Match Ratings For NXT Takeover WarGames From Sean Ross Sapp; Podcast Notes, More!

Rating guide

10- Perfect, 9- Excellent, 8- Great, 7- Good, 6- Above Average, 4-5- Average or slightly below, 3 or below: Poor

Pre-Show and Backstage Crappenings

• Iconic duo interview themselves backstage. I really feel like it's time for a heel NXT women's champion.
• There's a lot of putting over the WarGames match. It's effective.
• A lot of empty seats in Houston. 
• Several members of the UK division are in the crowd. 
• Asuka, Finn Balor, Samoa Joe, Kevin Owens, Funaki, Dustin Rhodes, Arn Anderson, Candice LeRae are all there tonight.

Lars Sullivan defeated Kassisus Ohno
5.5/10

• I really wish NXT Takeover was produced a different way than regular WWE programming. The camera work is nauseating. 
• Much like I'm always impressed with the strength of Cesaro, I'm always impressed with the agility of Kassius Ohno. And now the strength of Lars Sullivan as he does a pop-up powerslam.
• Ohno's strikes are so good, crisp and convincing.
• Sullivan hits his finish for the win. A solid match marred by garbage camera work.

Aleister Black defeated Velveteen Dream
8/10

• Aleister Black's theme makes me wanna go bash that fuckin' gingerbread house I made today with a rolling pin. RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE. 
• Big "Velveteen" chants. He has airbrushed tights like Rick Rude. They're fantastic.
• They are switching rings between matches. 
• Sweet armbar roll through to a punch in the face from Dream. Velveteen's facial expressions are next level. 
• This is a sports entertainment match. 
• Unbelievable springboard moonsault is timed perfectly for Black. 
• Velveteen Dream's Cartwheel Valley Driver looks great. His swaying DDT looks even better. 
• The crowd is unglued!! Velveteen gets locked in the ropes. What a brilliant match this has been. 
• Black gets the win after a couple of big strikes and Black Mass.
• Bravo. That was outstanding sports entertainment that turned into outstanding wrestling.

NXT Women's Championship
Ember Moons defeated Nikki Cross, Peyton Royce & Kairi Sane to become NXT Women's Champion. 
6.75/10

• Son of a bitch, they're doing camera zooms when Nikki Cross hits the ropes in her entrance.
• Peyton Royce is a star in the making. She has a great presence in her entrance. Billie Kay leaves her at the ramp to compete herself.
• This is another match getting pillaged by production. There was a zoom on Kairi stomping the mat. It looks like the person producing this doesn't watch the show.
• There's a neat spot where Ember Moon leapfrogs Kairi, leading to Peyton getting speared.
• Really good work from all here. WWE does multiple person matches the right way by-and-large.
• Obligatory Tower of Doom spot. I could do without that. 
• There was a spot when a pin break up happened late and the ref had to delay a count. The crowd didn't like that. 
• Ember hits a great Eclipse on both Peyton and Nikki and pins Nikki. It's amazing how well she pulls this off all the time.
• Don't agree with that. There hasn't been a real NXT heel women's champion in years. Excellent match though and the story made sense.
• Asuka presents Ember with the title in a really cool moment. But it highlighted that Ember couldn't win it until Asuka was gone. Which maybe is what they wanna do. We'll see where it goes.

NXT Championship
Andrade 'Cien' Almas (w/ Zelina) defeated Drew McIntyre (c) to become NXT Champion
7.5/10

• I really feel like if this version of Drew McIntyre was around in 2002-2003, WWE would have picked him in Orton's spot.
• They play their hits and play them well. Deadlift sitout powerbomb, overhead belly to belly suplex.
• Almas throws caution to the wind and moonsaults to the outside of the ring from the top rope. 
• Zelina has added so much to Almas' character and career. He needed it. 
• Really dumb ass double stomp spot where the opponent has to hold the top rope. Fortunately there's so much good about this match, that won't stick out. 
• The process of getting from the Future Shock DDT to the La Sombra is amazing. Two guys putting in great work. 
• Drew injures himself on the rope and Almas wins the title with a sick looking DDT!
• My god! Almas was the right call. A career resurgence. 

WarGames
Undisputed Era defeated Sanity and Roderick Strong & Authors of Pain
7.5/10

• Putting Sanity in the cages first was the right move. Having Undisputed Era's entrance immediately after was a righter move.
• Roderick Strong dressing like AOP, lol.
• Not a lot happens in the first five minutes. Undisputed Era hit the ring. 
• Light botch as Authors of Pain were brought in. 
• Oh my Jesus. The Authors of pain heave everyone into the other ring. Yeah, this is now The Authors of Pain's signature match. Perfect for it. 
• Sanity comes in and Wolfe smuggles in a nightstick. Killian Dane brings in a bunch of weapons to a huge pop. An even bigger pop when Dane gets tables. 
• Killian Dane locks everyone in and EATS THE KEY. This match is used to really highlight him. 
• Bobby Fish has some stiff leg kicks. He had an even stiffer Chasing The Dragon (HEH), because they really f'd up Roderick Strong on it. 
• Kyle O'Reilly gets creative with a chain and applies an armbar, but gets flying elbow dropped. This is a good time. 
• This is move after move and it works really well. There are nine people in a ring, that's what it should be. A Super Collider is followed by Young with a Death Valley Driver on a member of AOP!
• Whoever agented this should have told the women to sit out the Tower of Doom this go around if they were gonna do two at once in the main event.
• There sure as hell wasn't a Super German Suplex through the table in the Women's match, or a super neckbreaker, but there was in this.
• Killian Dane just went coast to coast. Wow.
• Roderick Strong CAGE SUPERPLEXES ADAM COLE onto a pile. It was one of the damndest things I've ever seen. 
• It looks like Wolfe is f'd up.
• Cole gets the win. Really fun time.