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Showing posts with label Pat McAfee. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pat McAfee. Show all posts

NXT TakeOver: WarGames (Dec. 6, 2020) -- Results & Afterthoughts




NXT TakeOver: WarGames was a professional wrestling pay-per-view and WWE Network event, produced by WWE for their NXT brand division. It took place on December 6, 2020 at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida and featured NXT's virtual fan viewing experience called the Capitol Wrestling Center. It was the 32nd NXT TakeOver event and the fourth event under the WarGames chronology.

Five matches were contested at the event. In the main event, The Undisputed Era (Adam Cole, Kyle O'Reilly, Roderick Strong, and Bobby Fish) defeated Team McAfee (Pat McAfee, Pete Dunne, Danny Burch, and Oney Lorcan) in a WarGames match while in the opening bout, Team Candice (Candice LeRae, Dakota Kai, Raquel González, and Toni Storm) defeated Team Shotzi (Shotzi Blackheart, Ember Moon, Rhea Ripley, and Io Shirai) in the women's WarGames match.




Match Results:



Dark Match: Six-Man Tag Team Match
Legado del Fantasma (Santos Escobar, Raul Mendoza and Joaquin Wilde) def. Curt Stallion, Ashante "Thee" Adonis and August Grey


I personally didn't see this match, but I wouldn't be surprised if this doesn't show up on NXT's TV tapings or 205 Live over the next few weeks, if it didn't air already. 



Women's WarGames Match
Team Candice (Candice LeRae, Dakota Kai, Raquel González, and Toni Storm) def. Team Shotzi (Shotzi Blackheart, Ember Moon, Rhea Ripley, and Io Shirai)



Team Candice...

Team Shotzi... riding her shiny new tank!

This match was rather odd to get started - which was complicated more by the asinine logic (or lack of thereof) of having the babyfaces bullying the heels for majority of this match. That was complicated even more by the babyfaces winning the advantage to start the match when the heels traditionally cheat to win that right. It was puzzling to me that the babyfaces were the ones bringing the weapons into the match as if they were fighting in some sort of disadvantage here. It (kinda, but not really) came together when it came time for the final member of Team Shotzi to enter the match, NXT Women's Champion Io Shirai, who was blocked at every turn to enter the ring by members of Team Candice, including an injured Indi Hartwell. She couldn't compete in the match, so it cool that she was able to contribute here in some limited capacity. Io ends up entering the match via non-conventional means as I'm sure you have seen the gif/screenshot of Io's Grouch impersonation as she dove from the top of the cage while inside a trash can.



As cool as that looked, I'm glad no one was hurt as that could have gone horribly wrong. Io would be involved with another trash can-related spot as Dakota Kai would perform a Diving Double Foot Stomp to her while she was still trapped within. Dakota Kai almost couldn't get her out of the crushed trash can afterwards since it warped around Io's petite frame so much. I thought they were going to take that thing off of her and she would have been a bloody mess. Unfortunately, she wasn't hurt but this match wasn't shy in brutal spots and bumps.

The spot where Candice LeRae broke her arm/wrist.


Candice LeRae would suffer a possible broken arm/wrist from the awkward landing during the impact of Shotzi Blackheart coming down off of the ladder onto LeRae's arm that was covered by a steel chair. It was already bad enough that Candice took a flat back bump off the ladder onto the two chairs, but to add the Diving Senton from Shotzi was pretty darn nuts. As of this posting (12/10/20), Dakota Kai had missed last night's NXT TV taping as she was still suffering from the abuse she took in this match. I wouldn't be surprised if that absolutely BRUTAL Eclipse that she took from Ember Moon over two chairs had anything to do with that. That was pure insanity to see executed. How in the hell did she not end up with a broken neck or broken collarbone is beyond me. 


I don't even know how to even explain how the hell Dakota Kai doesn't have a broken neck from that.



