweeting throughout Survivor Series tonight and a highlights post will go up tomorrow around this time. As always, any recent blog post will be linked bellow including my prediction post for both these shows and last weeks RAW and Smackdown LIVE highlights. Finally, you can let me know what you thought of last nights NXT Takeover show by leaving a comment bellow or by tweeting me over at @TezangiVictoria. 

Kickstarting NXT Takeover: War Games saw the battle of two big dogs in fan favorite Kassius Ohno and newcomer Lars Sullivan. In recent blog posts, I’ve touched on how much of a fan I have become of Lars Sullivan. Still very early into his WWE career, the unhinged monster has been nothing short of impressive reminding fans of a young Bruno Sammartino and constantly being compared to RAW superstar Braun Strowman and while they are big boots to fill, last night Sullivan made an impact. In his biggest match to date, Lars went toe to toe with a true veteran in his first NXT Takeover match and was able to walk away with an impressive victory. While the match was kept short and sweet both men showed exactly what they are all about; As always, Kassius had his athleticism on show perfectly but he struggled to gain any kind of control with Lars remaining the dominant force in this match. He was able to stay on top of the veteran and walk out with a win that will most certainly work in his favor as the new arrival establishes himself as the new monster of NXT.

My personal favorite match of the night was up next as Aleister Black and The Velveteen Dream finally went one on one. I was really looking forward to this one. The feud between these two superstars is unlike anything else we are currently witnessing. It’s refreshing, unique, interesting and massively entertaining and their collision last night proved to be a huge success! Reminding me of the work previously seen between Goldust and the Undertaker, the two strikingly different characters collided inside the ring to present fans with an epic matchup. I mentioned it on twitter last night and I will say it here again also, this match had everything I could ask for; intensity, character, personality, in ring physiology, mind games, and all-around fantastic wrestling. While Black remained a strong performer and was able to pick up the victory this night was for me all about the Velveteen Dream who I believe was the single standout of the night. He went out there and proved he was far more than just a character. His performance highlighted him as one of the best all-round stars in NXT today and a brilliant pro wrestler. Bringing character and intensity to this match, this was the night the Velveteen Dream arrived and it reminded me of that night we saw Tyler Breeze prove the exact same point. I felt as though we as fans were left with every reason to be satisfied come the end of this match with Black getting the win but also acknowledging The Velveteen dream. A win-win and it was pretty cool hearing the respect from the crowd to Dream. 

If we’re talking about impressive performances than we have to next discuss the NXT Women’s championship fatal four-way match which saw Peyton Royce, Ember Moon, Kairi Sane and Nikki Cross compete to become the sixth NXT Women’s champion in history. We all had our personal favorites and while it was Ember Moon who walked out of Takeover as champion it’s safe to say every single one of these women stood out and impressed. With each competitor bringing something different to the table they were all about to work together in what was a highlight match from the women’s division proving just how far women’s wrestling in the WWE has come. I personally would have liked to have seen the match go on longer just a little bit and the end result was rather predictable the match as a whole was most certainly entertaining. Royce in particular really was the standout here. She took some harsh spots and bumps and had the fans behind her massively throughout. After this performance and considering how long she has been apart of the division, discussions regarding moving her up to the main roster along with Billie Kay must be occurring right now! The spots, the story, the passion and the energy made this women’s title match a big success and I’m confident Moon will have an impressive run as champion. 

A match that surprised me last night was the NXT Championship bout between Drew McIntyre and Andrade Cien Almas. I mentioned in my prediction post last Friday that I was conflicted when it came to this one, this really was a contest that could have gone either way and what became clear rather early on was that this was going to be one of the best of the night and of the weekend. Andrade Cien Almas is a man that has been apart of the NXT roster for quite some time now and has only recently been given the chance to shine and the push he really does deserve, however, what I didn’t predict is that push would take him as far as seeing him crowned the twelfth NXT champion but that is exactly what we saw happen during last nights huge takeover event. The collision between Andrade and Drew was In actual fact far better than I was expecting it to be. While the chemistry wasn’t the best in the world their styles worked together. McIntyre towered over Andrade but the luchador was able to stand tall, keep fighting and with the assistance of Zelina he was able to shock the world and become the newest NXT Champion. Honestly, I was beyond delighted with the end result. Andrade has been working extremely hard throughout his career and has been proving himself from day one and his victory last night was much much deserved.  

If you read my prediction post this past Thursday you will know that prior to last night I hadn’t seen any War Games match, I’d heard about them and learned the rules of the match but with it being twenty years since one last aired I wasn’t very clued up on all things War Games. However, when last night rolled around I sure was excited for this epic collision and the teams of Sanity, the Undisputed Era, The Authors of Pain and Roderick Strong all provided fans with one of the best, most barbaric,

spot fest matches of twenty-seventeen. A highlight of not only the year but of NXT history, the War Games main event last night was huge! While it didn’t have the same feel as the likes of Black vs Velveteen Dream what it did do was cater to the NXT universe and provide us all with something new and exciting. I couldn’t keep my eyes off the screen and the action really was nonstop. Every single superstar stood out, no one fell into the background and everything we saw I felt was pretty much the right move to make. I liked how it was Sanity who introduced weapons to this match and if I would change anything it would be swapping the Eric Young taking the pin to Roderick Strong but I understand why the move was made and it can only suggest that the Undisputed era will now be focusing on taking gold from Sanity. I did also feel as though the match went on just a tad too long but hey, it was an excellent match and a huge standout of the year.

It comes as no surprise that the developmental territory did again and presented yet another epic takeover event. It’s safe to say the division once again raised the bar and delivered and I sit here now very very satisfied. I can honestly say that I enjoyed every single match and was entertained completely from start to finish. My personal favorite match of the night was Aleister Black vs the Velveteen Dream. I understand why that won’t be everyone’s number one but for me, it just had everything I could ask for and I loved how much it helped The Velveteen Dream and what it did for his future with the company. The NXT Championship match was another huge success. Andrade won me and so many other fans over last night and I’m excited about his future also! And then, of course, we have the main event… complete chaos but fantastic none the less! As always I would love to know what you thought of the show so feel free to leave a comment bellow or tweet me over at @TezangiVictoria and of course, I will be live tweeting throughout Survivor Series later today!

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