FEEDBACK: NXT TakeOver: War Games III

Allo, allo, allo! Davie Portman here requesting all of your feedback for tonight’s NXT TakeOver: War Games III! Tell us what you liked and what you didn’t like. What was your match of the night? Who shone the most? Braden and I will be recording shortly after the event finishes and you can join us live on our YouTube Channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCei2a4uXjxACDLHQXS-GTxw?view_as=subscriber

Also, please rate the show out of 10!

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0 voters

I’ll try and update this post with my thoughts as the night rolls on:

  • The Women’s War Games match was amazing, but I have incredibly mixed feelings on the ending. Rhea and Candice managing to beat Shayna, Io, Bianca, and KLR all on their own feels like really bad booking and harms the stock of everyone on the heel team, just to prop up Rhea. However the Dakota turn was great. Hopefully they rehab Io and Bianca on NXT in the upcoming weeks. Because right now, while they put on an amazing performance, the ending really hurt their stock in my eyes. Losing 4 on 2 is an incredibly bad look, no matter how you spin it.

  • The Triple Threat match was okay. It felt like a cooldown match, and went a bit too long. Nice little match though.

  • Balor vs Riddle was a fine match, but it felt kinda like a slightly better main roster match. Not much to say.

  • The Men’s Wargames match was also amazing. Please keep Adam Cole in your thoughts. He died tonight. I sure hope Triple H knows Necromancy for tomorrow.

As an aside, Rhea Ripley named the NXT Women’s Team for Survivor Series: Rhea, Io, Bianca, Candice, and Toni. And the Kabuki Warriors have a new theme as well. Never forget the terrible mashup theme.

They were smart to make The Queen of Spades the last entrant for War Games, since she is the greenest. I was glad they had her take the fall, since (as far as I’ve noticed) she still can’t take an Irish Whip/run the ropes

They did most of the storyline as predicted (Yim injured, Dakota replaces her, Dakota heel turn) but instead of having Dakota join the heels in the ring making it even more lopsided, they just had her walk backstage. That was weird

Priest did his best to carry the Triple Threat, but the match just seemed “slow”. I actually nodded off near the end and had to rewind

Nigel was less unbearable on commentary, but he and Beth are better in small doses

Glad that Britt Baker finally got to see a women’s match get above 2 stars

Ari from Montreal
Britt Bakers face said it all…what a fuckin takeover!
Love the turn…predictable yes but needed to be done.
Honestly thought Mia Yim would come back and Toni storm would come.
Ripley and Candice winning was the right call, but made the rest of the women look weak.
What a supriseeee as the 4th man! Really wasnt expecting it.
Other two matches were awsome and Damian Priest is a future world champ!

Question: Riddle losing clean like that…whats next for him? do they cash in the Goldberg feud ?

I just realized everybody in the men’s War Games match, with exception to Keith Lee, is a former ROH guy even Owens. This show kicked off strong and the women’s War Games match was by far my match of the night. Given how Rhea won tonight and how she won last night on Smack Down, she’s pulled out some really clever moves to win. I like how they have her being a badass, but also intelligent in the ring… Female Cerebral Assassin? Well, she IS going to be on Facebook later with Triple H.

Great match. I was thinking Survivor Series was going to be the better show, but tonight kept me interested from beginning to end.

Two War Games matches and no tower of god damn doom spot.

8/10

1 Like

Alexander from Portland

While Kevin Owens wasn’t much of a surprise, what was a surprise was what he pulled off tonight. This is the most I’ve been behind Owens in the longest time, to the point where I’d rather see him dethrone Cole rather than Ciampa. I can only hope he stays a while in NXT, the main roster doesn’t have anything better for him. Also that women’s match, holy shit was it good. I don’t know how TakeOver’s keep getting better, but I’ll find out soon. Tonight WWE announced Portland will host a TakeOver in February 2020. I feel like the last PPV we had was in 2008, so color me very surprised. I don’t care what deity I need to pray to, I need Gargano at TakeOver.

