NXT World Champion: Drew McIntyre
NXT World Tag Team Champions: SAnitY
NXT Woman's Champion: Vacant
United Kingdom Champion: Pete Dunne
NXT TakeOver: WARGAMES
November 18th, 2017
Houston, Texas
Kassius OhNo vs. Lars Sullivan
Good new hybrid big man vs. big man match, both hit hard and go to the air to knock one another off their feet. In one of the rare deal, new fat ohno is the smaller man. This is basically a long Lars showcase, pretty much just trying to get him to that next level. Ohno is smart enough to get the most out of him. They do the deal with Ohno elbow's and striking not working, it takes about 12 elbows and the rolling boot to finally knock Lars off his feet. But once he does, he keeps daring Ohno to keep kicking him in the face. He then kicks out of the back senton at 1. He counters the rolling elbow into Freak Accident for the win. **1/4
Tyler Bate, Trent7, Mark Andrews, and Wolfgang are all in the front row.
Black/Dream video package airs.
Aleister Black vs. The Velveteen Dream
Dream has Rick Rude inspired airbrushed pants on, with both his and Blacks face on it. God opening with Black using his 10 years of experience to over Dreams 3 years. He controls the pace and gets the better on the mat, constantly going to the arm. Theirs an awesome spot with Black faking out Dream with the cape'rana into the sit-down, but they do it in a way that Dream knew a dive was coming so he slides into the ring, and Black knew he knew about to fake so when he does the sitdown pose he looks directly into Dreams eyes. BUT DREAM COMES BACK WITH THE RUDE TRUST! But Black refuses to look at him. So Dream does the sitdown taunt to get Black's attention..............BUT BLACK DOES THE DREAM DROP TO HE KNEES TAUNT WHICH STARTED THE FEUD
Dream manages to get control of the match when he drops Black's throat over the top rope, he then follows up with a fake dive of his own, but it's not as flashy and it comes off hilarious but in a showman kind of way. Dream keeps using Black and Rude moves during control, e.g. his does the rude awaking and even his attempt at a black mass superkick. Dream again ties him up in the ropes, but instead of doing anything he just yells at him to say his name. Black refuses and knees him in the jaw, which sparks the comeback. They trade big strikes, which shockingly Dream wins and hits the DVD bomb for two. He goes for it off the top, but Black kicks his knees out from under him and hits a sick looking running knee for two, BUT DREAM IS UP FIRST AND HITS AN INSANE LOOKING NEW VERSION OF A DDT! HOLY SHIT! But Black kicks out. The dream goes for the rainmaker, but Black gets the foot up and kicks Dream into the ropes, and now Dream is tied up in the ropes. He gets 1 kick off before the ref pulls him back, and that separation allows Dream to hit a desperation superkick. Both men are slow to get up, Dream goes to yell at him again, but Black hits the Black Mass out of nowhere. Not the amazing match, I held it as when it first aired, but still a damn good match and a breakout match for Dream. And to Black to some degree, even though he was a made man before this. ***1/4
After the Match; Black grabs a mic and sits next to dream, he says "ENJOY, INFAMY, VELVETEEN DREAM" before leaving.
That loser Finn Balor, Funaki are next to the GOAT Asuka in the front row.
NXT Woman's Championship: Nikki Cross vs. Kairi Sane vs. Peyton Royce vs. Ember Moon
I will never understand why they didn't keep Asuka in NXT till here and book Ember/Asuka III here with Moon putting her Career on the line in her hometown. But I guess, the streak was more important. This is fairly good, constant action with all for being involved with something at all times, Ember/Kairi ruled. I'll tell you what the woman of NXT have been doing a really good job of multi-person matches, and switching it up, and not doing the lazy tradition WWE style. Cross gets taken out pretty early with a powerbomb to the floor, so we get a good Ember/Sane/Peyton run until Cross crossbodies them to get back into it. She cleans house and hits Sane with the swinging neckbreaker but Peyton breaks it up, she then hits another on Moon from the top, but Moon rolls to the floor which allows Peyton to sneak in the back and hit the fisherman but Sane breaks it up. Sane Alabama slams Peyton onto Cross and hits the IN-SANE elbow but Ember breaks it up. Moon goes for the Eclipse but Peyton stops it and goes to fight Cross. BUT OUT OF NOWHERE EMBER HITS A DOUBLE ECLIPSE TO BOTH CROSS AND PEYTON AND PINS CROSS FOR THE WIN. **1/2
After the match; Regal goes to present Ember with the title. BUT DA GOAT ASUKA COMES IN AND PRESENTS HER WITH THE TITLE INSTEAD!
Kevin Owens is in the crowd wearing a UE t-shirt, Joe is in the crowd too.
