Csonka’s NXT Takeover: WarGames Takeaways

Welcome back to column time with Larry! Today I am here to talk about Saturday’s NXT Takeover: WarGames special and some takeaways I had from that event. I hope that you enjoy today’s column, and feel free to share your thoughts. It’s wrestling, we love it and will disagree. The only rules are “have a take, be respectful, and don’t be a dick.”

The Velveteen Dream Has Arrived: Going into the NXT Takeover: WarGames show, I felt that the build to The Velveteen Dream vs. Aleister Black was well done, almost reminiscent of Goldust vs. Razor Ramon in some ways; Black is the ultra-serious striker, only there to kick ass and take names, not say them as the Velveteen Dream demanded. Black is a great wrestler and has a great aura around him in NXT so far. But this was The Velveteen Dream’s big chance, not so much in terms of winning, but in terms of delivering and showing he could be a star. While he’s worked long matches against NXT’s top stars to rave reviews on the road, his TV time has been extremely limited. You could tell that he had his character down, his presentation was great, but could he step up and deliver the goods on a Takeover special when it counted? The two had a great match, the best match on the show in my opinion. And they didn’t need weapons, flippity doos or any smoke and mirrors. In some ways they got the absolute most out of doing very little. The crowd was engaged right away, they got into the Dream, his gimmick, his Rick Rude homage and even chanted “Say his name” at Black throughout the match. But they took that and constantly built on it, delivering a great homestretch to top everything off. This was just great work from both guys, with a mix of fun character work and then they picked it up big time, and simply delivered. This was also a great example of how a guy can get over huge, even in loss. Dream has so much potential, especially considering he’s only been working around three years (age 22 and under 200 total matches); he does so many little things well, it’s almost scary. The Velveteen Dream stepped up, put in a star making performance and put the roster on notice; The Velveteen Dream has officially arrived. He looks to be another “Tough Enough loser” that will crush the winners with ease.

Ember Moon May Not Be Ready For Asuka, But They Aren’t Done Yet: Ember Moon was never quite ready for Asuka while Asuka was in NXT, but she did show that she was ready at NXT Takeover: WarGames, winning the vacated title. I expected one of two things to happen, 1) Peyton Royce wins, because she’s the exact opposite of Asuka and they could get more mileage out of the Iconic Duo routine and possibly a feud between them down the line or 2) Ember Moon’s frustration grows to the point that she turns heel and wins the title that way. So while Moon won, I was way off with my thoughts, which I am not afraid to share. Moon wins the title, and afterwards, I feel that they laid the groundwork for a future main roster feud. Moon couldn’t beat Asuka, Asuka left and gave up the title, which Moon finally won. The specter of Asuka still looms over Moon, and we were reminded of that as Asuka handed her the title. Moon is happy, she won, but she still never caught her white whale. She chased, she came close, but she never caught her. Now lord knows I have no faith in dumb asses like Kevin Dunn and Road Dogg, but if I am booking this company, this is a natural feud when Moon gets called up, especially if Asuka is a champion at that time.

Almas vs. McIntyre: The Best of Times and The Worst of Times: Almas vs. McIntyre is a match that, as a fan, absolutely crushes me. On one hand, I was so happy that they had a great match and that Almas delivered and got his big moment. His early NXT run was so flat, there were rumors he wanted out, and there was seemingly nothing in him that reminded me why La Sombra was go great. But the change in direction and addition of Zelina Vega really turned the act around, he started to pick up his game and things were great. He and McIntyre had a great match at Takeover, and Almas got the big moment. But my joy was quickly diminished as word came out that McIntyre likely suffered a bad injury, which could take him out for months. I have been a huge supporter of his, his hard work and road back to WWE. To see that cut off due to injury simply sucks.

WarGames “May Not Have Been WarGames,” But It Was Pretty Great: Heading into the NXT Takeover: WarGames show, there was a lot of unhappiness. It all revolved around WarGames “not being WarGames. “There’s no roof, there are stupid shark cages, they are using the wrong formula, the bastardized a classic” were all things that I heard. Now please don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with being upset about the changes. I was extremely skeptical of them myself, remember, I grew up a die-hard NWA fan and have spoken for tears about Vince McMahon’s need to change things that weren’t his creation, and usually for the worst. In my opinion, the match was great; but it wasn’t a classic. On the rewatch, I feel it went a bit too long, there were too many lulls in the action at times (which shortening it a bit would have helped) and they could have made better use of both rings. but I really enjoyed it. Overall I thought that this was a wonderfully wild and great main event. They played into the stipulation well, the introduction of the weapons escalated the violence and got the crowd into it on a completely different level. This was brutal, violent, they played off of the Cole vs. Strong dynamic very well. There being no roof never bothered me, I liked the escape rule they added to stop people from trying to escape, and lets be honest, there were some shitty WarGames matches over the years that many conveniently forget about. It may not have been my WarGames or your WarGames, but I think that it was a success.

– End scene.

– Thanks for reading.