Results via Matt Boone – Rajah.com
December 6, 2020
Orlando, FL – Capitol Wrestling Center
Commentary: Vic Joseph, Wade Barrett, Beth Phoenix
Quick Match Results
- WarGames Match: Team Candice (Candice LeRae, Dakota Kai, Raquel GonzΓ‘lez & Toni Storm) defeated Team Shotzi (Shotzi Blackheart, Ember Moon, Rhea Ripley & Io Shirai) via powerbomb by Gonzalez on Shirai through a ladder
- Tommaso Ciampa defeated Timothy Thatcher via Willow’s Bell
- Strap Match: Dexter Lumis defeated Cameron Grimes via The Silence
- NXT North American Championship Triple Threat Match: Johnny Gargano defeated Leon Ruff (c) and Damian Priest to become the NEW champion via One Final Beat on Ruff after Austin Theory attacked Priest
- WarGames Match: The Undisputed Era (Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly, Roderick Strong & Bobby Fish) defeated Pat McAfee, Pete Dunne, Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan via top rope knee by O’Reilly on Lorcan
WarGames Match
Team Shotzi (Shotzi Blackheart, Ember Moon, Rhea Ripley & Io Shirai) vs. Team Candice (Candice LeRae, Dakota Kai, Raquel GonzΓ‘lez & Toni Storm)
The team of Candice LeRae makes their way out with each coming out individually. Dakota Kai appears to be kicking things off for her team, as the other members — Candice LeRae, Raquel Gonzalez and Toni Storm — are locked inside the shark cage.
Now Ember Moon is introduced and one-by-one the other members of Team Shotzi Blackheart — Rhea Ripley, Io Shirai and Blackheart herself are introduced. Blackheart comes out with a brand new toy — a bad-ass tank, just like the logo for the WarGames. The announce team notes that the tank has been “upgraded.”
The rest of Team Blackheart hop on the tank and they make their way down to the ring for tonight’s opening contest. The tank actually shoots something and Dakota Kai is knocked back by the force, although nothing actually hit her.
It appears that Blackheart wanted to start things off for the team, but Ember’s Law is applied and she decides she’s gonna start things off for the team. Moon makes her way inside the cage and the door is locked behind her. The other three members of Team Shotzi are locked inside the shark tank. The bell sounds and it’s now officially time for WarGames.
Moon and Kai kick things off as soon as the bell sounds and Kai takes Moon down but Moon immediately turns the tables in her favor. Barrett brings up the bad history between these two as the brawl between them intensifies. After a couple of minutes of back-and-forth action, we see Moon start to pull ahead from an offensive standpoint. She dives through the ropes splashing onto Kai as she was wedged between the ropes and the cage.
Ember Moon continues to remain one step ahead of Kai, avoiding the Dakota Kick and decking Kai again. Finally, as the two switch from ring one to ring two, Kai starts blasting Moon with repeated kicks. Kai hits the Kai-ro-practor with great force. Ten seconds are counted down and now it’s time for the first two-on-one advantage, as the shark tank is opened and the team captain herself Shotzi Blackheart is let loose.
Blackheart runs down to the ring and immediately goes under the ring. She pulls out a crowbar and some other foreign objects. She now enters the ring and goes to work on Dakota Kai as Ember Moon takes the opportunity to recover. As Kai finally starts fighting back, Moon, who has recovered, joins the fun, although Kai turns and slams Moon face-first into the cage. Shotzi Blackheart hits a step-up inziguri to slow down Kai’s momentum. She drags Kai’s face across the fencing now, grinding it back-and-forth against the metal from the cage.
Moon hoists Kai up on her shoulders and Blackheart goes to the top-rope. She hits a nice missile dropkick, blasting Kai off of Moon’s shoulders. The clock ticks down and now the shark tank opens for Team Candice. Out comes Raquel Gonzalez. As soon as she runs up to the cage door, however, Blackheart and Moon double-team her. Gonzalez ends up Hulk’ing up and shucking both ladies off, beginning a prolonged run of dominance for she and Kai, as the two take it to Shotzi and Moon. Gonzalez hits a crazy power-bomb on Shotzi onto the cage wall.
Kai hits a crazy spot flying from one ring to the other and then the clock runs down. The shark tank is opened for Team Shotzi and out comes Rhea Ripley. Ripley makes her way to the cage and once she enters, she walks up to Gonzalez and the two go nose-to-nose as the crowd reacts. The others in the ring join the mix and all of them start brawling with Ripley getting a lot of the shine, manhandling any-and-everyone she gets her hands on thus far. Shotzi Blackheart hits a nice high spot after a big power-display by Ripley. Ripley goes over to the tool box that Blackheart brought into the ring with the crowbar earlier.
