NXT Takeover War Games 3

November 23, 2019 – Rosemont, Illinois

Before the show, Mia Yim was attacked. I called her being taken out of the match two weeks ago, but whereas Dakota Kai seemed like a natural replacement then, I think they’d be better off replacing her with Toni Storm (who appeared with Rhea Ripley’s team on Smackdown) to build even more resentment from Kai. 

Angel Garza def. Isaiah Scott
This was on the pre-show, and it’s the first time I’ve ever been able to write those words in the history of writing about this brand. A decent amount of Scott’s offense was just a touch off the mark here. I wonder if it was nerves. The match was alright, if nothing too special. I liked the finish, where Scott blocked the Garza low blow, but his own kick was blocked and Garza hit the Wing Clipper for the win at 7:39. **¾ 

Yim gets loaded into an ambulance and Ripley tells Kai that she’s in the match. Not as compelling in my opinion but I still think she should turn heel. 

Rhea Ripley, Dakota Kai, Candace LeRae & Tegan Nox def. Shayna Baszler, Bianca Belair, Io Shirai & Kay Lee Ray {War Games}
There were a lot of great character moments in this match, chief of which was KLR refusing to get tables from under the ring and taking down chair structures because she didn’t think the crowd deserved those things. RIpley tearing through her opponents even as it caused collateral damage to her teammates. Kai immediately turning on Nox and destroying her knee as soon as it was her time to enter the ring was also excellently done, happening earlier and being a lot more brutal than I expected. Baszler looking on laughing was delightful. Screw everything I said before, this was better than I could have imagined. Ripley & LeRae trying to hold their own when they were down 2-4 made them look great too, and the weapons and cage made it almost believable. This turned out to be the best handicap match I can remember ever seeing (or at least tied with the Rock N’ Sock WrestleMania match). Oh, it was also better than the men’s WarJames matches from the last two years. The finish was absolutely beautiful. Shirai had taken out herself, Belair, and LeRae with a moonsault off of the cage, then Ripley wiped out KLR coming off of the top with a trash can swing, and then Ripley cuffed herself to Baszler and hit her with the Riptide onto a chair bridge for the win at 27:26. It also didn’t hurt that it was the shortest War Games match yet. There’s a lot to be said for being efficient. Screw it, I loved this so much. I hope the main event can come close. *****

Imperium is in the crowd. Uh oh. 

Pete Dunne def. Killian Dain and Damian Priest {Number One Contender Triple Threat Match}
Surprisingly, Dunne and Dain didn’t fight each other so much in the UK before their WWE tenures, save for a pair of tag team matches in 2010. It felt like a foregone conclusion that Dunne would win, as him vs. Adam Cole is the match NXT fans would want most. I thought there was an outside chance they might give it to Priest, since he’d been on Raw and Smackdown most in recent weeks and so non-NXT fans would at least have heard his name a bit lately. I like that they mostly avoided the lazy 2-in-1-out crutch here, but if I’m being honest it was hard for me to focus on this after the last match. But I can’t take away from these three that they busted their asses and had a nice heavyweight, mean man brawl. I like when guys yell at each other as they’re punching and kicking each other. I also like that this had a different vibe than the three way Dunne was in on the last Takeover; that match saw Dunne, Roderick Strong, and Velveteen Dream try to out-finesse one another, and there was no finesse in this match. This actually reminded me of the Dan Dority vs. Captain Joe Turner fight in the mud on Deadwood. Just bad men beating each other until they were absolutely exhausted. At least here, nobody got their eye gouged out. Dunne got the win by stealing the pin on Priest after Dain hit him with a senton with Dunne on his back at 19:58. ****

Finn Balor def. Matt Riddle
This was a little shorter than I expected it to be, but I think they got across what they needed to. Balor was looking to win, while Riddle was looking to punish Balor for his arrogance and treachery since his return. Both guys looked great, super motivated and incredibly skilled, and I could definitely go for a redemption rematch for Riddle. Even more, I really want to see Johnny Gargano get his hands on Balor now. Balor hit the 1916 for the win at 14:25. ****

Tommaso Ciampa, Keith Lee, Dominic Dijakovic & Kevin Owens def. Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly, Bobby Fish & Roderick Strong {War Games}
I’m in on Ciampa’s Casey Jones mask I think his war paint is also fine. They really milked the mystery man thing for as much as it was worth, not having Owens show up until it was time for him to enter, deep into the match. I think NXT is missing an opportunity by hammering home Dijakovic’s Croatian heritage but not calling any of his moves the Split. An opportunity they didn’t miss that I’d previously accused them of missing, is Owens’ involvement in this match. I complained that the Triple H/Owens/Undisputed Era segment on Raw wasn’t leading to anything, and I was clearly quite wrong. Even Triple H looking confused as the Era attacked becomes a loose end tied up here, as we now know he was genuinely trying to recruit Owens, and the Era’s attack was an accidental motivating factor for the former NXT Champion. So that’s nice, even though I feel like a rube for not seeing it coming. As for the match, it was entertaining enough. I liked the giants dominating most of the time, I liked Owens wearing his NXT t-shirt, and I liked the general pace of the match. I didn’t get the same charge that I got from the opener, but that probably wasn’t going to be replicable without the massive underdog story the ladies told. I do think this was better than last year’s marathon and the previous year’s mess of humanity, so good on everyone involved for the excellent effort. The match ended when the entire Undisputed Era went through tables, ending with Ciampa hitting Cole with the Air Raid Crash off of the top of the cage through two tables at 38:31. I could have done without ol’ metalneck doing spots from 15 feet in the air on a live stream, but I’m not his mother so what can ya do? ****¼