How NXT Takeover: WarGames II Should Be Booked

 

Hey everyone! Ever since Night Of Champions 2015, through multiple accounts, every month before major WWE pay-per-views, I’ve come on here and booked the cards to make them as exciting, intriguing, and best possible scenarios for the future. I do both NXT and main-roster pay-per-views, as well as the occasional big RAW or Smackdown weekly show. Without further ado, here is how NXT Takeover: WarGames II should be booked!

 

MY POSTS ON PREVIOUS TAKEOVER WARGAMES

·         2017: https://old.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/7dv1uu/how_nxt_takeover_wargames_should_be_booked/

KICKOFF-SHOW:

 

·         The kickoff shows for Takeovers are never anything special, but as usual we’ve got Charly Caruso, Primetime Samuel Robby and the ever-charismatic Pat McAfee on the panel. They give their predictions and hype up the matches, and we’re shown dozens of video packages. We get backstage interviews with both Tommaso Ciampa and Velveteen Dream. The panelists blabber on and after giving their predictions for the WarGames main event, we get to the main show.

 

MAIN-SHOW:

 

·         For a second year in a row, it’s all about the (WAR)game(s) and how you play it. (Get well soon Papa Trips btw, pray for the tit). I’ve been a huge fan of how much has come full circle for this card since last year’s event. At Takeover Wargames 2017, Velveteen Dream had his coming out party and his greatness was exposed to the world in that match with Aleister Black. 1 year later, he’s fighting for the top prize in the company. Last year, Kairi Sane was in a 4-way match and failed to capture the title, this year she’s in a one on one affair against her fellow MYC finalist. Last year Undisputed Era made the WarGames match, and one year later they’re in the same spot again, even more established. Takeovers are genuinely only going to get better and better, and this is gonna surely follow that trend. As of me writing this, there has not been a 5th match announced for the show as the norm is usually a 5-match card, but I’m gonna work with what I have now. Let’s go.

 

1ST MATCH: Shayna Baszler (c) vs. Kairi Sane (2 Out Of 3 Falls match for the NXT Women’s Championship)

 

·         It’s been a long while since a Women’s match kicked off a Takeover. I’m honestly not sure if one EVER has, and I’m too lazy to look it up, but it’s about time and no other match on this card is as fit to set the tone for the show as this.. Shayna is out first followed by Kairi, we get formal ring introductions and the match goes 20 minutes. This is gonna be a Knocker of Slobbers. I really hope this is the FINAL match between these two, as insanely good as they are together. They’ve wrestled a LOT. The first fall is awarded to Kairi Sane after Shayna tries to play dirty by sending in Marina Shafir and Jessamyn Duke from the crowd again, but Kairi outsmarts them and Sane rolls up Shayna for the pin after she’s distracted by her downed friends. The second fall is decided immediately afterward when Shayna relentlessly beats down Kairi with a Steel Chair, on the outside, and the ref is distracted on the outside trying to manage Shafir and Duke and sending them to the back. It’s not 1-1 and the third fall is in progress. This is longest one of the 3, and the two ladies pull off a great clash of styles as they always do. *In a huge spot of the match, Shayna does a repeat of the amazing spot from Evolution where she dangles Kairi over the apron in an armbar, but this time Sane reverses the weight and DELIVERS A HUGE SALIDA DEL SOL TO THE MAT INSIDE THE RING, SENDING BOTH WOMEN CRASHING TO THE MAT, and Shayna just kicks out at 2.9. In the end, Shayna locks in the idkhowtospellit Clutch and Kairi passes out. Spoiler alert, including this match I wouldn’t have any of the titles being defended on this show change hands, just because of the circumstances of the wrestlers in them and looking long term into the future, I’m really not sure when Shayna will be called up and I wouldn’t have had Shayna win the title back at Evolution anyways so soon after Sane got it. It’s kind of a sticky situation with these two, and I think the seeds have been planted for more MMA 4HW cameos on the main roster, especially with Charlotte replacing Becky this Sunday against Ronda. It’s gonna be a week by week thing, as I see it.

·          

WINNER by Submission and STILL NXT Women’s Champion: Shayna Baszler

 

·         Match Details:

Fall	Winner	Winning Method
1	Kairi Sane	Won via Rollup after a failed interference by Marina Shafir and Jessamyn Duke
2	Shayna Baszler	Won by Pinfall after multiple chair-shots to Kairi in a fit of rage while ref is distracted
3	Shayna Baszler	Won by Submission after Sane passed out in the Kirifuda Clutch

 

·         We get an ad for Tapout.

 

2ND MATCH: Aleister Black vs. Johnny Gargano (Singles match)

 

·         Black is out first followed by Johnny Tweener. The match goes 25 minutes. If you’ve got 4 matches on a 2 ½ hour show, you gotta give them some good time. This story has been absolutely fantastic. Johnny is NOT the heel here. He’s just doing what he has to do to get ahead. Black was in the way of him defeating Ciampa for the title, so he had to take him out. It’s simple but genius. There’s surely bound to be some big spots in this match, and if there’s any match on this show to have an announce table spot, it’s this one. You could have Black standing on the barricade and do the Double Knees through the table on Johnny. The match ends in a great spot when Gargano is on the apron after a long battle and tries for the Slingshot Spear, but Black senses it coming and spins around and NAILS GARGANO’S SKULL WITH A EAR-SHATTERING BLACK MASS. Gargano crumples to the mat in a heap and Aleister drags him away from the ropes for the pin. I think that Black could really use this win more than Johnny, even though Johnny has only won on one Takeover show this entire year up to this point against Ciampa in NOLA. Black just returned and has replaced Gargano as the hottest babyface in NXT, and Gargano will automatically rebound back due to his amazing versatility to play any character and the fact that he may very well associate himself with Ciampa again in the near future to form a Heel DIY. Black has won the battle, but the war still rages on.