Ripley takes a hammer or something out of the tool box and starts bashing some bodies with it. Now Ripley locks the arms of Kai and headbutts the crap out of her before sending her crashing into the cage. Now Ripley and Gonzalez see each other from opposing rings. They each exit their respective ring and while on the apron between both rings start trading shots. Finally one dives into the other and they hit the mat and roll around like Attitude Era cat-fights that Jerry Lawler would screech to like a Dustin Diamond fan-boy. The clock counts down and now the shark tank opens.
Toni Storm is let loose and now she makes her way to the ring, reaching under to grab some foreign objects of her own, including a kendo stick, that she introduces to the match inside the ring. She also runs over and tears one of the turnbuckle pads off one of the corners. And another now. Ripley is whipped spine-first into one of the exposed turnbuckles. This one is getting violent, folks! It’s definitely WarGames inside the Capitol Wrestling Center here in Orlando, FL. this evening. All six women currently in the ring all climb up the ropes. We actually hear one of them do the “3.2.1.” countdown before they finally do a big splash that gets the crowd on their feet.
The clock counts down and the shark tank is opened. “The Genius of the Sky” Io Shirai is let loose and she sprints to the ringside area. She reaches under the ring and pulls out a ladder. She brings the ladder inside the WarGames cage. She goes to grab another one but Gonzalez shuts the door while Shirai is still outside of it. As Shirai tries to fight to get in the door, Gonzalez kicks the door hard and Shirai goes flying back-first into the barricade. Finally, Shirai gets her second ladder and brings it in the cage but again, she is kept from entering with the ladder, instead being knocked down while the door is then shut by Gonzalez again. The announcers bring up the fact that Team Shotzi has yet to have any advantage this time around because Shirai has been kept from entering the match.
Just as it seems she was going to chair swing her way in through the cage door, Gonzalez again stops Shirai from entering the cage door. Now Toni Storm takes her belt off and they try to use it to strap the cage door shut. Shirai tries climbing up the cage but is knocked down and she falls hard down to the mat below. The three minute period is now up and any chance Team Shotzi had at an advantage in this period is now gone. The clock counts down and out comes Team Candice leader, as Candice LeRae runs down to the ringside area. She approaches Shirai, who thinks she now has a way in until Indi Hartwell, in a neck brace, attacks Shirai from behind. This allows Candice to enter the WarGames, but still keeps Shirai out. Now Indi Hartwell from outside the cage helps LeRae, who is inside the cage, lock the door.
Hartwell stands around at ringside watching as Shirai is laid out. Apparently she swallowed the key and let Shirai know it, taunting her and telling her to come get it if she wants it. Meanwhile in the WarGames match itself, Team Candice are all equipped with kendo sticks and other weaponary and they are beating the piss out of Shotzi Blackheart, Ember Moon and Dakota Kai while Io Shirai is still stuck outside the cage. Finally, Candice lays down and covers Blackheart. The ref won’t count, claiming that he needs Shirai in the ring before “The Match Beyond” can officially begin. Finally, on that note, the camera shows that Shirai is on top of the WarGames cage with a trash can. She puts the trash can over her own head, blinding herself, and then diving onto all of the women in the ring. That was absolutely insane. The fans agree as they break out into a “This Is Awesome” chant.
With Shirai now officially in the ring, The Match Beyond can begin and WarGames is underway, as it is down to pinfall, submission or surrender to a finish. Shirai helps Team Shotzi start to change the complection of this matchup, turning the offensive momentum in their team’s favor. A trash can is placed over Shirai and Kai goes to the top-rope and jumps onto the trash can, smashing it onto Shirai badly, so much so that she is basically stuck in there now. She goes for the cover but somehow she hangs on. We see the original two, Kai and Moon slugging it out with Kai getting the better of the exchange and eventually beating Moon down with a steel chair. Moon fights back and she unfolds a chair. She bashes Kai’s face into the seat of the unfolded chair repeatedly. With Kai on two unfolded chairs, Moon goes to the top-rope and hits the Eclipse. She goes to finish her off after that, but Toni Storm breaks up the pin.
Storm now powerbombs Moon with a Storm Zero onto the same unfolded set-up chairs. Shirai breaks up the subsequent pin attempt just in time. Shirai and Ripley are standing tall now and that is bad news for Toni Storm. Shirai with a nice dropkick and Ripley follows up with a pin, however Storm is able to kick out at two. Ripley and Shirai set up a ladder now. LeRae is laid out on a chair and Blackheart climbs the ladder. She flies off but Candice moves the chair so that Blackheart landed in a way where they were both equally hurt. Ripley blasts Gonzalez. Shirai hits over the moonsault but the follow-up pin is broken up just in time. Gonzalez and Shirai each climb up the top-rope and hang onto the cage wall. Shirai goes for a hurricanrana but Gonzalez holds on and ends up doing a single-arm powerbomb, putting Shirai through the ladder. She covers her and scores the pinfall victory.