Much like Rhea Ripley's performance last year, this was a standout performance for Raquel González with her picking up the win for Team Candice with a vicious Avalanche Powerbomb to the NXT Women's Champion onto a ladder bridged between the two rings above that metal strip connecting them. I seriously thought that Io was possibly paralyzed after taking a bump like that. If she had kicked out I would have insanely pissed off - much like I was when Dakota Kai barely sold the two strikes from a goddamn sledgehammer from Rhea Ripley upon her arrival into this match. Fortunately, this was the finish of the match and I was fine with this as the opener. The ladies worked hard and came off as bad asses from all of the punishment that they put each other through here. It's just a darn shame that this match was riddled with piss poor booking for majority of this match to start it off. I saw people say that this match was a complete burial to the babyfaces on Team Shotzi. I honestly can't disagree, but the babyfaces were booked like shit from the start of this feud anyway, but the heels on Team Candice needed the win here even more. It was bigger slap to the face that the heels won clean over all else here though. That's the main issue I had with this match as a whole. 

I do have to knock NXT for allowing Io Shirai to be still walking around like nothing happened on NXT (12/9/20) last night. C'mon it would not have killed you guys to have her take the week off to sell that finish.








Singles Match
Tommaso Ciampa def. Timothy Thatcher



This was a hard-hitting affair, but it was a tough match to call going in to predict who would walk away as the winner. Where the women of NXT started things off with a train wreck of sorts in terms of hardcore-oriented violence, Ciampa and Thatcher took things to a technical level with mat wrestling here. This was a great match in its own way, even though Thatcher's ear was rendered to a bloody mess by the time it was all said and done. In retrospect, that ended up adding to this match, showing Thatcher's toughness and endurance.



I was a little bummed out that Thatcher couldn't pick up the win here after his string of losses on NXT programming as of late - such as his first submission loss to Kushida a few weeks ago, but Ciampa hasn't had a TakeOver victory in roughly two years, so he was LONG overdue at this point. I guess they could do a rematch in the Fight Pit down the road if they want to continue this program.








Strap Match
Dexter Lumis def. Cameron Grimes by submission



I honestly didn't fucking care about this feud nor this match at all. I went on a fast food run with the WWE Network app still playing the match on my phone as I waited in the drive-thru. There were some interesting spots in this match, but I couldn't get the irony of the fact that NXT has the two ex-IMPACT/TNA Wrestling guys tied together in a nonsensical feud as this when BOTH of them could be in much better spots on this card.

I don't want to knock either of these guys as I like them as wrestlers but I just don't care about this feud at all. From what I glanced at the match was fine, but I can't say that I have EVER been a fan of Strap Matches in WWE in any shape nor form. Thank God that this wasn't the type of strap match that required you to slap each of the four turnbuckles to win.








Triple Threat Match for the NXT North American Championship
Johnny Gargano def. Damian Priest and Leon Ruff (c)



It didn't hit me until I started writing this review, but I can easily see what NXT is trying to do with Leon Ruff. He's literally NXT's equivalent of Ring of Honor's Cheeseburger when he started getting "serious". Jot that down as another example of stuff that NXT is "borrowing" from ROH's booking over the last decade or so. As for this match, it was fine until the closing minutes as I didn't think that all of the run-ins were necessary. Only ONE of the Ghostface(s) were Austin Theory, so who were the rest?




Oh, thanks for the clarification there, T-Bar. Now we know what the extra goons of RETRIBUTION do on their days off. 


Priest powerbombing Ruff through that barricade like Kevin Nash did to Rey Mysterio backstage on Nitro how Hernandez sent Gail Kim coast to coast with a Border Toss.








Priest should have been able to wipe his ass with these two guys in dominating fashion, but no, he keeps allowing himself to get outwitted by the antics of Gargano. I like Johnny Gargano as an in-ring worker, even though I think some of his TakeOver performances have been EXTREMELY overrated and over-bloated in terms of content, but I'm sick and tired of this heel run for him and his wife. They aren't good heels at all. Just because they are annoying and people don't like them doesn't mean that they are great at being heels. That's the wrong type of heel heat and the Garganos are accumulating a lot of "go away" heat. I fear that's going to infect Indi Hartwell too. To be honest, I don't feel sorry for Austin Theory at all, especially when it seems like Triple H and the rest of the top brass in WWE are inclined to simply ignore the laundry list of sexual allegations against not just Theory, but with a lot of their male talent(s) that they are pushing. Taking guys off TV for a few months, expecting people to forget about those ongoing investigations, are not going to make fans simply forget about what's going on with these people. 








