Welcome to the “Women’s War Games match tops the weekend” edition of The Wrestling List. Busy and fun weekend. Let’s get right into it. I typed up thoughts as I was watching all of the shows.
Let’s get into NXT Takeover War Games. New feel for the NXT Takeover pre show this time around. Usually the pre show is recorded way ahead of time and they record the following week’s NXT between the pre show and live show. With NXT live every week now, there is no need for that so we have a live pre show tonight. Tough crowd in Chicago who boo Pat McAfee when he accidentally says Rhea Ripley’s name wrong. LOL. We also have a live pre show match as Isaiah Swerve Scott takes on Angel Garza to kick us off in Chicago. Garza picks up the win by pinfall. We see backstage where Mia Yim has been attacked and is out of the match. Now team Rhea needs another participant and the one that was cut from the team is standing right there, Dakota Kai. Rhea says “you’re in” to which Dakota isn’t feeling at first saying she isn’t prepared for this. Rhea talks of how Dakota has wanted revenge for a year on Shayna and now this is her chance. Dakota accepts. NXT Takeover event officially goes on the air with an awesome video package narrated by Shawn Michaels where he finishes it saying the iconic words “let the War Games…..begin”. Pretty awesome for old schoolers that remember that line very well. And we kick it off with the first ever women’s War Games match. Lighting and set looks awesome! Io arriving to a monster pop from Chicago including chants. Same War Games rules as always. We start with our first two of the Io and Candice rivalry. Yeah, I’m in for this. Chicago loves them some Io Shirai. Dueling chants from Chicago with the let’s go Io and let’s go Candice chants. Io holds the advantage for most of the five minutes. Chicago messed up with getting to see the clock. They started that counting down on every minute thing that they did during the Rollins ironman match a while back. That stirred up a lot of annoyance among many with the fans doing that so it did not surprise me a bit that they pulled it down and good for production on that decision. Keep the eyes on the talent working. Bianca Belair is the two on one advantage for team Shayna. I can’t remember EVER a babyface team getting the advantage in War Games. LOL. Nasty powerbomb launch by Bianca into the cage. Ripley is the next one in and she is going for plunder. Trash cans being thrown in the ring. Kendo sticks. The time may expire by the time she gets done pulling things out from under the ring. Hey Rhea, feel free to help Candice. LOL. Kay Lee Ray is the 3-2 advantage for team Shayna. Now, she is grabbing things from under the ring as well. She teases Chicago with the table pull which Chicago had been chanting for when Rhea was pulling weapons and she doesn’t pull the table and leaves it. LOL. Here comes the tower of doom spot out of the corner with everyone involved and they land on the chairs in the ring. Bianca then hits an awesome 450 splash. Dakota Kai is the next out. However, she turns and runs back in the cage and destroys Tegan Nox. Her best friend and I mean DESTROYS her. That was crazy! Regal runs out to pull Dakota away and she gives a shove at Regal. She goes backstage but then returns to pound on Tegan some more. Another good girl gone heel. Team Rhea watches on from the cage in disbelief. Now, it is 4-2 as Shayna is next out. No Dakota for Team Rhea and now their last team member of Tegan is down in the cage with officials surrounding her. WOW, that was a shocker. I pondered if they might do that heel turn cause there was sure an opportunity for it with her being rejected from the team. I pondered if Dakota was the one that took out Mia. On commentary, they say that War Games is now officially underway since Dakota is out of the building and Tegan is down. We have a moment where Rhea and Candice are standing between the rings surrounded with two members of team Shayna on each side. They go to war as Rhea goes after Shayna while Candice takes the trash can lid to the team Shayna members on her side of the cage. Rhea hooks a submission on Io. Shayna sees this and hooks a submission on Candice as Rhea and Shayna try to one up one another. That was a pretty awesome moment. Both escape. Candice starts wearing out Bianca with a kendo stick which was awesome. Io then starts climbing the cage followed by Candice. Ray walks up too. Candice hits the reverse rana out off the top of the cage. WOW!!!! Io is still hanging out up top looking to do something crazy. When she starts climbing now, I just do the Jeff Hardy reaction of please Io, don’t hurt yourself. Io moosaults off the top on to Candice and