Allstate Arena
Rosemont, Illinois
Follow me on Twitter: @WorkTheNetwork2
WarGames
Rhea Ripley, Candice LeRae,
Shirai and LeRae are the first two in here. LeRae goes for a suicide dive between the two rings, but Shirai counters and then follows it up with two 619's. Shirai dominates the rest of the time until the very end of the time period and here comes Belair to shut it down. LeRae fires back, but then eats a stiff looking forearm from Belair. Belair then hits multiple power bombs and then a power bomb into the cage. Belair puts LeRae in a Camel Clutch and Shirai gets a full head of steam and hits her with a dropkick. Up next is Ripley and she goes under the ring to grab a garbage can and then slams the cage door on Belair's head. Ripley is incredibly over with the Chicago crowd. Ripley grabs some more weapons including chairs and kendo sticks. The crowd wants tables, but Ripley doesn't oblige. Ripley slams Belair ribs first into a garbage can. WWE better be careful, these women might actually become stars. Kay Lee Ray is next and she goes right under the ring and grabs some chairs. She teases grabbing a table and pushes it back in. Nice heel work there. Ripley and LeRae try to superplex Belair through chairs, but it is blocked. Instead we get a tower of doom spot thanks to a Ripley powerbomb onto the now folded chairs. Belair is still up top and she hits a 450 splash onto Ripley. Dakota Kai is next and on her way to the ring, turns around and attacks Tegan Nox, slamming her into the smaller cage on the stage. Regal tries to break it up, but she pushes him away, all while Baszler is on the stage loving every second of it. Kai comes back again and continues to attack her. This is a nice little plot twist to help differentiate the two matches tonight. It's Baszler's turn to enter and we are going to have a 4-on-2. Baszler checks in on Nox and slowly walks to the ring. Ripley and Bayszler go right at it, but Belair breaks it up. They announce that the match is now officially started since Nox and Kai are no longer in the match. Ripley and LeRae are between the two rings and two opponents stand on both sides. Ripley and LeRae explode to try to take out their opponents. Ripley and Baszler have submission holds in the corners. Belair launches LeRae across the rings. I had no idea that she was so strong. Belair starts whipping Ripley with her hair, but in comes LeRae with a kendo stick. Shirai is now climbing up to the top of the cage, but LeRae is right behind her. Kay Lee Ray is right behind her and LeRae hits Kay Lee with a reverse hurricanrana from the top rope. Shirai is still on the top of the cage. Shirai hits a moonsault off the top of the cage onto a dueling Belair and LeRae. Baszler puts Ripley into the Kirifuda Clutch. Ripley counters and handcuffs her to herself. Ripley then hits a Riptide through the chairs and gets the victory. It's pretty safe to say they are 100% behind Ripley and for good reason. The future is bright here on NXT in the women's division between Ripley, LeRae, Belair and Shirai. All of these performers put forth an incredible effort here and they told a compelling story. What more can you ask for? Amazing opening match.
Match Rating: ****1/2 (out of 5)
Triple Threat Match To Be The #1 Contender For The NXT Championship
Damian Priest vs. Killian Dain vs. Pete Dunne
This is a fresh matchup. Priest is wearing Outsider inspired gear. Dain slams Dunne right into Priest's face in a crazy looking spot. Dain catches a leaping Dunne while carrying Priest on his back and hits a fall back slam/Samoan drop combo. Priest and Dain hit a double powerbomb. They now begin to trade forearm blows. Dunne gets in the middle of it and joins in. They hit a triple dropkick, which I don't think I have ever seen. Priest hits a Razor's Edge on Dunne onto a table. Dain then comes out hits a cannonball onto Priest into a guardrail. Back in the ring, Priest hits a Razor's Edge on Dain, but Dunne makes the save. Pretty impressive by Priest there. Priest leaps over the top rope and hits Dain and then Dunne follows up with a moonsault on Dain and Priest to the floor. Dunne has Priest in a submission, but Dain makes the save at the last second. Dain hits a cannonball into both men and then a Vader Bomb onto Priest. Dunne hits a moonsault to break up the cover. Dunne hits the Bitter End on Dain, but Priest breaks that one up. Mauro scrapes the bottom of his barrel to make a Beastie Boys reference for Pain. Priest gets a nearfall and shows his frustration. Too much action to recap here. Dain knocks Priest off the apron and heads up top. Dunne hits him with a kick to the head. Dunne hits a superplex on Dain and then the Bitter End on Priest, but it's broken up by Dain again. Dain slams Dunne onto Priest, but Dunne pushes Dain off and gets the pinfall on Priest to become the #1 contender tomorrow night at Survivor Series. All three men looked good and worked really hard. I think they did a few too many false finishes and it took the crowd out of it a little bit. All three should be stars in the near future.