Men's WarGames Match
The Undisputed Era (Adam Cole, Kyle O'Reilly, Roderick Strong, and Bobby Fish) def. Team McAfee (Pat McAfee, Pete Dunne, Danny Burch, and Oney Lorcan)

(Laughs) I'm glad someone took the time to tell Pete Dunne to lay off that horrible looking orange spray tanner that he's been using on the TV tapings lately for this event. He didn't come in looking that Hogan orange hot dog frank color that his skin tone looks like these days and actually was back to looking human again.

In comparison to the women's WarGames match, this was a massive improvement in terms of match psychology and how they booked this from start to finish. Just go out of your way to watch this match over anything else on this card - outside of Thatcher/Ciampa. You won't be disappointed. 

Both teams went out there and beat the holy hell out of each other. If I had any major complaint, I felt that Pat McAfee should have ate the pin for his team instead of the anti-climatic finish that they went with. He's the biggest chicken shit heel out of that bunch, so you knew he would have been able to talk it up about how he was "screwed" in the end and bounce back from the loss just fine. I do have to question the amount of weapons and foreign objects used in these NXT WarGames matches. It's turning more into IMPACT/TNA Wrestling's Lethal Lockdown more than the traditional WarGames match and that's not necessarily a good thing, despite the fact I actually liked both flavors of those matches over the years. 


For anyone who is keeping count, Undisputed Era's WarGames record is 2-2 now. 






Afterthoughts:

With another win in the books, it seems like The Undisputed Era is moving on from this feud with Pat McAfee's faction. Bobby Fish is injured anyway, requiring surgery, so he's going to be out for a while even if they wanted to continue this program. I know the higher ups in WWE has to think he's injury prone at this point as he hasn't had any luck in that department at all since joining this company. If The Undisputed Era were getting called up to the main roster, I wouldn't do it until all four men were healthy and ready anyway.

Raquel Gonzales is being positioned to challenge Io Shirai next for the NXT Women's Championship, but it seems like she still has a roadblock in the form of Rhea Ripley still standing in her way. If Rhea is getting called up for WrestleMania season, then giving Raquel "the rub" as she does the honors on the way out is the way to go. 

Thatcher and Ciampa seem to be continuing their feud, which I hope that means that they will have a rematch in the Fight Pit down the road.

Gargano's new faction, dubbed "The Way", consisting of himself, Candice LeRae, Austin Theory, and Indi Hartwell, seems to be the unit that will be Johnny's insurance policy of sorts to assist him in hanging onto the North American Championship. I hope they just don't throw Leon Ruff to the wayside as it seems like Kushida is going after him next. I would love to see Kushida challenge Finn Balor for any match in some capacity before he leaves NXT. 

As of this posting (12/11/20), Karrion Kross has made his return, putting his name into the conversation with Damien Priest, Pete Dunne, and Kyle O'Reilly concerning who will challenge Finn Balor for the NXT Championship at the next TV special for January 6, 2021 dubbed New Year's Evil that was teased during this show. I'm game for Kross to win back the title he never lost while Finn gets to head over to NXT UK and give us the match that we were denied this year between him and WALTER for the NXT UK Championship. 

This was a good show from start to finish in terms of action, but in terms of compelling storylines and/or angles to make me excited to see the weekly TV tapings, they are extremely lacking in that regard. This event did nothing to change how bland those shows are to watch on a week to week basis. 

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NXT TakeOver XXX (Aug. 22, 2020) -- Results & Afterthoughts



NXT TakeOver XXX (originally NXT TakeOver: Boston) was a professional wrestling and WWE Network event produced by WWE for their NXT brand division that took place on August 22, 2020 at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida and was the 30th NXT TakeOver event.

