“Enjoy Infamy” – A NXT War Games Recap

Tonight’s War Games comes to you from Houston, TX.  Our own Matt Dowd and friend of the site Ryan are in the building.

The Undercard Matches

Kassius Ohno Vs. Lars Sullivan

This was a surprisingly short match.  What wasn’t surprising is the sheer number of forearm strikes, kicks, and slaps from the man formally known as Chris Hero.  It’s his only real offense he has when he can’t piledrive his opponent 300 times in one match.

It was always Lars’ match to lose.  Ohno was able to regain control of the match when Lars missed a diving headbutt.  That control was short lived.  Lars hit his finisher (I’m honestly not sure what it’s called) and it was over.  Ohno did successfully knock Sullivan down, so maybe it’s not a total loss?

Their match in Riverside was way more entertaining.  I would have rather seen Johnny Gargano & Pete Dunne in this spot.

The Velveteen Dream Vs. Aleister Black

The first match wasn’t bad.  It just wasn’t worthy of an NXT TakeOver.  This next match was all you could hope for.

Let’s start with Velveteen Dream’s pants…

Patrick Clark has perfectly nailed this character and pairing him with Black has been a stroke of brilliance.  Tonight is a culmination of that feud.

The early part of the match was full of arm drags and arm bars.  It’s not something I would have expected from these two guys.

Probably the highlight of the match was the modified Sister Abigail/Impaler DDT from Dream to Black.  It was a thing of beauty.

A Black Mass sealed Velveteen Dreams fate but he didn’t completely lose.

The Title Matches

Peyton Royce Vs. Kairi Sane Vs. Ember Moon Vs. Nikki Cross for the NXT Women’s Championship

I might have mentioned in my prediction post that Peyton Royce won this exact Fatal Four Way in Riverside a week ago.  Billie Kay helped her and it made sense.  I came to realize that I won’t be upset if any of these women were to win the Championship.  They all deserve it in different ways.  The match ran at a breakneck pace and was over just as fast too.

I was talking with Matt about it and he feels like it was too short.  I get that but I kind of feel like it was just right.  I’m weirdly reminded of the Batman roller coaster in 6 flags.  The ride is only 90 seconds but it’s great.  I felt the same way here.

At the same time, I do only remember Kairi’s elbow drop and the double Eclipse on Peyton and Nikki.  So maybe they could have made it a bit longer.

Ember Moon becomes your new NXT Women’s Champion after the aforementioned double Eclipse with a pin on Nikki.

Asuka was in attendance to present the Championship to Ember herself.

Was I the only one that thought that somehow Asuka would transition that hug into the Asuka Lock?

Andrade “Cien” Almas Vs. Drew McIntyre for the NXT Championship

What to say about this match?  Well, you should know that Drew McIntyre suffered an injury towards the end of this match.  He injured his arm, possible a bicep tear.  I’m unsure at which point he actually hurt it, but I think it did affect the outcome of the match.

The actual match was stellar.  Whoever at NXT decided to bring in Zelina Vega is a genius.  She’s a next level manager, a natural.  And the story they’ve told with Almas has been great.  Him completely turning around has made her an effective manager.

Almas is your new NXT Champion.  I don’t feel like it was actually supposed to happen but I hope Almas rises to the occasion.

And if it was the plan for Almas to win it, I think it was because Vince wanted to have Drew on the roster as his “Plan B” if Roman couldn’t rise to the challenge.

SANitY Vs. The Undiputed Era Vs. Authors of Pain & Roderick Strong

It’s the all-out madness that you’d expect.  Going in, a lot of people were nervous about the rule/match changes that Triple H and co made.  I understand it but It was completely unfounded.

We start with SANitY, Wolfe and Dain enter the cage as Young heads to the structure for “The Match Beyond”.  Next up, Undisputed Future with Fish and O’Reilly entering the cage.  Cole is so over.  Finally, we have Paul Ellering followed closely by Akam and Rezar.  I thought at first that Roddy would get his own entrance.  Much like how Kurt Angle dressed up for Shield cosplay night at TLC, Roddy is writing his own chapter as a member of Authors of Pain.

The actual match was nuts.  Killian Dain, loading the ring with weapons, was a real standout in this match as was the rest of SANitY.  There were Super German Suplexes onto tables.  Alexander Wolfe got busted open.  Roddy suplexed Adam Cole off the top of the structure onto the other 7 competitors to chants of “Please Don’t Die!”  The Authors of Pain were vicious.   It was just as good of a match as you could have hoped for.

And I feel like half the time we weren’t able to see fully what is happening.  I think if WWE does this match again, they can work on some better camera coverage.

Adam Cole eventually got the pin to give Undisputed Era the victory.  What does this mean?  Surely the tag titles will be on the line in Philadelphia.