Winners: Team Candice
After the match, Indi Hartwell joins the rest of Team Candice and all of the members of the team form a left-to-right line and pose and celebrate their big victory in what was a brutal, albeit very entertaining opening WarGames match-up here at NXT TakeOver: WarGames 2020. The announcers talk us through some of the key highlights from the match now as the celebration continues. After the replays we see Team LeRae still standing tall as Team Shotzi are shown laid out in various spots inside and around the ring. Now we head to a commercial break.
Video: Finn Balor
Finn Balor tells us to enjoy tonight’s WarGames. The carnage, the brutality. He tells us after tonight, the time for team sports is over. This Wednesday, all eyes go back on The Prince.
Tommaso Ciampa vs. Timothy Thatcher
We return live inside the Capitol Wrestling Center where Tommaso Ciampa makes his bad ass ring entrance with his cool skull mask on. He enters the ring for his one-on-one bout with Timothy Thatcher, which is up next.
As Ciampa heads into the squared circle, the announce team talks about the recent injury history that he has dealt with and overcome to be here tonight. From there, his theme cuts off and the hard-thumpin’ entrance tune of his opponent, Timothy Thatcher, begins playing. Our second bout of the evening is about to get underway.
Wade Barrett talks more about some of the injuries Ciampa has dealt with in recent months and years and promises that Thatcher will capitalize on that fact, and has the perfect style to do so. The bell sounds and these two immediately go at it, and the match immediately hits the mat. Thatcher works over the arm of Ciampa. They scramble back to their feet and re-engage again.
After being on the receiving end of a one-sided beatdown in the first few moments of this bout, Ciampa starts fighting back and is now taking it to Thatcher. Thatcher makes it to his feet, however Ciampa throws him out to the floor. The announcers point out some welts already showing on Thatcher. As Ciampa goes out to the floor, Thatcher rolls in. Ciampa tries to roll back in after him, however Thatcher caught him with a big upper-cut on the way in.
Ciampa is slow to move and the announcers put their serious voices on now as the ref takes a closer look at Ciampa. Ciampa is slow to get up but finally does and Thatcher goes right back at him with another big uppercut. He suplexes him down and covers him but Ciampa hangs on, kicking out at two. Thatcher slaps a rear chin-lock / choke and continues working on the neck and shoulder area of Ciampa, with the announcers talking about the neck surgery Ciampa has undergone recently.
Thatcher is very much in a comfortable offensive lead at this point in the contest. He slides Ciampa’s head over the end of the ring apron and rolls out to the floor. He picks Ciampa’s body up and slams it down hard, with his throat slamming right on the edge of the ring apron. Now Thatcher digs the point of his elbow right on the throat of Ciampa. He re-enters the ring and covers Ciampa, but Tommaso hangs in and kicks out at two again. Thatcher continues to dominate until Ciampa finally reaches his turning point in the match, knocking the wind out of the lungs of Thatcher to buy himself some much-needed time.
The two start trading shots on their knees, and as they slowly get back to their feet, they continue exchanging shots. Both guys collide and run into each other, with each apparently having the same idea in mind. Their heads crack together and now both men are down and slow to move again. After a few moments they each return to their feet, however it is Ciampa who appears to be the fresher of the two. He is hitting the ropes back-and-forth over-and-over-and-over again, knocking Thatcher down each time he passes him until finally leaping at him and turning him inside-out with a big clothesline.
Ciampa hoists Thatcher up and places him on the top-rope. He is looking for a superplex. And he gets it, but the back of his own head takes some of the punishment as well, as the announcers point out. Regardless, Ciampa goes for the cover. Thatcher kicks out at two but immediately clutches his ribs as Barrett sells the injuries sustained by Timothy on the superplex, which we see replays of now. Ciampa is looking for the Fairytale Ending, however a double throat-chop from Thatcher stops that from happening. Thatcher locks in a choke, looking for a guillotine or a modified choke of some kind.
He’s tightening up on it now as Ciampa is looking to fade while he squeezes the air out of him. Finally Ciampa in a last-ditch effort shoves himself and Thatcher through the ropes and they both fall and spill out to the floor. Finally, Ciampa shows signs of life and he locks a side choke on Thatcher who fades quickly. Ciampa uses his feet on the ropes as leverage to tighten the choke but eventually Thatcher escapes and suplexes Ciampa to hell and back. Now Thatcher, who has a busted open ear with blood gushing down, is back to methodically taking it to Ciampa. A big miss from Thatcher leads to a back-slide pin attempt from Ciampa, however Thatcher easily kicks out.