Bianca. Chicago chanting Mama Mia. Mama Mia indeed!!!! Shayna hooks the submission on Rhea and Rhea looks to be about out. Rhea then gets a second win and handcuffs herself to Shayna. She then power bombs her through the standing chairs and pins Shayna. WOW!! GOOD LUCK TO THE REST OF SURVIVOR SERIES WEEKEND ON FOLLOWING THIS MATCH!!! LOL. Deep breaths everyone. Let’s get into the rest of the show. Killian Dane vs. Damian Priest vs. Pete Dunne. Not paying attention to this match like I should cause that last one wore me out. LOL. Priest hits a razor’s edge on the announce table on Dunne and that table does not budge and he lands with a thud. Dunne gets the win and earns himself a spot against the NXT title at Survivor Series. Dunne hooked a sleeper on Dain but Dain used a senton to get out of it as they both land on Priest. Dunne then rolled over and pinned Priest. Next up is Finn Balor against Matt Riddle. This should be fun. Cracked me up that Riddle countered Balor with a spear and then hit him with a jackhammer. LOL. Riddle’s jabbing at Goldberg continues. Balor kicks out. Riddle hits the bro to sleep which brings out CM Punk chants in Chicago. LOL. Balor gets the pinfall when he hits the DDT. Fun match between these two. Time for War Games match number two. Good luck guys on following that first one! LOL. Who will be the final team member for team Ciampa. Will it be Kevin Owens??? Ciampa marches to the ring upon his entrance and he is going to start this one off for his team. He is bringing the crutch with him. LOL. Strong is the one to start for Undisputed Era. No sign of the 4th member of Team Ciampa yet so that will clearly be revealed as the last guy going in. Strong is hesitant to walk into the cage and Ciampa throws the crutch to Strong to use. Strong then throws the crutch out saying I don’t need this to beat you. Match is underway. They stay mostly even through the first five minutes. Guess what, the heels have the advantage again. LOL. It will be O’Reilly for Undisputed Era for the 2-1 advantage. We go 2-2 when Dominik is the next one in for team Ciampa. Fish is the next one in for Undisputed. That makes it 3-2 advantage for them. Undisputed Era are putting a beating on Dominik and Ciampa in this advantage round as we wait for Keith Lee to enter on the other side. Keith Lee is in and is putting a beating on all of the Era. Starts leapfrogging two guys. Just insane what this guy can do. The numbers game finally catches up to Lee as his teammates are still down from the beating they were taking. Now, we wait on Adam Cole who will be the last in for Undisputed Era. Adam Cole is in which means we are three minutes away from finding out this surprise partner. Cole goes under the ring and he pulls the table which gets a HUGE pop from Chicago as that is what they have wanted all night. LOL. He is pulling multiple tables including setting one up against the barrier on the outside. This may take up the three minute time limit here. I think I am up to seven tables pulled at this point. LOL. And there goes the table on the barrier. As Cole is walking to finally get in the ring, he is met by Ciampa who shoves him back into the table against the barrier taking out Cole. And we have a standoff as we approach the final count. All of them start to brawl as we wait on the clock. The clock starts counting down and Chicago is on their feet in anticipation. Clock expires and there is nobody. Undisputed Era starts saying see you have nobody. Kevin Owens’ music hits and the crowd pops huge. This is awesome! Owens gets in and starts pounding on the Era. We get a face-off with Cole and Owens. Owens hits him with a stunner and an awesome sell by Cole. Cole nails Panama Sunrise on to Owens on the metal that is set up between the rings. That was nasty looking! Cole and Ciampa battle in the corner. Cole climbs to the top. We remember the last time Cole did this at War Games. Dominik sends Strong through one table. O’Reilly hooks a submission on to Dominik and they roll on to the table with it. Owens just a splash off the top rope through the table to break that up. Lee puts Fish through the next table. Now, we are down to Ciampa and Cole by themselves up on top of the cage. Ciampa falls back with Cole and puts them both through the table with the air raid. Noticed how Ciampa did a good job of hooking his arm around Cole’s head to protect him. Ciampa lands on top and pins him. Team Ciampa wins. Nasty finish. Wild that they cut to Britt Baker in the crowd with the AEW crossover as she is Cole’s girlfriend in case you didn’t know. Team Ciampa stands tall as they celebrate at the end. Awesome match. Awesome show. NXT Takeover remains undefeated in awesome shows!
