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Welcome to my ongoing blog looking at tonight's WWE NXT Wargames blog, brought to you by our friends RingsideCollectibles.com, who are currently holding their CYBER MONDAY 2.0 SALE!
This should be an interesting show, given it's the first post-Takeover event for the 2.0 version of the brand.
Sam Roberts does a hell of a job being an antagonist on the pre-show.
We kick off with the Women's War games. Dakota Kai and Kay Lee Ray start us out. Kay Lee wanting to fight isn't a shock. Kai wanting to be first I guess makes her the Arn Anderson of the bout. They tried some unique spots by having multiple Singapore Canes set up on the ropes between the two rings. With the babyface team having the advantage, why wouldn't Raquel Gonzalez be second so she could have a 2 on one beating the hell out of her former partner?
I liked the entrances through the crowd as the competitors were released from the shark cage. Cora Jade showed some nice flourishes and has a very likeable personality, but GiGi Dolan really shined when she entered the bout. You can see she is growing in her role week by week. There was a nice mix of plunder involved. There was an interesting spot with Jade hitting a rana off the top in between the rings on Kai only to have Dolan attack her.
Jane was next in for Team Toxic and brought a table with her. Jane was eventually beaten down and placed on the table. Jade went for a swanton off the cage through the table and hit the table but hardly got the rotation over. That was scary. Jade looked tentative before she went and was grabbing her shoulder after, but I believe that was selling. She certainly did not hit the spot the way she'd want to if it went perfectly. They should have Jane selling that as if she's DOA for the rest of the bout as it looked evil. Medical went to check on Jade but Io locked the door, so Cora is 100% selling. They did the Lethal Weapon spot with Io snapping the shoulder back in.
The next out was Raquel Gonzalez and she tossed in a shovel before the heels tried to keep her from entering so she blasted them with a fire extinguisher. Well, that made more sense than the Street Profits using it on Omos a few days ago. There was a fun spot where Dakota got shoved inside a trash can like Oscar the Grouch and flung around. Io tried to go to the top with a trash can to recreate her trust fall but it turned into a Tower of Doom spot. Shirai did a moonsaults onto a trash can. Jade was still holding her arm in the other ring alone, so she's doing a great sell job.
There has been a ton of plunder and big spots. This is very much a baptism by fire for a lot of these competitors.
The last woman out is NXT Women's Champ Mandy Rose. The level of confidence Rose has in her current role is unlike anything she's ever had in her WWE run thus far. It feels like she's finally comfortable in her skin. Everyone brawled with Cora being left in the corner with a pipe to "defend herself" but not get involved. Rose attacked Gonzalez with a cane as she was about to double powerbomb her partners. Jade made the save using a cane with one arm but was surrounded by the Team Toxic. She tried to fight them off but was beaten down. They are setting her up as a hell of a sympathetic babyface here. Mandy covered her but somehow Jade kicked out with the idea that even Jade shocked herself doing it. Nice shine for Jade.
The battle continued until Gonzalez hit her finisher on Jane but was drilled with a big boot. Jade scored the pin with the idea that she had the miracle comeback.
Overall, a fun brawl. They obviously see something they like in Cora.
They aired a bunch of character vignettes as they took the cage down. Smart way to try and get some of the new players over to a captive audience.
Imperium vs. Kyle O'Reilly and Von Wagner is next. Von Wagoner is so going to be on the main roster within a year. He looks and works like a big man from the mid 1990s WWF, which is exactly what they want him to be. Imperium's in-ring work is impeccable. O'Reilly had a heel hook on Barthel but Aicher pulled out a double jump moonsault to break it up, which looked great. It broke down into a brawl with everyone in the ring The challengers nailed Total Elimination but Barthel kicked up at the last second. KOR locked on a triangle choke on Aichner and he almost blacked out but powered KOR up. Barthel blind tagged in and nailed the Imperium Bomb for the pin.
Really strong bout.
There was a thank you Kyle chant after. Von Wagoner tried to attack him but Kyle caught it coming and kicked him down, then trash talked him and walked out. One would think this means a match on NXT TV this Tuesday tp presumably write off KOR.
More thoughts on Page 2!
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