WAR GAMES! The game that war will be in. A game of war… We’re getting NXT: War Games on Saturday is what I’m trying to say. Three big matches are set to take the night over, but how can we head into the PPV fully pumped up? Maybe this episode has a thing or two up its sleeve? There’s only one way to find out. Let’s take a look.
Street Profits vs Toni Sabbatelli & Riddick Moss
The Street Profits got off to an amazing start, making fools of their opponents. Although, even with their impressive athleticism, Moss and Sabbatelli regained control with vicious strikes. The match itself was fairly straightforward, Profits went down a few times, but managed to pull themselves together and deliver victory. Moss was unable to kick his partner out of the pin, which leads me to doubt that this conflict is over.
Lars Sullivan vs Raul Mendoza
Oh boy, let’s see how long this one will be. 2 seconds? In the defence of Mendoza, he did put up a decent assault at the beginning. But, since Vince McMahon loves a big’un, of course, it didn’t last too long. Sullivan smashed and crushed Mendoza until he was nothing but a lifeless shell of his former self. Even after Sullivan won, he still wasn’t finished.
Luckily for Mendoza, Kassius Ohno ran down to help. Lars laughed in Ohnos’ face. I wouldn’t take Ohno too lightly Sullivan, have you seen the way he can destroy ring ropes just by bouncing off them?
MEANWHILE…
Johnny Gargano came to William Regal to reassure him that he still belongs in NXT. Regal agreed and offered Johnny a chance to face Pete Dunne for the UK championship. Pete was looking for a challenge, but do we really need to break it to Regal that Johnny isn’t British? With all that being said, this sounds like it could be a good match.
Ember Moon vs Mercedes Martinez
The match got off to a steady start as both women locked up. As the pace picked up, Ember started to show off her prowess to teach Martinez some respect. Martinez struck hard in retaliation, showing us that she isn’t a person to underestimate. With a Spine Buster and a triple suplex into a delayed suplex, Martinez looked set to take the victory. However, Moon would fight back twice as hard and eventually win with her Total Eclipse.
Before Ember could celebrate. Nikki Cross made her way through the crowd, Peyton Royce, and Kairi Sane made their presence known as we head into TakeOver. This might be my favourite match of the PPV so far, we can only hope that it lives up to expectations.
Drew McIntyre & Andrade “Cien” Almas come face to face
Drew criticised Andrade for not fighting his own battles, and now we’ve found out the kind of man that he is. He asked one last time for Andrade to come out and face him unless Zelina wanted to keep him leashed up. This riled up Andrade enough to come out and predictably, a brawl ensued. Even Zelina got involved, which led to a distracted Drew McIntyre getting hit by Andrade’s Hammerlock DDT. This leaves us with the lingering question, will Drew be able to retain his belt? We’ll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, this was a decent episode to lead us into War Games. Here’s me hoping that NXT can once again trump whatever the main WWE PPV brings on Sunday.
NXT TakeOver: War Games Match Card –
- War Games – Undisputed Era vs Sanity vs The Authors of Pain & Rodrick Strong
- NXT Championship – Drew McIntyre (c) vs Andrade “Cien” Almas
- NXT Women’s Championship – Ember Moon vs Nikki Cross vs Kairi Sane vs Peyton Royce
- Aleister Black vs The Velveteen Dream
- Lars Sullivan vs Kassius Ohno