On to Survivor Series. Starting with the three team five on five elimination match for the women. NXT is clearly the babyface here in Chicago. Speaking of Chicago, the amount of CM Punk chants in the pre show was funny. Imagine being these NXT women and you just got out of the destruction that was War Games and here you are working this match. LOL. Seriously, you know they are pumped working this show. Io Shirai and Kairi Sane face off for the second night in a row. It got broken up a bit last night. Well, it gets broken up again when Carmella starts talking and they go after her. Wait a minute! We have three women in the ring at all times???? Well, this is bizarre. This will be a mess to keep up with on who is the legal person in the ring. Something happened to Candice and Io and they are carried out. No replay and on commentary they sound clueless on what happened. Makes me think they might be a legit injury. I do not like this three in the ring at a time. This is kind of a mess to book. Nikki is the first out as far as regular eliminations. Like this face-off with Charlotte and Bianca. Very cool spot when Carmella rana’s Charlotte on to Bianca on the mat. Never seen that spot from what I can remember. Sasha and Natalya doing the Hart Foundation clothesline on Bianca for the elimination was cool. I’ve given up on recapping eliminations. Too many people. So, we are down to Sasha and Natalya against Rhea Ripley. They could really make Rhea look like a monster here if she goes through both of them. Well, so much for that as Sasha turns on Natalya and eliminates her. Gotta think Rhea gets the win here as we are head to head with Sasha against Rhea. And suddenly Candice and Io are back saving Rhea from the bank statement. No injury. Strange booking. Candice distracts the ref. Io nails a dropkick from the top rope. Rhea pins Sasha. NXT gets the win. I didn’t like that finish at all. Made NXT look like they cheated to win and they didn’t need to cheat. You have Candice involved in it cheating who is NOT A HEEL. The better booking is just have Rhea just straight up pin Sasha. Next is the triple threat with the Intercontinental champion, Nakamura vs. U.S. champion, AJ Styles vs. NXT North American champion, Roderick Strong. First look for me on TV of the new Intercontinental title. Well, I don’t hate it. I know a lot of people are critical of it. Middle ground here. I don’t mind it. Well, they cut off Strong’s entrance before he could hit his spot. I have a feeling we are going to be VERY tired of triple threat matches after tonight. LOL. The finish has Styles hitting the phenomenal forearm on Nakamura but Strong throws Styles out of the ring and gets the pinfall on Nakamura before Styles can do it. That booking made sense cause that is what Strong does. Sneaks in and takes advantage. Pete Dunne challenging Adam Cole for the NXT title is next. I do wonder if they might take the belt off of Cole here with the story being that he was injured from War Games. However, Cole ends up surviving retaining the NXT title. Universal title on the line next with Bray Wyatt against Daniel Bryan. That Bray entrance is still just so cool. Curious to see how they book this one. Bryan took the fight to Bray with the yes kicks which Bray kept sitting up from. Bryan pulls back and goes to get the crowd as he leads the yes chants for the first time. I was amazed at the delay on commentary on putting that over. They waited almost a minute to mention it to the point where I said, ummm, isn’t this the first time he is doing this and shouldn’t they be mentioning it. Bray ends up getting the win taking him out with the claw. Next is the men’s five on five three team match. Rollins gets booed by Chicago as he walks out on the ramp from the Punk fandom. LOL. This is my first look at seeing who NXT has for a team. Wow, give me that team of Ciampa, Lee, Riddle, WALTER, and Priest. I’ll take that every time. LOL. Big WALTER chant as he stands in the ring. 15 guys in the ring and WALTER is wayyyy over. It doesn’t help when he is the first one eliminated by Drew. That DID NOT GO OVER WELL in Chicago or with me watching. And that is