NXT TakeOver: WarGames Results (6th December 2020)- Winners, Grades, and Video Highlights
Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for WarGames! The next installment in this NXT annual event is here, featuring two WarGames matches to bookend the event. The Undisputed Era battled Pat McAfee, Oney Lorcan, Danny Burch, and Pete Dunne, the Kings of NXT in the main event. Team LeRae and Team Blackheart would get their chance to steal the show in the opening contest.
The NXT North American Championship was also on the line tonight, as Leon Ruff defended against NXT Triple Crown Champion Johnny Gargano and former NXT NA Champion Damian Priest. Would Ruff be able to prove that he's not the joke everyone thinks he is, or would his reign be another flash in the pan?
Timothy Thatcher and Tommaso Ciampa battled in an intense war, taking each other to the limit. Would Thatcher be able to teach the former NXT Champion a lesson in defeat tonight? Along with all of that, Cameron Grimes would have to face Dexter Lumis once again, this time in a Strap Match. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide for NXT's resident loudmouth.
We kicked things off with our first WarGames of the night. Team Blackheart vs Team LeRae. On NXT, the final member of Shotzi's team, NXT Women's Champion Io Shirai, was revealed as Shotzi earned the advantage for her team in a ladder match.
NXT TakeOver: WarGames Match- Team LeRae (Toni Storm, Dakota Kai, Raquel Gonzalez, and Candice LeRae) vs Team Blackheart (Ember Moon, Rhea Ripley, Io Shirai, and Shotzi Blackheart)
The first competitor to enter the cage was Dakota Kai, which was kind of ironic considering her involvement in the NXT TakeOver: WarGames match in 2019. Kai would attack her former best friend Tegan Nox, turning heel and leaving her team at a two-on-four disadvantage. Oddly enough, one of those women that she abandoned was her team captain Candice LeRae, along with one of her opponents in Rhea Ripley.
The first representative of Team Blackheart? That would be Ember Moon, looking to enforce Ember's Law. Dakota Kai baited her into the second ring, catching her with a pump kick-ass he crossed the ropes. The Captain of Team Kick choked out the former NXT Women's Champion momentarily, but couldn't keep the Shenom down for long. Both women traded vicious strikes, back and forth, with Moon taking the advantage.
Kai was blasted with a rolling forearm to the jaw as the clock ticked down, just two minutes shy of another member of Team Blackheart joining the fray. A suplex over the ropes put Kai in between the ring and cage, and Moon squashed her into the steel with a running crossbody.
Ember was caught moving up to the top, with a boot leaving her in a daze. From here she took over, and eventually connected with the Kairopractor. Of course, that advantage didn't last long, as the clock struck zero, bringing Shotzi Blackheart into WarGames.
Blackheart brought a crowbar and toolbox into the ring before planting Kai with a facebuster. A question mark kick set up for the running senton in the ropes. Blackheart put Kai in between both rings where Kai couldn't avoid a wrecking ball dropkick. She did, dodge a pump kick, sending Shotzi's leg into the steel cage. Kai went back to keep the pressure on Moon.
That was a mistake, as the fresh Blackheart quickly recovered, and grated Kai's face on the cage. As Moon stood up, she and Blackheart dropped Kai with an electric chair/missile dropkick combination. When the clock ran out, Kai's bodyguard Raquel Gonzalez rushed to the WarGames set up next.
Even in a two-on-one advantage, Raquel Gonzalez absolutely demolished Moon and Blackheart. A Tour of the Islands planted Moon, and Gonzalez countered a springboard hurricanrana with a powerbomb. Gonzalez then used her partner as a weapon against Team Blackheart at WarGames.
Team LeRae dominated here. No matter what they did to Kai, neither Moon nor Blackheart was able to take Gonzalez off her feet. As the clock ran out, Gonzalez launched Kai into Blackheart and Moon, leaving Gonzalez by herself to take on Rhea Ripley.
The former NXT and NXT UK Women's Champion was ready for a showdown, and even though Kai did get back to her feet, Ripley fought off the two-on-one assault. Ember Moon and Shotzi Blackheart held Gonzalez back as Ripley took her time tearing Kai apart. In the other ring, a Codebreaker from Moon and a springboard Code Red dropped Team LeRae's heavy hitter at WarGames.
Ripley opened Shotzi's toolbox and battered Kai with a mallet before tossing her into the cage wall. Gonzalez took out her opponents and called out Ripley, leading to both competitors meeting in the middle. As they brawled on the mat, Toni Storm rushed in, bringing in kendo sticks. Storm, who dethroned Ripley in NXT UK, spiked her with a German suplex.
Gonzalez held Ripley in place for a series of shots from the kendo stick. With the inclusion of Storm, Team LeRae took over quickly. In one ring, she and Gonzalez battered Moon and Blackheart with kendo sticks. On the other, Kai was busy wearing down the former NXT Women's Champion. They all fought to two corners, with Moon knocking Kai off of Ripley's shoulders with a flying bulldog as Moon, Storm, and Gonzalez crashed to the opposite mat at WarGames.
Io Shirai came out next as the final member of Team Blackheart, but Gonzalez actually managed to keep her out for a few moments, bouncing the steel door of the NXT Women's Champions' head. Storm tied the door shut with her belt, but that didn't stop Shirai from trying to climb the cage. Gonzalez slammed Blackheart into her, knocking her off.
Candice LeRae was the final competitor to emerge, and as she stared down Io Shirai, Indi Hartwell jumped the barricade, assaulting the Joshi Judas. As LeRae entered, Hartwell locked the cage shut, stealing the key and placing it in her shirt before leaving WarGames.
Team LeRae completely demolished Team Blackheart for several minutes. However, as all seven brawled on one side of the ring, the NXT Women's Champion appeared at the top of the cage with a trash can, putting it over herself before diving onto the crowd of NXT Superstars. Ripley tossed Shirai into Gonzalez for a tilt-a-whirl DDT and followed up with a 619 to Kai. Storm, Kai, and Gonzalez were left in one corner as Team Blackheart took turns crashing into them.
Gonzalez was the last one standing, with Blackheart holding a chair over her chest. Moon and Ripley launched Shirai into her like a bullet for a high impact dropkick. Gonzalez was then held down for the Moonsault, but the pin was broken up at WarGames.
Moon and Storm found themselves in the other ring just as LeRae and Blackheart followed. LeRae trapped Moon in the Gargano Escape while Blackheart took Storm down with a Last Chancery. LeRae broke the hold to save her partner, but Blackheart got payback with a steel chair.
Kai ran in to put a stop to Blackheart's momentum and rocked an emerging Io Shirai with the running boot in the corner. With a trash can over her, Shirai was crushed by a diving double stomp. Moon barely managed to break up that pinfall, but the damage was already done at WarGames.
Moon set up two chairs, dropping Kai's throat across them with an Eclipse. Had Storm not broken up the pin, that definitely would've been the end. Storm dropped Moon with Storm Zero on a trash can, but also couldn't secure the win as Shirai broke up the fall.
Storm was locked in Ripley's Prism while Shirai hit a dropkick. Somehow, Storm kicked out. Blackheart set up a ladder and knocked LeRae onto a pile of chairs. The Senton splash from the top crushed LeRae, who pulled a chair in just to make sure that Blackheart came out of that dive worse for wear at WarGames.
In the other ring, Raquel Gonzalez launched Rhea Ripley into the cage and powerbombed Shirai through a ladder in the middle of the structure. That was the final straw, as nobody could get up from something like that.
Results: Raquel Gonzalez and Team LeRae defeated Io Shira and Team Blackheart via pinfall at NXT TakeOver: WarGames.
Grade: A+