Question: do you think all of the current champions in NXT will retain their titles until the next TakeOver?

Jalen from Pickering,

Haven’t been able to watch and haven’t been as invested in NXT lately, but this was a really good show. Having the guys that main evented the first takeover in an arena, return at the same takeover issued kinda cool. I hope Owens stays in NXT.

NXT feels like it has the most depth and variety for stories its maybe ever had coming off this show. Which is good since there isn’t a takeover for a while and TV is 2 hours.

PS: The UPNXT theme is fuego and episode 0 on the patreon was the realest podcast I heard all year.

Hi Guys

Brad the dad, here in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. my son and I had are bonding night watching wrestling meet nachos. his 10-year-old heard was broken as his favorite Adam Cole went crashing through the tables. What a bump!

What a great show!!!
AEW, WWE, NJPW take note 4 matches and 2.5 hours can be enough and leaves you wanting more

NXT for life

Who is on the guys team tomorrow?

Thanks boys and good night.

Scrump LIVE from War Games

Bang! Bang!

Holy shit what a show!

My boss got us a suite, with two empty seats for you two :pensive:, and it was so much better than being jammed in between strangers.

The crowd was hot all night, especially for both War Games matches.

I missed half of the opening match due to me searching for an event poster, I got it but not autographed, but the last half of it was bonkers.
I called Io jumping off the cage and seeing it live was a thing of beauty.
If there were a chef kiss emoji, it would be that.

Finn vs my new best friend Matt Riddle started off slow.
They also turned Finn’s music up LOUD due to him getting a giant pop.
The spear/jack hammer combo was really fun.

I jokingly told our group that Owens was the secret guest and my ears are STILL ringing from the pop.
I’m not even being hyperbolic, it was that loud.

I almost threw up watching Cole and Ciampa up on the cage and come crashing down.
I looked over to see Britt Baker’s reaction as her boyfriend got destroyed and could only imagine how scared she was.

All in all great show.

8 Pete Dunne “I’ll break ya fingas” out of 10.

Nas from NYC (not the rapper)

This was my time watching a full Takeover. I loved it. Everything was awesome. The women’s match had me on the floor, it was so good. One of the best heel turns I’ve seen in ages. Shout out to Kay Lee Ray. She was awesome. I popped my tits off when Kevin Owens showed up. This Takeover alone was worth half my yearly subscription fee for the WWE Network. 10/10 show.

They showed Brit Baker on screen and Mauro even referenced her. This means NXT has done more for AEW’s women’s division than AEW has. Mauro didn’t even need to tell us that she is a dentist.

Btw I have a side note. During the show, Corey Graves tweeted this:

“Just for the record guys, I know you wouldn’t know it, but there’s actually a WWE Hall of Famer AND a former Ring of Honor Champion on commentary. I’d imagine they have a lot to offer.”

On Twitter, this clearly went over a lot of people’s heads as many were lambasting Corey for criticising the commentary.

But Corey is only criticising one person and that is Mauro Ranallo. I’ve followed Mauro for ages from boxing to MMA to when I started watching NXT about two months ago. I’ve always been a fan. But last Wednesday and tonight, I found him way over the top as he was cutting off the other two quite often. Mauro in small doses is awesome. But on a weekly basis, he can be a bit too much.

1 Like

Gordon “not the former prime minister” Brown
From Motherwell.

I’m gonna keep this short.

Holy fucking shit.

What a show.

Brian from NY

All I got to say is that was a pretty flawless show from top to bottom. Even the little things like Owens coming out with his NXT debut titantron and shirt was perfect. This could really be a great 48 hours of events in Chicago. Off to an amazing start.

Sango from Malaysia here.

Great show tonight. Rated it 8/10, could’ve been higher if Denzel Curry performed live.