how you can book a crowd turning on your show really quick. Kevin Owens storyline continues to where he is trying to figure out where his loyalty is. He avoided going after NXT and eliminates Gable with a frog splash showing that he is still partial to NXT. Ciampa however ends up eliminating Owens a few minutes later. Wow, Matt Riddle eliminates Randy Orton. But Orton hits a RKO after the fall and Corbin takes advantage eliminating Riddle. Strowman gets counted out when he and Riddle collide mid air outside. Made Lee look strong that Strowman couldn’t get up back in the ring for the 10 count. Ricochet going crazy with the high flying. Ali is way over in Chicago and that doesn’t help the cause for Rollins against Chicago when he eliminates him. LOL. And here comes the CM Punk chants after that elimination. Corbin finally uses up all his bad will with his team when Reigns basically takes him out. That leaves Ciampa and Lee for NXT against Rollins for Raw and Reigns for Smackdown. We see The Shield brothers reuniting here. They go for the Shield power bomb on the announce table on to Ciampa but Keith Lee runs in and stops it. Ciampa and Rollins go at it in the ring. Ciampa is about to put Rollins away with his finisher when Reigns runs in and superman punches Ciampa. Rollins then hits the stomp to eliminate Ciampa. Keith Lee is the last left for Team NXT. And Chicago is all behind Keith Lee! Rollins starts yelling at the crowd that he built NXT and now he was going to end it. Rollins gets countered into a jackhammer by Lee. Rollins is eliminated. We are down to Reigns vs. Keith Lee. Reigns lands two quick superman punches and goes for the pin. Lee kicks out. Lee counters the spear into the powerbomb and gets a near fall. Reigns then lands a spear on to Lee for the pinfall. I’m fine with it. Lee looked really strong going up against Reigns. That was a definite building up moment for Keith Lee showing that he is a force to be reckoned with. After the match, Reigns and Lee share the ring together with Reigns with each giving a respect nod at the other. Reigns offers a fist bump and Lee accepts. WWE title on the line with Brock Lesnar defending against Rey Mysterio in a no DQ match. Not much of a reaction from Chicago for Lesnar on his entrance. The bell rings and Rey is already grabbing a pipe from under the ring. We knew this no DQ stipulation is a way to book Rey stronger in this match. Now, Rey can use everything to help compete. However…..Rey is getting destroyed from the bell. Dominick runs in and tries to throw a towel in for his dad. When Brock tries to go for him, Rey and Dominick both pound on Brock. The double 619 was a cool spot that I popped for. Both hit splashes off the top rope and cover him but Brock kicks out. Brock then hits an over the head suplex on Dominick taking him out. F5 to Rey for the pin. Crowd was popping big for that Rey/Dominick stuff too. So, this match booking of the no DQ was more of a way for Dominick to get involved instead of Rey getting to use weapons. Main event time and I love that they are getting to close this show! Becky vs. Bayley vs. Shayna. So strange seeing so little reaction for Bayley with her entrance. How about the fact that Shayna is stepping right into a PPV main event here? That is quite the compliment. Big pop for Becky as she enters. This has a big match feel to it here! Match ends with Shayna getting the tap out victory on Bayley. Becky had been taken out by Shayna over on the announce table. Crowd just didn’t seem to be into this one. I don’t know if it was the slower pace or if they were just tired from the long night. That finish also protected Becky and Shayna as neither pinned the other. After the match, Shayna is celebrating on the announce table. That is where Becky still is. Becky gets up and puts Shayna through the table and stands tall to end the show. Very solid Survivor Series. It was a rush of a lot going on at times with the three people in the ring at all times in the five on five matches. NXT looked strong tonight and won the night overall with match wins. Lots of good build for NXT talent tonight and I am thrilled with that.
