December 3, 2020 – Orlando, Florida
The show starts with a nice tribute to the recently departed Pat Patterson.
Damian Priest & Leon Ruff def. Santos Escobar & Raul Mendoza
Per Curt Stallion’s issue with Legado del Fantasma on 205 Live, this was supposed to be him and Ruff against I assume Mendoza & Joaquine Wilde. But Stallion apparently hasn’t recovered from a relatively tame beat down the previous Friday on 205 Live, so Priest is stepping in to make sure Ruff makes it to Takeover. He also beat up Wilde backstage, so it’s Escobar & Mendoza tonight. But seriously, give this a second thought and it makes Stallion look very weak. Johnny Gargano sat in on commentary here. Austin Theory wearing the Scream mask distracted Priest during this match. This was a cute little bout, with Ruff playing the plucky underdog very well. He blind tagged in and hit Mendoza with a frog splash for the win at 8:50 (shown) after Priest had hit the Reckoning. Two Screamers stand behind Gargano in the crowd. If one of them is someone other than Indi Hartwell, I’ll be pleasantly surprised. **¾
Rhea Ripley and Ember Moon, who are now on Shotzi Blackheart’s WarJanes team, give her a tank engine for her rebuilt toy that they apparently grabbed from the Pulp Fiction set. Then, the Undisputed Era roll around town in suits and reflect on their history. They’ve pulled back on the Kings of NXT name and are now calling them Team McAfee. That’s… that’s so much more lame.
Cameron Grimes def. August Grey
Just a squash from Grimes, but Grey got a couple impressive moves in. Grimes hit the Cave In at 2:22. Grimes beats up Grey with a strap after the match. Dexter Lumis sneaks in and does the same to Grimes. *½
Jake Atlas def. Tony Nese
Nese, like Grey before him, gets no entrance music. That’s a rough spot on the card to be in. He lasted longer than Grey and was constantly referred to as a former Cruiserweight Champion, but the match was also interrupted by Team McAfee showing up at the building in a split screen. Anyway, this was fine, and Atlas hit the Rainbow DDT for the win at 5:25. After the match, Atlas says he still has his eye on Escobar’s title. **
Team McAfee comes out to praise Pat Patterson and then rip on everyone else. I like that he calls out the weird production of the UE segment, calling out how close they had the UE sitting near the kitchen at a restaurant, presumably to hide that nobody else was in said restaurant. McAfee sort of admits he was under the mask last week, which is less cool than if it had been Finn Balor getting revenge on Kyle O’Reilly for injuring him.
Boa and Xia Li are performing austerities for the old man who screams at them and the mysterious cloaked woman. They are rewarded for their self-waterboarding with a kendo stick attack.
Zack Gibson & James Drake nc. Marcel Barthel & Fabian Aichner
This was supposed to be the Grizzled Young Veterans vs. Ever-Rise, but Imperium took out the Canadians. They have a solid enough match with both teams getting their stuff in, but there’s no finish because Ever-Rise attacks everyone at 10:52 (shown). Ever-Rise escapes in their car after the fact. **½
Thatch as Thatch Can sees Timothy Thatcher call out the dumb distraction finishes in NXT in light of the one he suffered last week. Tommaso Ciampa shows up and they fight. Thatcher’s student attacks Ciampa, leading to Thatcher choking Ciampa out. Damn, that made Thatcher look great. Thatcher reveals that they’ll fight at Takeover, and that he’s proud of his student (Russ Taylor).
Shotzi Blackheart def. Raquel Gonzalez {Ladder Match}
Winner gets the advantage for her team in WarJanes. This wasn’t as insane as last week’s ladder match, but it was interesting and memorable in its own right. These two aren’t the most polished in the ring, but this environment allowed them to get creative, work well off of each other, and make me think that they’ll have something crazy in store for Takeover. Everyone from the WarJanes match interfered, including Io Shirai (who we understand will be on Blackheart’s team). Blackheart gets the briefcase at 12:13 (shown), making me wonder how they’ll structure the match in an interesting way with the babyfaces having the advantage. ***¼