The event was originally scheduled to take place at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, mayor Marty Walsh announced the suspension of all large-scale gatherings and that no permit would be issued for an event that could draw a large crowd before September 7 (Labor Day). As such, the event was moved to NXT's home base of Full Sail University.

Six matches were contested at the event, including one on the Pre-Show. In the main event, Karrion Kross defeated Keith Lee to win the NXT Championship. On the undercard, Io Shirai defeated Dakota Kai to retain the NXT Women's Championship, Damian Priest defeated Bronson Reed, Cameron Grimes, Johnny Gargano and Velveteen Dream in a Ladder match to win the vacant NXT North American Championship and Adam Cole defeated Pat McAfee.



Match Results:


Triple Threat Tag Team Match to determine the #1 contenders for the NXT Tag Team Championship
Breezango (Fandango and Tyler Breeze) def. Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch and Legado del Fantasma (Joaquin Wilde and Raul Mendoza)


I didn't watch the pre-show since I was watching AEW Saturday Dynamite prior to tuning into the main show for this card, but I'm surprised to read that result when WWE tends to lean towards factions all having championship gold all at once. This just sounds like an easy title defense to fill time between shows until the next TakeOver special. I don't understand the point behind this Breezango push. Nobody cares - I hate to say it. I get those guys wanted some sort of "redemption" after being misused and mismanaged on the main roster, but don't do that at the detriment of getting other tag teams over on NXT. Nothing makes me hit the fast forward button or change the channel quicker than when I see this team show up on my television. It's a darn shame too, because I actually liked these guys when they were coming up as singles stars.


Singles Match
Finn Bálor def. Timothy Thatcher


This was a solid opener for this show, but my only knock against this match is the fact that Thatcher worked Finn's legs the entire match, only for Finn to no sell the damage to execute his Double Foot Stomps without any issues. Like c'mon, man. Plus I honestly don't agree with Thatcher losing like this when they are supposed to be getting his "shooter" gimmick over. One loss isn't going to hurt Finn at this stage of the game, especially when he should be moving back up to the main roster at this point. It's obvious that we're not going to get that Balor vs. WALTER match anytime soon that we were promised for the NXT UK TakeOver Dublin event that was set for earlier this year, but was cancelled due to the travel bans and quarantines due to COVID-19. Send Balor back to the main roster where he can do some more good there for some of the struggling brands with the lack of star power right now.


Ladder Match for the vacant NXT North American Championship
Damian Priest def. Bronson Reed, Cameron Grimes, Johnny Gargano, and Velveteen Dream


This was a stupid good ladder match with a lot of stupid, yet entertaining spots to boot. On top of that there were a lot of ugly bumps in this match where I'm sure that these guys will be feeling in the morning. I'm surprised Gargano took as much punishment as he did to say that he had that close call on the last set of TV tapings. That was a truly gnarly spot between him powerbombing Cameron Grimes on top of the ladder bridged between the ropes. Grimes' body only hit the corner of that before bumping onto part of the bottom rope. Man, that shit was scary to watch. Not to mention Candice LeRae holding onto Bronson Reed's back for dear life as he splashed Gargano from the top of the ladder. Jesus F'N Christ, man. I cracked up laughing at how Velveteen Dream was dumped off the top of the ladder and down out through the commentary tables at ringside.

Say what you will about Dream, but he - along with his fellow competitors in this match - definitely brought it in this match from bell to bell. I would love to see any combination of these five men go at it again in the future, stipulations or not. This was an all-round fun match from bell-to-bell.


I would've told Triple H to get lost while I was about to have my "celebration"...

FYI, the women in the hot tub with Priest for his "celebration" were Brandi Lauren (formerly IMPACT's Ava Storie, who feuded with Shotzi Blackheart in EVOLVE and happens to be one of Jay Lethal's students) and Jayme Jameson, who appeared on RAW Underground the week prior. Jameson is the ex-wife of Gunner/Jaxson Ryker of the Forgotten Sons.