Raw opens up from Chicago with a clear heel turn for Seth Rollins. He is holding a town hall meeting where he is basically running down the whole roster for their performance at Survivor Series. People start walking out on him one by one and then the whole locker room walks out on him. Except for Kevin Owens who gets called Mr. NXT. Owens listens to it for a bit and then stunners him and leaves. So, they have leaned in and turned Rollins heel. Probably the best thing because the boos were coming and with Punk back around the business, the boos will get louder if they continue their back and forth. Apparently, Rusev injured Lashley in the next segment and it resulted in him being stretchered. I say this in apparently style because I left the room when Lashley’s music hit. LOL. AOP is back in the ring next as they win a squash on Hawkins and Ryder. Promo saying that Triple H will be on Backstage tomorrow night. Does that mean that Triple H and Punk are going to be in the same communication area? That will be must watch TV. Tozawa vs. Andrade is next. Andrade is next. I do a big double tap toward the TV as the Hardy music hits next. Matt Hardy is back. He hits all versions of the Hardy’s. The music. The deletes. The Version 1 pose. Good stuff. Matt is takes on Buddy Murphy. Buddy nails some nasty knee shots to Matt picking up the win. Buddy gets on the mic and calls out Aleister Black. Before he can say I have come to pick a fight with you, Aleister’s music hits. This exchange between the two is stiff!!! Aleister gets the better of Buddy. This clearly isn’t over though and I’m good with that for sure. Hour two kicks off with Humberto taking on AJ Styles for the US title. Gallows and Anderson attack Humberto on the way to the ring. They destroy him on the steps. Lawler is egging on that they should ring the bell and that he was too young anyway. Since when is Lawler a heel announcer? LOL. Ricochet walks out to check on Humberto. Styles gets on the mic talking about Ricochet was too late to save his buddy. Ricochet makes a challenge for the US title but Styles won’t accept it saying he signed a contract against one guy only. Randy Orton arrives. He makes the same challenge wanting a title match. He rejects that too. Drew McIntyre arrives. He makes a challenge too and Styles is backing out on it too. Rey arrives. Challenges. Styles declines. Ricochet brings up having a four way match and the winner faces Styles for the US title tonight. Styles agrees to it after Gallows and Anderson comedically say they think it is a fun idea for Raw in Chicago. Orton has the match won with a RKO but Gallows and Anderson pull him out. Rey wins with a small package on Ricochet. So, now it will be Rey vs. AJ Styles for the US title. Styles is gloating knowing he is facing a match worn opponent. Gallows and Anderson get kicked out of the title match about halfway through it. Do you realize this whole US title angle has taken up the whole second hour? Rey hits the 619 but Styles goes down and hits the ref on the way down too. Ref is out. Gallows and Anderson get involved again. Orton returns and takes out Gallows and Anderson. Orton goes for Styles. Styles ends up taking a 619 followed by a RKO. Rey then nails the top rope frog splash for the pin and we have a new US champion, Rey Mysterio. Dominick runs out after to celebrate with his dad. Hour three leads off with Charlotte and Asuka one on one after the mist attack by Asuka last night at Survivor Series. Finish has Charlotte taking the mist again from Asuka leading to Asuka getting the pin. Rowan wins a squash match in the next segment. WWE Shop segment is next with Iiconics. I’ll take it if it gets them on my TV. R Truth jumps in there as the segment goes along. Truth sneaks off with the 24/7 title on the table. Main event time with Kevin Owens against Seth Rollins. Match gets to the end and we get a run in from AOP. They stand in the ring as both Rollins and Owens watch on seeing what they are going to do. They go toward Owens and Owens immediately lands a shot on one of them. They beat down Owens repeatedly sending him shoulder first into the post. So, does this mean that AOP is going to be backup for Rollins? I really hope not. Rollins can stand on his own. AOP goes toward Rollins and Rollins is telling them to bring it on. AOP then turns away and walks back up the ramp. Ok, good. LOL. But this clearly has to be a tease of that AOP is with Rollins. That wraps up Raw.
So, what was up with Britt Baker getting shown on NXT Takeover in the crowd after her boyfriend, Adam Cole, took that nasty air raid spot off the cage. On the post show media call, Triple H said that the producer took the shot cause he was looking for the most concerned person to put a camera on and it turned out to be her. Sounded like the director didn’t know who she was. Triple H put over Britt Baker saying how talented that she was and that he hoped it didn’t get her in trouble with her employer.
If you didn’t watch the Up Up Down Down Survivor Series tournament on Sunday. Go back and watch. I won’t talk spoilers as it is still new. Lot of fun. Here is the link.
I also won’t spoil the next thing that is absolutely must watch. I am 3/4 of the way through the Stone Cold interview with The Undertaker on WWE Network. You must watch it. It is so good. I will talk about it more next week so everyone can have time to watch it. Undertaker doesn’t do these kind of interviews cause he is so protective of that character so this was really amazing to watch. Again, I haven’t finished it but am on the last part of it. It is well worth going out of your way to watch!!!
That is it for tonight. Hope you all have a great week!
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