Regardless, it gave Ciampa the offensive opening he needed to re-enter the bout and he chops away at Thatcher as he leans against the ropes. Now Ciampa slaps the guillotine on Thatcher and hits the Willows Bell DDT off the ropes. He covers him and gets the three-count for the big win. Another great match.
Winner: Tommaso Ciampa
Strap Match
Dexter Lumis vs. Cameron Grimes
The package airs to tell the interesting and somewhat odd story leading up to tonight’s strap match between these two. After it wraps up, we shoot live inside the CWC again where Dexter Lumis is introduced and makes his way down to the ring.
Out next is his opponent and the man he will be strapped to this evening, Cameron Grimes. Grimes makes his way down to the squared circle now as our third bout of the evening is moments away.
The announcers note Grimes’ look of confidence and we soon find out why, as before the match is even officially started, Grimes jumps off to an early lead as he attacks Lumis before they are strapped together. He beats Lumis down outside the ring for a couple of minutes and now the two enter the ring.
Finally, Lumis turns the tables and gets in some offense of his own. The match is still not underway and the two are still not even strapped together. Finally, Lumis puts the strap on and now that the two are strapped together, the bell sounds and finally, this Strap Match is officially in progress.
Immediately, Lumis goes to work whipping away at Grimes with the strap, where in this match, anything is legal. As the action spills out to the floor, Grimes gets in some offense of his own, going after the eyes of Lumis with the strap. Lumis turns the offensive momentum back into his favor immediately, and now we watch as Grimes tries climbing over the hockey glass board blocking the fans from the ringside area until ultimately Lumis yanks him back down.
Lumis continues his beatdown on Grimes outside the ring as the fans make noise slapping on the cage in front of them in the audience. Lumis whips Grimes into the barricade on one side of the floor outside the ring. Now he does the same thing on the other side, with the barricade shaking like it was going to break, which the announce team brings up. It’s all Lumis thus far as he drags Grimes around the floor outside the ring. Finally, Grimes shoves Lumis into the barricade and then suplexes him into the front row. This buys Grimes some time to recover a bit as a knocked out Lumis is on the other side of the barricade.
Now, like a horror movie, we see the gloved hand of Lumis appear atop the ring barricade. His face follows and over he goes, going after Grimes. Grimes, however, goes back to work on Lumis with big punches to the jaw and big forearms for good measure. He lands a big boot that floors Lumis outside the ring.
As the brawl makes its’ way over to the announce table, right in front of Barrett, Phoenix and co. on commentary, we see Grimes cover Lumis face with a burlapse sack of some kind. Now he whips at the back of Lumis with the leathar strap. Back in the ring, with Lumis’ face still covered by the sack, Grimes continues to blast and whip away at the back of him with the strap. While still blinded by the sack, Lumis fires up and hits a spinebuster without being able to see to turn the offensive tide back in his favor.
The American Psycho is now looking fired up, and is using his environment to his advantage, tieing up Cameron Grimes in the corner of the ring until Grimes yanks the strap that pulls Lumis face-first into the steel structure that is in place to hold the cage for WarGames later tonight (and in the opener earlier this evening). Now Grimes is back in control as he blasts Lumis with a soccer kick on the floor while standing on the ring apron. A whiplack affect from Lumis causes Grimes to somersault and land with a sickening thud on the ground outside the ring.
Back in the ring, Lumis now has some fun whipping away at the back of Grimes as he crawls around and shouts in pain. Lumis whips faster and faster as Grimes rolls and turns to protect himself as best he can. Lumis hits a big clothesline and goes to follow-up with a bulldog, but Grimes holds onto the back of Lumis pants and hitting a release German Suplex, with Lumis head hitting the turnbuckle on the way down. Brutal.
Now Grimes rolls out to the floor and reaches under the ring. He pulls out a steel chair and heads back into the ring. He whacks Lumis across the spine with the chair once. And twice. And three times. We hear some very loud “boos” from the crowd in attendance. Grimes unfolds the chair and takes a seat to grab a quick breather, as well as to taunt Lumis. Lumis finally gets to his feet and catches Grimes coming at him, blasting him with a fall-away slam. The two exchange punches as both men are fired up.
Lumis heads to the top-rope, however Grimes yanks the strap and Lumis is pulled, flipping off the top and crashing hard spine-first onto the mat down below. Grimes with a nice follow-up spot. He looks for the cover after that, however Lumis hangs on and kicks out at two. Lumis ties up Grimes and he yanks, with Grimes’ face bashing off the unfolded chair still sitting in the ring. Lumis locks his arms around him for the Silence finisher. That’s all she wrote, folks. Dexter Lumis picks up the win.