 

WINNER by PINFALL: Aleister Black

·         We get our next transition now as we cut to the commentators who thank the creators of the official theme songs of the show.

 

3RD MATCH: Tomasso Ciampa (c) vs. The Velveteen Dream (Singles match for the NXT Championship)

 

·         Ciampa is out first followed by the man that literally everyone in the wrestling world has praised and/or said they wanted to face by now, good ol’ Patty Clark. The match is the shortest of the night, but still considerably lengthy at 18 minutes. I feel like I say this every post now, but I always feel that if you are the best in your division at the current period in time then you should be the one holding the top title. As good as Velveteen is, that’s still the honor of Ciampa. I’d definitely like to see Dream hold the North American strap for a long time in the near future, but I just don’t think he’s quite prepared to hold NXT’s top title just yet. Plus it would completely fuck up the entire Ciampa/Gargano/Black triangle storyline over the title, so it just wouldn’t make sense. Ciampa gets the win after rolling out of the way of an attempted Purple Rainmaker by Dream, and delivers the Fairytale Ending for the retain. Post match as Ciampa is celebrating and taunting the crowd, Johnny Gargano comes out on stage, puts a hand on Ciampa’s shoulder, and after a brief moment of suspicion from both men, Gargano raises Ciampa’s hand in the air, the two hug, and walk to the back. Do it yourself. Even if being a good guy won’t do it for you.

 

WINNER by PINFALL and STILL NXT Champion: Tomasso Ciampa

 

·         We get an ad for Survivor Series the following night.

 

4TH MATCH: The Undisputed Era (Adam Cole, Bobby Fish, Kyle O’Reilly and Roderick Strong) vs. Pete Dunne, Ricochet and The War Raiders (Hanson and Rowe) (WarGames match)

 

·         Undisputed Era are out first followed by The Raiders Of Wars Ricocheting Bitterly. The match goes 35 minutes, and the shark cages line the stage. The two to start off the match are Adam Cole and Ricochet, who have history from Brooklyn. The match goes on and every 2 minutes as is tradition, someone is released from a shark cage and allowed to get in the ring in the cages. You can see the order of entries/releases in the table below this match. The two teams go wild, getting out all the weapons in the book, throwing each other into different rings, grinding flesh on the cage walls, everything they can think of to hurt someone happens. And of course, we’ve gotta get our KOR hitting himself in the face with a Steel Chair spot. Also, you know Ricochet is gonna do some insane 450 splash off the top of the cage onto one of the UE. *The reoccuring story of the match is the building tension between Roderick Strong and Bobby Fish. The story as it branches out in later weeks and months would be that Fish has always been jealous of Roddy for being his replacement in the group after injury. The match ends when the two have finally had enough and begin shoving each other. Cole and Kyle are down elsewhere in the structure and Fish and Strong begin punching at each other wildly. Cole and KOR run up and try to break up the melee but Ricochet and Dunne are there and knock down Cole and KOR again. The only 4 left standing now are Strong, Fish and the War Raiders. Roddy delivers a final blow to Fish and knocks him to the ground with a forearm, but Hanson runs up and smashes Roddy into the wall. Fish’s jealousy ultimately costs his entire team the match and The Raiders hit their finish and pin Bobby for the win. This isn’t necessarily a Undisputed Era breakup at all, just right now a way to tease some future storylines and add a much needed sense of unpredictability to the NXT brand right now. If WWE could run with this, it could be something real good.

 

WINNERS by PINFALL: Pete Dunne, Ricochet and The War Raiders

 

·         ENTRIES:

No.	Wrestler
1	Adam Cole
2	Ricochet
3	Roderick Strong
4	Hanson
5	Kyle O’Reilly
6	Pete Dunne
7	Rowe
8	Bobby Fish

 

FINAL RESULTS:

No.	Results	Stipulations	Times
1	Shayna Baszler (c) defeated Kairi Sane by Submission 2-1	2 Out Of 3 Falls match for the NXT Women’s Championship	20 minutes
2	Aleister Black defeated Johnny Gargano by Pinfall	Singles match	25 minutes
3	Tomasso Ciampa (c) defeated Velveteen Dream by Pinfall	Singles match for the NXT Championship	18 minutes
4	The War Raiders (Hanson and Rowe), Pete Dunne and Ricochet defeated The Undisputed Era (Adam Cole, Bobby Fish, Kyle O’Reilly and Roderick Strong) by Pinfall	WarGames match	35 minutes

MY NXT TAKEOVER: PHOENIX CARD (January 26th, 2019; Phoenix, AZ)

No.	Matches	Stipulations
1	Tomasso Ciampa (c) vs. Aleister Black	Falls Count Anywhere match for the NXT Championship
2	Ricochet (c) vs. Johnny Gargano	Singles match for the NXT North American Championship
3	The Undisputed Era (Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly) (c) vs. The War Raiders (Hanson and Rowe)	Tag Team match for the NXT Tag Team Championships
4	Shayna Baszler (c) vs. Bianca Belair	Singles match for the NXT Women’s Championship\
5	Matt Riddle vs. Velveteen Dream	Singles match

 

Well, that was how NXT Takeover: WarGames II should be booked. Thanks for reading. Tell me what you liked or disliked from the post, and what from the post you’d like to see actually happen on the show. As always, be sure to look out for my Survivor Series post coming tomorrow, and for the next upcoming Takeover In January, “How NXT Takeover: Phoenix Should Be Booked”. Enjoy the show, everyone.