Singles Match
Adam Cole def. Pat McAfee


My anticipation for this match was low going in, so I wasn't really blown away (at least not until that fool busted out a Senton Bomb into the crowd at ringside) like most were at McAfee's in-ring ability. Jim Cornette pointed out on his podcast that Pat McAfee was trained by Rip Rogers, so he's definitely going to know at least how to work in some capacity. The story of this match has been saying that McAfeee has only had a mere TWO WEEKS to prepare for this match when in reality he has been training for wrestling for several YEARS now.

As good as McAfee looked in this match, I thought it was major disservice to Adam Cole to have McAfee last as long as he did. Cole has been the longest reigning NXT Champion in the history of that brand before losing that title a little more than a month ago to Keith Lee. This match had no business going on as long as it did, but I guess NXT was doing the same thing IMPACT Wrestling did a while ago with DeAngelo Williams to show off that McAfee could go with the best that NXT has to offer.

I'll admit that they had me doubting Cole was going to win for a second there off the punt kick for the near-fall. In the end, it was the Panama Sunrise (Canadian Destroyer) that sealed the deal. That made me happy to see a Canadian Destroyer finally win a match for once on this brand instead of being a fucking transition spot.

I have a question for people to think about though. Who actually benefited from this match and build? Pat McAfee pretty much solidified himself as the top heel for the NXT brand in the segment on the go-home episode prior to this PPV. Adam Cole and the rest of Undisputed Era were made to look like fools during that segment as well when they allowed McAfee to talk all of that shit for roughly ten minutes, only to do absolutely NOTHING and go home with their tails between their legs. Sure, Cole said that line that he would make McAfee his bitch at TakeOver, but I can't see any positives to this feud at all. Where does Cole and the Undisputed Era go from here? I guess they could have them feud with Legado del Fantasma, but that would be a step down for the longest reigning NXT Champion in history to be in a feud for the Cruiserweight Championship - not to mention that would highlight McAfee's comments about Cole's size or lack of thereof.


Singles Match for the NXT Women's Championship
Io Shirai (c) def. Dakota Kai (with Raquel González)


There was a scary moment early into the match where Io knocked herself loopy off a backflip of all moves while evading one of Dakota Kai's attacks. Forunately, it didn't seem to hinder Io's performance for the rest of the match though. I hope it doesn't come out that Io suffered some sort of a concussion from such a simple maneuver.

"King Kota" dominated a lot of this match to the point where I was starting to question whether or not Io really was going to retain here. I remember Dakota Kai from back when she was wrestling as "Evie" back in Shimmer and on the indies and it's great to see how far she has evolved her character and in-ring abilities. That being said, I don't see her as NXT Women's Champion - BUT I do see her ready to take on the main roster if they want to move the pairing of her and Raquel Gonzalez up with the upcoming WWE Draft right around the corner. I don't see why don't they call up Tegan Nox and Mia Yim up there too.

I felt the ending here fell flat when Raquel took FOREVER to come in and lay out Io following the referee bump for the near-fall. That just made it look silly when Io popped up hit her moonsault on Kai and Raquel at ringside, only to roll in Kai and hit the same move again for the win. It just came off bad in execution when it seemed like those events were done out of sequence or something. Maybe Raquel was in the wrong spot at the wrong time? I dunno. I just know that it didn't look good at all.

Seeing Raquel and Rhea Ripley of all people stare down was interesting. I'll say that much. I can't say that was a match that I was clamoring to see. I'm disappointed that we didn't get Rhea Ripley vs. Mercedes Martines one-on-one for this TakeOver event. If we don't get that on free TV over on WWE NXT on the USA Network in a few weeks, then that's going to be stupid booking in that regard. It seems like they are planting the seeds for Io and Rhea one-on-one down the road, but I don't know if I like the idea of her going for the NXT Women's Championship so soon, especially when they could go with an idea from one podcast/online comment I remember reading. The idea was to have Rhea and Shotzi as a tag team and would challenge for and win the Women's Tag Team Championships from Bayley and Sasha Banks. If you ask me, I like that idea much more than the makeshift team of Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler that was half-assed together on Monday Night RAW (8/24/20) following this event.