Winner: Dexter Lumis
Segment: Karrion Kross Tease
π»πππ…
π»πππ…#NXTTakeOver pic.twitter.com/Hgx3eNpqIC
β WWE (@WWE) December 7, 2020
We head to ringside where Wade Barrett and Vic Joseph show off the WarGames action figure. As they do that plug, the lights start to flicker and they are cut off by a vulture being shown on the big screen, then Karrion Kross says “tick tock.” The announcers are confused as to what that was but move on to our next match.
NXT North American Championship Triple Threat Match
Leon Ruff (c) vs. Johnny Gargano vs. Damian Priest
The video package for our fourth bout of the evening airs now, as the Triple-Threat match with the NXT North American Championship on-the-line is up next.
After the package wraps up, we see former NXT North American Champion Damian Priest make his way down to the ring for our next match of the show.
His music fades down and now out comes Johnny Takeover himself, the former two-time NXT North American Champion Johnny Gargano.
Finally, with both challengers in the squared circle, the music of the reigning and defending title-holder, the NXT North American Champion himself, Leon Ruff plays, as he makes his way out for what is his NXT TakeOver debut.
The announcers speculate about whether or not the moment will be too big for Ruff this evening. We’re about to find out. The bell sounds and our co-main event of the evening here at NXT TakeOver: WarGames 2020 is underway now that the formal pre-match ring introductions are wrapped up.
And we’re off! Priest throws Ruff out of the way and is blasted by Gargano, knocking him out to the floor. With only two left in the ring, Gargano focuses his attack on Ruff, attempting to secure a quick and sudden victory, however the N.A. Champ isn’t having it. He kicks out and is now using his quickness and agility to climb the ropes and hit a hurricanrana and arm-drag that sends Gargano out to the floor.
Gargano back in the ring, but Ruff puts the boots to him in the corner. Priest just tosses Ruff to the side like he doesn’t matter, and takes over the beating of Gargano in the corner. Ruff goes to work again and again Priest moves him, this time telling him “just get out of my way,” treating him like a mere annoyance and a non-entity. Priest again ignores Ruff and as he goes to walk past him to Gargano, Ruff starts peppering him with kicks.
This pisses off the big fella, who hoists Ruff up with one arm looking for a chokeslam, however Gargano hits Priest in the bread-basket. Now Gargano and Ruff double-team Priest. Gargano gets Priest on the floor and calls for Ruff to hit a dive splash on him, but when he goes to oblige, Gargano jumped in the ring and speared Ruff as he was charging towards him. He tries pinning him off of that spot, but Ruff hangs on. Gargano tells Ruff this joke is over and he waits for him to get up so he can finish him off.
Instead, Priest yanks Gargano out to the floor and goes to work on him. As he does, Ruff runs and dives onto Priest off the entrance stage but Priest catches him. He sets him down and warns him one more time to stay out of his way. Ruff smacks him. Priest hoists Ruff up and hits him with his finisher, putting him through the barricade, which breaks and collapses as Ruff crashes down onto it after a big Razor’s Edge from Priest. We see several replays of this cool spot as several officials check on Ruff while Priest watches on, looking like he feels bad. He says he’s sorry in a way that can be audibly heard. The announcers also point out that he just apologized.
Now it appears to be down to Priest and Gargano as they are seemingly the only two with an active pulse. Gargano hits a tornado DDT on Priest off the entrance ramp. Gargano waves goodbye to Ruff as he appears to be being helped to the back. He says “I told you that you’re a joke!” Now he heads back into the ring and leapfrogs onto Priest, looking for one final b…. but Priest reverses looking for The Reckoning. Instead, Gargano avoids it but walks right into a spinning heel kick from Priest. Priest looks for the Razor’s Edge on Gargano, but Gargano avoids it. He counters with Sliced Bread and covers him, but Priest kicks out after the count of two.
A big spot sees both men down now and the fans break out into a loud “N-X-T!” chant when out of nowhere, Leon Ruff sprints down the entrance ramp, diving over the top-rope and taking out Priest and Gargano. Now he does the same, only this time flying out to the floor after walking the top-rope, splashing onto Priest and Gargano again. Back in the ring, Ruff hits a crazy spinning splash onto Gargano. He covers him but Gargano somehow manages to kick out just before the count of three.
Ruff goes to the top-rope but Gargano cuts him off and brings him down the hard way. He blasts Ruff with a forearm as the announcers talk about Gargano and Priest seemingly shocked that Ruff would even bother attempting to come back to this match. Ruff takes out Gargano out of nowhere again and again covers him only to get a count of two. He goes to the top-rope again and now we hear Priest say, “No more chances, Leon.” Priest avoids Ruff coming off the top and blasts him with a big boot. Now a two-for-one flatline special courtesy of Damian Priest sees Gargano and Ruff both get laid out.