Match Rating: ***3/4
They promote a February 16th TakeOver to be held in Portland, Oregon.
Matt Riddle vs. Finn Balor
This might have been the better choice to follow the first War Games match, as this will be the most unique match on the card. Balor hits a nasty looking dropkick through the ropes into Riddle and it looks even more painful in slow motion. We get some good back and forth action from these two. Balor hits a Sling Blade, but Riddle hits him with a big spear to a charging Balor. Riddle then follows it up with a Jackhammer for a nearfall. Riddle hits a Go To Sleep and goes up top for a Floating Bro, but Balor gets his knees up. Balor hits a dropkick and he heads up top, but Riddle moves. Riddle gets him in the Bromission. Balor is out of it and hits a 1916 DDT for the victory. That was a hard hitting match that gave the show something different. I do worry that Riddle is losing too much, but I think as long as he is on NXT, the crowd will accept him as a top guy no matter what. This was also Balor's best match in a long time.
Match Rating: ***3/4
WarGames
Undisputed Era vs. Keith Lee, Dominik Dijakovic, Tommaso Ciampa, ???
Ciampa walks right to the ring upon his entrance. No one knows their character better than Ciampa. Strong will start things off for the Undisputed Era. No 4th member is out yet for Ciampa's team. Strong has the crutch, but then launches it over the cage. This match has the benefit of having some of the best conditioned athletes in WWE in it. I am pretty sure Cole and Strong could wrestle for 3 hours straight. As much as we wrestling fans like to complain about most of the decisions WWE makes now, the fact that Tommaso Ciampa and Roderick Strong are main eventing a show is pretty awesome. Undisputed Era have the advantage and Kyle O'Reilly is next in. They quickly take advantage of their 2-on-1. O'Reilly holds Ciampa on the ropes and then gets hit by multiple running forearms from Strong. Dijakovic is in next and he hits some big kicks to knock out both men. Both Dijakovic and Priest would have been great opponents for Undertaker back in the day. Bobby Fish is out now to help his team out and instantly goes after Ciampa. It's Keith Lee time. I'm so glad he is finally starting to catch on. Lee leapfrogs both O'Reilly and Fish and then hits them both with a crossbody. Lee is also over big here in Chicago. It takes all three of the Undisputed Era to get him off his feet and they all attack him until Ciampa breaks it up. Adam Cole is here and he grabs a table. Some people complain that Undisputed Era are not true heels and I suppose that this helps their case. However, I would argue that they fit in a sub-category of heel, but I'm not going to get too much into that. Cole gets a handful of tables into the ring. As Cole is walking in, Ciampa pushes him and he lands into a table leaned against the barricade. All seven participants begin brawling. Lee tries a double move, but gets hit with a low blow. The clock starts counting down and the mystery opponent is...Kevin Owens, who gets a huge pop. The KO shirt he is wearing has a NXT logo on the back. Owens hits a Stunner on Cole, but Strong breaks up the pin. Lee and Dijakovic attempt to throw Strong over both sets of ropes and he lands awkwardly on the rest of his teammates. Lee hits a crossbody off the top rope, but then O'Reilly leaps on Lee's leg from the top rope and immediately puts him into a submission. Springboard moonsault by Dijakovic breaks it up. Strong hits a Strong Slam from the top rope on Lee. Cole hits a Panama Sunrise on KO into the steel between the two rings. Ciampa and Cole are up on the turnbuckles with two tables behind them. Cole climbs up to the top of the cage, while Strong and Fish work on Lee in another corner. Dijakovic sends Strong through a table. Owens then hits O'Reilly with a frog splash through a table. Lee then powerbombs Fish through a table. Back to Cole and Ciampa on top of the cage. Ciampa picks Cole up on his back and hits a Death Valley Driver through two tables. Holy crap did those explode. Ciampa gets the victory as all 8 men are shown down and out. They show Britt Baker showing concern, which is a big shocker. I have to say, it kind of amazes me that they allow that spot to happen, even with both guys being as safe of workers as there probably are. Well the previous WarGames matches were both good, but never hit great. Both WarGames matches tonight hit greatness and honestly, I'm not sure which one I liked better. Both felt different, which is a huge compliment to all of the performers. The women's match probably had more of emotion thanks to the Nox/Kai segment. This match had the wow moment to end it and one that will most likely stick with everyone who watched it. It's a tough call, but I think I'll give the women's match the slight nod.
Match Rating: ****1/4
The show was called WarGames and WarGames was exactly what we got. Both matches were fantastic and left us fans a lot to talk about. The other two matches on the show were high impact as well and would be show stealers had they been TV matches or on regular WWE pay-per-views. TakeOvers always deliver and while this one isn't in the top tier, it was another absolute classic. Let's see if they can inject some life into the Survivor Series tomorrow night.
Overall Rating: 94%
No comments:
Post a Comment