Singles Match for the NXT Championship
Karrion Kross (with Scarlett) def. Keith Lee (c)


From the moment I saw how elaborate Kross' entrance was for this match, I uttered out "This dude is fucking winning this match" to my friends that I was chatting it up with over Discord. There was no doubt in my mind that they would go through all of that for one guy's entrance as the challenger no less and NOT have him win the title here. That shit was fucking incredible. Then Keith Lee comes out to pretty much nothing added to usual banger of an entrance theme he normally has. That was the tale of the tape right there.

Then the bell rung and Lee showed that he was ALL business, knocking Kross across the ring. I like this no nonsense Keith Lee more than the gentle giant that he is normally portrayed by. This is the change in demeanor that I crave to see from Big E whenever he decides to kick the New Day to the curve and go all in on a singles push. I'm not talking about that silent, just stand there and look tough bullshit he was doing with AJ Lee and Dolph Ziggler either. I'm talking about this strictly business (shout out to Nick Aldis in NWA), Hulk Smash attitude that Keith Lee brought to this match.

Lee's rage got the better of him as he smashed his arm against the plexiglass at ringside and trapped his arm between the barricade, which allowed Kross to smash it between those two surfaces. From here on out, Kross systemically tore down Lee's defenses as he continued to target that limb - from Lee's wrist to his elbow and up to his shoulder. The irony of that is that Kross suffered a legitimate shoulder injury (separated shoulder) during this match, but continued on and powered through the rest of this match regardless.

The story of the match was that no matter how hard Keith Lee powered through, Kross' sheer brutality and ruthlessness was too much to overcome for the Limitless One. In fact, Kross proved that Lee DID have limits as he succumbed to the Doomsday Saito from off the top rope. I thought the finish was rather anti-climatic, especially given the build-up to this match. That being said, NXT got where they wanted to go with this mega-push for Karrion Kross, even though I don't necessarily agree with pushing the guy so fast at this point.

The following night, Keith Lee was announced to be the newest addition to the Monday Night RAW roster, so we see why NXT was so dead set him to drop those two titles so fast over the past two months. (Crosses fingers) I'm praying that they don't fuck this up. I honestly see him being Apollo Crews' "back-up" to deal with the Hurt Business, but I wouldn't go that route with him. I would debut him as a part of the Hurt Business and naturally have him split away from the faction to go on his own down the road, much like The Rock with the Nation of Domination. You want this guy to go in as a wrecking machine and that's definitely the group you would want him to be a part of and learn from in terms of veterans in the business.

As for Karrion Kross, I hope his shoulder separation isn't too serious as I would hate to see that his monster push was all for nothing if he has to open NXT on Wednesday night by forfeiting the title.



Afterthoughts:


As of this posting (8/26/20), Keith Lee has officially debuted on Monday Night RAW and is set to face Randy Orton at Sunday's WWE Payback PPV while the verdict is still out on how serious is Karrion Kross' separated shoulder injury. Io Shirai and Rhea Ripley are set to face against Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez, making me wonder what the hell are they thinking not booking the one-on-one match against Rhea Ripley and Mercedes Martinez following what happened on NXT last week. Has Triple H finally ran out of good ideas for this thing or it's becoming painfully apparent that the same shitty booking from the main roster is starting to infect NXT just the same? If we can all be honest with ourselves for a minute, but NXT has been "borrowing" ideas from early to mid-2000s Ring of Honor, Shimmer, and New Japan for a while now. Sooner or later, we should have all seen it coming with the well running dry eventually. That just means that NXT is going to have to start getting creative or actually cook up their own original ideas.

If Kross' injury doesn't require surgery and he can work around it, I suggest opening tonight's (8/26/20) NXT with him and Scarlett laying dominion over NXT and just sit out on the stage watching matches from a pair of thrones like Mil Muertes did at the start of Season Two of Lucha Underground, Shao Khan-style like this is Mortal Kombat as he surveys the landscape of potential challengers worthy of his time. 
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