Priest stomps repeatedly on the mat to get the fans behind him. With Ruff in one corner and Gargano in the other, Priest runs back-and-forth, splashing onto both. He scoops up Ruff and throws him onto Gargano, using that broken arrow. He looks for the Razor’s Edge on Gargano, but Gargano escapes and shoves Priest face-first into the steel ring post. Now Gargano hoists Ruff up and lawn-darts him face-first into Priest in the corner. Gargano now ties Priest’s arms up in the second and bottom rope while he is seated on his butt. He goes to the other ring with Priest tied up in the second ring set up for WarGames.
Gargano hoists Ruff up but Ruff slides out the back door and counters with a crucifix bomb for a very, very close near fall. Gargano somehow kicked out at two and a half. The announcers sold that big. Ruff climbs to the top rope but he misses a big frog splash attempt. Gargano hops onto him and locks him in the Gargano Escape. And right in front of Priest, still tied in the ropes, Ruff is close to tapping. Priest manages to get Leon’s hand to avoid letting it tap out and he blasts Gargano. Now with Priest loose he goes to the top-rope and comes off, blasting Gargano, with the impact taking him all the way out to the floor.
With Gargano finally getting up outside the ring, Priest throws Ruff to the ropes and he lands into a super kick from Gargano. Now Priest slams Gargano down but is distracted by a ghost face, Scream-movie looking character. Two more ghost face characters appear and all three attack Priest. Priest ends up fighting off the three guys, but three more appear on the other side of the ring. Priest runs and dives, taking out the additional trio of masked attackers. He re-enters the ring, runs and dives, splashing onto and taking out the ghosts on the other side. He catches Gargano coming at him and chokeslams him from the floor. Ruff hits a splash off the top onto Gargano as a follow-up. He covers him and nearly steals the win, but Priest breaks it up just in time.
We’re down to Priest and Ruff, and Ruff flurries with punches but is taken out by a spinning knee from Priest. Priest looks for Reckoning on Gargano but eats a super kick for his troubles. He eats it well, however, and fires back taking out Gargano. Now with Gargano lifeless in front of him, Priest says that’s it. He picks Gargano up but yet another ghost face, this time with a lead pipe, blasts Priest from behind on the ring apron. While Gargano was watching this play out, Ruff grabs him from behind and rolls him up, but Gargano rolls through and hits him with a super kick. He follows that up with one final beat and covers Ruff. 1-2-3. Gargano recaptures the NXT North American Championship.
Winner and NEW NXT North American Champion: Johnny Gargano
After some replays are shown we see that behind the ghost mask that had the lead pipe that led to the finish was none other than Austin Theory. “It was me all along, Austin!” he says, just like Vince McMahon said when revealed as the man behind the Ministry of Darkness, and also making a play on his first name. Nice. He and Gargano smile and soak in the boos as the announcers react to what they just witnessed.
“IT WAS ME, AUSTIN! IT WAS ME ALL ALONG… AUSTIN!” @austintheory1 is BACK! π― #NXTTakeOver @JohnnyGargano pic.twitter.com/EgROumznXF
β WWE (@WWE) December 7, 2020
NXT New Year’s Evil
May your New Year’s be…. πΈπ±πΌπΏ.
Don’t miss #WWENXT New Year’s Evil on January 6, 2021 at 8/7c on @USA_Network! π π #NXTTakeOver pic.twitter.com/O4g32JByUa
β WWE NXT (@WWENXT) December 7, 2020
A commercial airs to promote NXT New Year’s Evil, which is scheduled to air live on the USA Network on January 6, 2021.
WarGames Match
The Undisputed Era (Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly, Roderick Strong & Bobby Fish) vs. Pat McAfee, Pete Dunne, Danny Burch & Oney Lorcan
After the video package airs to tell the full story leading up to tonight’s four-on-four Men’s WarGames match between Team Undisputed Era (Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly, Roderick Strong and Bobby Fish) and Team McAfee (Pat McAfee, Pete Dunne, Danny Burch and Oney Lorcan), we shoot live inside the CWC again where the ring announcer handles the pre-match ring introductions for tonight’s main event.
From there, we are treated to the ring entrance of our first of two teams competing inside WarGames – The Match Beyond — the team of The Undisputed ERA, who will be competing in their fourth WarGames match this evening. It is decided that Kyle O’Reilly will kick things off for his team.
Now the ring entrances of Team McAfee take place as the fans inside the CWC begin loudly booing. It appears that Pete Dunne will be starting things off for Team McAfee. Beth Phoenix on commentary points out that Dunne is the only one on his team who has experience inside WarGames.