Dakota attacking Tegan honestly broke my heart. I was hoping she’d be the one to dethrone Shayna down the line, but after that beatdown, it looks like it just wasn’t meant to be. At least it was fun seeing Shayna laugh it off while she came down the ramp.

Dunne-Dain-Damian was pretty good, but felt like it went on for 5 minutes too long. Priest stood out for me in this match; his Razor’s Edge on Killian was damn near perfect.

Kevin Owens being the surprise 4th man honestly bummed me out a bit. Still, it was fun seeing him tear through UE and tease the hand sign with Cole. Speaking of Cole, my goodness! Think of how huge his balls must be for willingly going through a bump like that.

Cheers to more NXT and BDE.

Hey guys! Sean from Scotland here.

Long time listener, first time leaving feedback.

I’ll be short but sweet seeing at its almost 3am but quick thoughts on the show.

Garza v Swerve could have been a great technical match but something seemed off between them. Still good but was scared multiple times that someone was gonna get seriously injured due to mistiming or general sloppiness.

Loved the Women’s war games match, great spots and Kai’s turn was well done even though we had all seen it coming. Shirai gets me high!!!

Triple threat was okay but I felt it fell below normal takeover match standards do to trying to be overly intricate with triple strike spots etc. All in all the right person won.

Enjoyed riddle v balor but would like to see it again with more of a focused build to give it a bit more heat as I feel they could to a lot more.

Last match started slow like most war games matches do, but as it filled up with participants, we got an absolute banger with just the right amount of high spots. Extremely surprised to see Britt Baker shown in the audience and wonder if that will have any AEW ramifications.

Two quick questions, 1. With kai’s turn tonight, is there to many heel women currently on the roster for them all to be utilised? And 2 where does KO go from here? Is this just a one off seeing as he’s on a non NXT team tomorrow night?

Thanks, Sean

Will in Chicago

First time, long time

Was at the show, Io and Ciampa got the biggest reactions of the night. Highlight of the night was Ciampa jumping off the cage. Wanted Balor match to go longer

Hi guys. This is Prakash from Michigan. What a Takeover!!!

The women’s War Games was simply mind-blowing. Dakota Kai heel turn was kinda expected but the way it unfolded took the entire match to a whole new level. All the women in the match were impressive, especially Rhea Ripley. I am totally rooting for her team tomorrow. She is the next big thing in WWE. The triple threat match was one of the best triple threat matches I have ever seen in years. Riddle-Balor match was good. I yelped when I saw Riddle deliver a GTS in Chicago! The men’s match was very good but not as good as the first NXT War Games two years ago. And arguably better than last year’s. KO was not a very BIG surprise as he was one of the expected. But still I loved seeing him back in NXT. So does that mean there is a vacancy in the Raw Survivor Series team tomorrow?

Well, I am going to bed very psyched up tonight. Good night.

I’m clearly in the minority as I thought both War Games matches were overbooked messes with which is and always has been NXT’s biggest issue. I’d argue that they weren’t even War Games matches as the cage didn’t have a roof although that has to be the case if you want to do the predictable moonsault off a cage and all the other standard “spots”.

The addition of “weapons” is completely unnecessary and just stupid given, quite rightly, they won’t hit anyone on the head with them. I don’t know why WWE persist in match stipulations like War Games or anything that should result in blood if they won’t allow blood yet are perfectly happy to encourage their performers to seriously damage their bodies doing unnecessary and dangerous stunts onto ladders and things like the finish off the top of the cage last night. It doesn’t improve the matches and endangers their performers and is also completely hypocritical of them.

Also, what sense does it make for Kevin Owens to agree to be on Ciampa’s team given NXT are battling RAW and he will actually be on the RAW team so he has given away an advantage of being fresh for his Survivor Series match. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

There was. Rhea Ripley’s spot in the women’s match. You really think they could go a multi person match without being that predictable?

Gah! Missed a bit of the women’s, guess it was too good to be true.