NXT World Championship: Andrade 'Cien' Almas (w/Zelina Vega) vs. Drew McIntyre
Almas has finally ditched the shitty hat, and vest now he's just got a weird looking robe. Don't worry EL IDOLO FINAL FORM COMING SOON
Drew doesn't even get the special championship entrance smh, what a paper champion. I forgot this is the match when Vega goes the ride or die latina trash talk while Drew was on his knees, that size difference
Anyway, Almas pie faces him before the bell playing the mind games early. Almas goes to the side-headlock early trying to wear Drew down, who fights back with power. Vega tries to interfere early with a 'rana, the same rana that KO'ed Roddy but Drew catches it and puts her down as he sees Almas setting up for the suicide dive, he blocks it with a forearm and continues to maintain control until Almas sends him shoulder-first into the ring post. Decent arm works by Almas, but he never really sticks with it. Drew has a nice comeback, he hits the Celtic Cross aka the air raid crash for two. He sets up for the Claymore kick, but Almas counters it with his awesome running spinning back fist followed by an inverted DDT for two. Almas attempts an inverted Frankenstiener but Drew blocks it and hits the reverse Alabama slam for two. Almas really begins to turn it up now, he starts hitting these awesome high impact combo moves for real falls, basically just pulling everything out of the bag in the biggest match of his life but Drew keeps kicking out. Drew comes back with a nice sitdown powerbomb for two and hits the future shock DDT for another two. He goes for the air raid crash off the top but Almas counters dropping Drew face first into the top turnbuckle, he follows up with the running double knees to the back of the head for two. Almas IS NOW PISSED And grabs the belt, that allows Vega to slide in and hit the head spike rana, Almas then slides back in and hits the Hammerlock DDT but Drew kicks out again. Almas is shocked, and that allows Drew to recover and hit a sick CLAYMORE KICK. But Vega puts Almas' boot on the bottom rope for two. The crowd has now done a complete 180 and 80% of the people are now cheering Almas
Drew goes for it again, but Almas ducks and Drew crotches himself onto the top rope. ALMAS HITS A SPIKE DDT OFF THE TOP AND COVERS FOR THE WIN. NEW FUCKING CHAMP! EL IDOLO! Almas had one of the best performances i've seen this entire review. ***1/4
DUSTIN RHODES & ARM ANDERSON ARE IN THE CROWD!
WarGames Match: SAnitY vs. The Undisputed Era vs. Roderick Strong & The Authors of Pain
This isn't the old wargames cage, as this one has the top open cause you know we have to get the token dive off the top spot. EY/Cole/Roddy start the match. Solid opening 5, lots of brawling and cage teases, all 3 men get a stretch on offense. UE somehow win the coin toss, or rock, paper, scissors. IDK how they determined the order
UE beat up Roddy and EY for 3 minutes until AoP gets released from the shark cage next
Tripsgod gonna get all the use out of these shark cages. AWESOME AoP brutality for 3 minutes, they throw everyone around with no remorse and it ruled. SAnitY are out last and now the match officially begins.
WOLFE BEING THE SMARTEST MAN IN THE MATCH PULLS OUT A POLICE BATTON FRM HIS JACKET AND BEGINS BEATING AoP WITH IT! Dain then brings in weapons and we get a bunch of hardcore weapon shots. Dain has his best performance here as the wrecking ball of the match. Tons of moves where he hurts two people at one, e.g. hitting a running dropkick/senton to AoP. Hitting Fish/Kyle with a sitdown Michinoku driver. And hitting Cole/Roddy with a Samoan drop/fallaway slam. He also takes everyone out with a crossbody off the top. Everyone begins hitting big moves, an Awesome spot with AoP hitting the supercollider but they sandwich the double powerbombs into Dain who was standing in the middle of the two rings. Roddy recovers and hits a 12 move combo taking everyone out, he hits the angle slam on Dain, but Cole breaks it up with a superkick. Minutes later we get a double tower of doom spot with everyone taking a bump but Adam Cole. AoP recovers first and sets up the tables that Dain brought into the ring. But Wolfe cuts him off and hits a super german off the top crashing through both tables, Wolfe ends up cutting himself and it's nasty. While that was going on Cole manages to climb to the top, Dain recovers and kills everyone again BEFORE HITTING A FUCKING COAST TO COAST TO KYLE! Roddy awakes and heads up top, they do the super, SUPERPLEX OFF THE TOP ONTO EVERYONE with Roddy falling on top but Cole kicks out. The match ends when AoP takes Dain out with the last chapter in the middle part onto the steel. Kyle and Fish then hit Akam with Total Elimination, EY and Wolfe hit the double team neckbreaker, but Roddy takes Wolfe, Ey takes out Roddy. But Cole hits EY with a kendo stick and hits a shining wizard into a chair back into EY's face for the win. Not a bad match, but it really didn't need 33/34 minutes for a spot-fest. **3/4