Ladies and gentlemen, with O’Reilly and Dunne each locked inside the cage, our second of two WarGames matches and our main event of the evening is now officially underway. Dunne drags O’Reilly between the two rings early on, but O’Reilly turns the tide and is now working over Dunne, taking it to The Bruiserweight with great emphasis.
Finally, Dunne turns the offensive momentum back in his favor and he blasts O’Reilly with kicks while he is grounded. He slaps him and then looks to break the fingers of O’Reilly as we see Pat McAfee smiling in approval. As Dunne continues to widen the offensive gap in his favor, he drags O’Reilly’s face across the steel cage back-and-forth. O’Reilly finally starts showing signs of life but Dunne ends up hitting a double-stomp on both hands of O’Reilly.
60 seconds remains until we move to the two-on-one advantage in favor of Team McAfee. O’Reilly is looking to put Dunne to sleep, however he doesn’t do so as Dunne lands a big knee to the chest/throat area. Dunne now locks O’Reilly in a cross-armbreaker. The announcers point out that tapping is worthless now as the match doesn’t technically begin until The Match Beyond when all members of both teams are locked inside the double-caged structure.
The countdown clock expires and now the shark tank opens up. Out comes Oney Lorcan to join the WarGames. Now Team McAfee goes to their first two-on-one advantage, with Lorcan and Dunne immediately going to work on a softened up O’Reilly. O’Reilly tries fighting back but to no avail, as the numbers game is too much for him. Lorcan and Dunne tie up O’Reilly in a double-submission. Finally the buzzer sounds and out comes Bobby Fish to even up the numbers game.
Fish is in the ring and is on fire, taking out Dunne and Lorcan. He hits a big spinebuster and has the crowd on their feet now as the Team Undisputed ERA start to enjoy their first offensive lead in the bout in quite a while. Dunne is yanking on the fingers of O’Reilly again. Fish and O’Reilly, however, turn the offensive momentum back in their favor as they double-team Dunne. The Undisputed ERA are in the upper-hand now as the announcers talk about them needing to strategize before the numbers disadvantage comes into play again in a few moments.
The countdown clock expires and out comes Danny Burch from the shark tank. He goes under the ring and pulls out a bag full of weapons. He pulls out of the bag a cricket bat, which he uses to blast any-and-everyone in sight. The fans boo loudly as Team McAfee are back in a clear-cut advantage. Another cricket bat is pulled out and now two bats are being swung around to widen the offensive gap that Team McAfee is enjoying during their 3-on-2 numbers game advantage period. Finally, Roderick Strong is let loose and the numbers game is once again even.
With only one member of each team still in the shark tanks, we’re just a few minutes away from The Match Beyond portion of the Men’s WarGames. Carnage and chaos is still ensuing in different areas of the ring, with the heel foursome starting to take over the offensive control of the contest right before they again go up to their final advantage. As Dunne continues to show his violent side, Wade Barrett questions how money has changed him so much. Finally the countdown clock runs out and the shark tank opens, letting Pat McAfee, the final member of Team McAfee, out to play.
McAfee makes his way down to the ringside area and reaches under the ring, pulling out a table. And another. He starts putting the tables inside the ring. Each table has spray paint on them with The Undisputed Era names/logos on them. The announcers talk about McAfee’s plans to squash and crush The Undisputed Era for good. Finally, all the tables are placed into the ring and McAfee joins inside the ring as well after bringing in one final special table marked specifically for Adam Cole.
Now with their final advantage period, we watch as McAfee and company beat down the various members of The Undisputed Era while Adam Cole is forced to watch on from the shark tank, waiting for the clock to count down so he can even things up and give his team a fair fighting chance. McAfee hits a reverse exclamation point off the top ropes, moonsaulting onto Strong and putting him through a table. McAfee gloats like only he can while we watch some replays of that spot.
With all of the Undisputed Era members down and out, all four members of Team McAfee stand and wait as the countdown clock ends and Adam Cole is let loose from the shark tank. Cole makes his way to the ring where Lorcan, Burch, Dunne and McAfee are all waiting for him. Cole goes under the ring and pulls out a fire extinguisher. He sprays all members of Team McAfee before finally entering the ring. The cage door is locked behind him and The Match Beyond is now official as WarGames is underway between Team McAfee and Team Undisputed Era.
Cole takes out all of the Team McAfee members one-by-one until only Pat McAfee is remaining. Now Cole smiles and begins making his way over to McAfee. Cole counters a big attempt by Dunne, who joins the mix, with a big DDT. McAfee keeps taunting and distracting Cole, which allows other members of his team to stop him from getting to him. With everyone else down we see O’Reilly shouting at McAfee. Daring him to do something. McAfee goes to do just that when Cole nails him from behind, using his own tactic on him. Now all hell breaks loose with all eight men finally on their feet slugging it out inside the Capitol Wrestling Center.
