NXT Takeover: War Games 4

December 6, 2020 – Orlando, Florida

Santos Escobar, Joaquin Wilde & Raul Mendoza def. Curt Stallion, Ashante Adonis & August Grey
They posted this one on YouTube three days after the show. Not sure why they opted to do that and not put it on the useless Kickoff Show. I suppose it could be because they’ve been reluctant to merge NXT and 205 Live in any kind of meaningful way, and this match leans more in the 205 direction. Stallion still hasn’t debuted on NXT TV for crying out loud, though Escobar owes him a title shot thanks to a match Stallion won on the 205th episode of 205 Live. There wasn’t a lot to this, but Stallion got to shine and make faces at Escobar, and the other two babyfaces got to get a few flips in as well. Escobar hit Grey with his gutbuster for the win at 7:48. They should probably just show this on 205 Live in full this Friday. **½

Candice LeRae, Raquel Gonzalez, Dakota Kai & Toni Storm def. Shotzi Blackheart, Io Shirai, Rhea Ripley & Ember Moon {War Games}
The cool thing about the double cage in this environment is that it makes it hard to see the few fans in the arena, so it’s easier to believe that the sweetened sound being played is real. This was terrific. It rarely felt like a moment was wasted and I got the sense that this match was meticulously planned out. Gonzalez gave a star-making performance, there was some catharsis for Blackheart against LeRae, and everyone got to shine. Well, Storm didn’t have much to do, but she got a couple of moments in the spotlight. Compared to the men’s match later, this was efficient and effective. I love the way they were able to tell multiple, compelling stories at once. Gonzalez powerbombed Shirai through a ladder for the win at 35:21. ****¼ 

Finn Balor promises to have all eyes on him and the title this Wednesday. 

Tommaso Ciampa def. Timothy Thatcher
This was technically good and entertainingly stiff, but it took quite a while to get me emotionally invested. The first half of the match had less of the usual Thatcher mat work than I expected, and was filled mostly with generic stuff that didn’t mean much to the match. Once Thatcher’s ear started bleeding and once he started targeting the throat (which he’d briefly hurt early in the match) I started to come around. Ciampa won rather suddenly with Willow’s Bell at 16:46. ***¼

Dexter Lumis def. Cameron Grimes {Strap Match}
As much as I enjoyed watching Grimes gleefully beat up Lumis for so much of this match, it became clear after a few minutes that only Lumis could win this match. That sucks both because I don’t need a Lumis push and because it removed the drama from the match. Also Grimes using his own strap instead of the official one didn’t really go anywhere. Grimes thankfully has enough charisma to make up for Lumis’s lack of any, and this was a one-man-show as a result. Lumis tripped Grimes with the strap and put on the Silence for the win at 12:55. This was solid, but not really Takeover worthy. ***

Karrion Kross’s cryptic video plays, and the commentators act as though they didn’t watch any of his run this year.

Johnny Gargano def. Leon Ruff and Damian Priest {NXT North American Championship Triple Threat Match}
I really like the old school mic they use to announce the competitors in this title match. This was so much fun. It did a great job channeling everyone’s moods built up in the weeks before this match, it let Ruff look like he could hang without being ridiculous, it made Gargano look like a conniving, clever champ, and it made Priest look like a dominant maniac. All of the work was creative and I even liked the way Gargano’s small army of Ghosts Face (pluralized in the style of attorneys general) was used. Gargano hit Ruff with the Final Beat for the win at 17:24. Austin Theory, to the surprise of no one, is revealed as one of the Ghosts Face after the match. I hope that doesn’t mean that none of the others will be unmasked. ****¼

Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly, Roderick Strong & Bobby Fish def. Pete Dunne, Oney Lorcan, Danny Burch & Pat McAfee {War Games}
There was a lot of hard work and planning that went into this match, and for the most part it showed in spades. But these matches do NOT need to go for twenty minutes AFTER the requisite 23-minute staggered entrance portion. There were multiple places where the match could have ended, none more glaring than when McAfee kicked out of the Panama Sunrise. I’m not sure how O’Reilly pinning Lorcan (with a chair-assisted diving kneedrop at 45:01) was more satisfying than pinning McAfee would have been. I liked the vast majority of the match, I’m just tired of seeing War Games matches in which both teams recuperate at the same time and then brawl multiple times in the same bout. Cut the cheesy stuff and this would have been an all-timer. Instead, it was on the level of the ‘17 or ‘18 NXT iterations. ***¾