The fans break out into loud “NXT! NXT!” chants as the chaotic scene continues to play out with pairs of two men brawling. A big blockbuster from Lorcan keeps Team McAfee alive and saves them from being finished off. Lorcan continues to be the only member of Team McAfee who is still fighting. He actually goes for a cover but Bobby Fish breaks it up. Cole starts blasting everyone in sight with big kicks until McAfee chop-blocks Cole’s leg from behind. Cole clutches his knee and screams in pain as the fans reign down the ring with boos and sounds of disapproval.
With the six members of Team Era and Team McAfee brawling in one ring, McAfee locks Cole in the figure-four leg lock in the other ring. He flips him off and tightens the squeeze but moments later, Cole rolls him over and now the pressure is on the leg of McAfee, who is screaming out in pain. Pete Dunne eventually makes it over to the other ring to break the figure four leg lock up. Now some of the Undisputed Era painted tables are starting to be brought into play. We see the guys break off into fistacuff exchanges again culminating with all eight man laid out. We see Dunne and Cole back on their feet in one of the rings.
Dunne rolls through on a Cole move attempt. He blasts Cole with a kick to the side of the head once they’re back on their feet. Cole hits a nice reversal and covers Dunne, but Dunne hangs on and kicks out before the count of three. We see members of each team come back to life and several guys start climbing to the top-rope and the cage walls. O’Reilly takes a bad landing. Burch does as well. We see four men still on the ropes trading punches while holding onto the cage wall. A big neckbreaker off the rope from Cole is followed by a superplex that takes out McAfee. All guys are laid out now as the fans echo throughout the CWC with “NXT! NXT!” chants as replays of the aforementioned spots are shown.
“So you wanna be a pro wrestler, huh?” says Beth Phoenix, doing her best impression of a fired up UFC President Dana White in season one of The Ultimate Fighter (a line subsequently repeated by Mike Goldberg anytime a fight got good inside the Octagon for the next 100 years afterwards). Now seven of the eight guys are up and brawling. The camera pans to see Pat McAfee on top of the WarGames cage with a crazy smile on his face. He runs and jumps and splashes onto all seven guys in the ring, taking them all out, including himself. The fans erupt for that spot, as do the commentators. We see some replays of that wild spot, and it deserved it because it was definitely bad ass.
O’Reilly and Dunne, the first two to enter this match, are the first two back to their feet exchanging punches now as the fans stomp and clap along. We’re told by Vic Joseph that we’re 45 minutes into this match. O’Reilly hits a huge windmill shot that decks Dunne. O’Reilly hyperextends the elbow of Dunne to escape a finger-breaking attempt by The Bruiserweight. Dunne again clamps down on the fingers of O’Reilly. This time he snaps them and follows up with the bitter end. He covers him, but O’Reilly somehow manages to kick out. In between the rings, we see O’Reilly hit a hard suplex on Dunne, with the two landing on the steel that connects the two rings. Ouch. He tried a pin afterwards, but somehow that wasn’t enough.
Dunne is left laying and now O’Reilly goes over to the empty ring and unfolds a chair, setting it up in the middle of the ring. He drags Dunne over to it and lays him face first on the seated part of it as he pulls his arms through it. Dunne lays lifeless in this position as O’Reilly goes to the top-rope. McAfee comes over, however, and blasts O’Reilly in the chair with a different steel chair. Now he winds up to baseball swing the chair at Cole, but Cole ducks it and starts firing away at McAfee with punches. Now Cole has the chair but as he lifts it up to swing down on McAfee, McAfee hits a low blow on Cole that forces Cole down to his knees. He drops the chair. McAfee goes for a big punt kick but Cole avoids it and blasts McAfee with one of his own.
Cole now climbs to the top-rope as he stares down at McAfee crawling up to his knees. Fish spears Burch through a table leaned in the corner between the rings. McAfee hits Cole with a super kick. He goes to the top-rope but on his way down, Cole catches McAfee with a super kick. Now Cole goes to the top-rope and he comes flying off, connecting on McAfee with his Panama Sunrise. He immediately covers him but somehow McAfee kicks out at two. The announcers and Cole are all shocked and stunned. We see some replays of this as Cole stands up and circles McAfee thinking of what else to do to finish him off. He pulls his knee pad down and lifts McAfee up. He hits the ropes and runs and blasts Lorcan, who sacrified himself apparently.
Dunne blasts Cole and then unfolds a chair. He drops Cole throat-first over the top of the unfolded chair. O’Reilly walks the top-rope, however, after everyone is cleared out, and comes flying off and makes the cover. 1-2-3. The Undisputed Era pulls it off.
Winners: Team Undisputed Era
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