BRM Reviews NXT TakeOver: War Games IV

[Big Red Machine]

NXT TakeOver: War Games IV (12/6/2020)- Orlando, FL


WAR GAMES MATCH: Candice LeRae, Raquel Gonzalez, Dakota Kai, & Toni Storm vs. Shotzi Blackheart, Io Shirai, Rhea Ripley, & Ember Moon- 6.75/10
I’m sorry, but I didn’t really care for this. I’m not saying it wasn’t very good, but there was no way I could even call it “great.” The first issue I had with this was the backwards-ass psychology in the first chunk. And it wasn’t just the order of entry, either. There were a whole bunch of little things I’d see the babyfaces do and think “that’s exactly what a heel would do in this situation” (Ember and Shotzi trying to keep Raquel from entering the ring the was the most egregious but it wasn’t the only one).
Then there were the weapons. It was just plain overkill after a point. Rhea Ripley hit Dakota Kai in the back with a sledgehammer. When Triple H did that to Shawn Michaels, they played it off like we weren’t sure if he would ever walk again. Dakota was up within twenty seconds. Rhea Ripley sold an Irish Whip into the exposed turnbuckle as more damaging to her back than Dakota sold that shot with a f*cking sledgehammer.
Even after getting locked out of the ring once, Io still kept going back for weapons instead of getting into the ring. This sort of thing makes this feel like people trying to have a critically acclaimed match instead of having a real fight, which is what this is supposed to feel like.
And, of course, Io got locked out again like a moron. She kept trying to get in and the heels kept stopping her from getting in… and the problem is that it doesn’t feel like the heels are playing dirty because the babyfaces won the coin toss and thus the heels are merely trying to keep this as a fair fight.
When it was Candice’s turn to enter, Indi Hartwell attacked Io from behind to stop her from being able to enter as well. On the one hand, the heels are cheating, bot on the other hand, Io had several chances to enter the cage, but inexplicably get going for more weapons to throw in (because apparently in her mind a bunch of Kendo sticks, a crowbar, a sledgehammer, and a toolbox full of weapons just wasn’t enough), so I really don’t feel sorry for her.
Indi got the chain and locked the cage, then put the key down her shirt. Don’t they have a female referee who can reach in there and get it?
Anyway, the heels beat the babyfaces up four on three for a while. Candice tried to pin Shotzi, apparently not realizing that she can’t win the match without Io in the cage. Io, of course, climbed the cage and did a big dive in. She put a garbage can over her head first, which had me wondering how the hell she managed to climb up the cage while carrying the big, unwieldy garbage can.
Once Io is in, the match can finally end. I knew it wasn’t going to end right away, but I’m supposed to at least be able to think that, but because they threw all of these weapons into the ring, I knew the match wasn’t going to end until everything got used, so until the big finish (which I did love), none of the nearfalls felt like real potential finishes to me.
Also, the camera cut away in the middle of a pinfall to show us Shotzi Blackheart sitting in the corner. Cutting to something else in the middle of a pinfall should be a firing offense.
There was some stuff in here I liked. The Eclipse onto the chairs looked awesome, the finish was tremendous (and I love the actual result, too. Raquel Gonzalez is excellent and I want to see her get a bigger push), and everyone worked really hard, but the match just didn’t click for me on most points.

TIMOTHY THATCHER vs. TOMMASO CIAMPA- 7.75/10
A beautiful, brutal fight. Thatcher’s ear got busted open and they just kept going. Poor Thatcher has to get a big win at some point soon.

STRAP MATCH: Dexter Lumis vs. Cameron Grimes- 6.75/10
Cameron Grimes has brought his own strap he insists on using. This seems very suspicious. He attacked Lumis before Lumis had the strap on, but Lumis made a comeback and put the strap on himself. They did strap match stuff. Like the women’s match, they worked hard and I don’t want to take that away from them, but the match itself didn’t grip me because I have no interest in the characters, and if you’re not telling a story about limb-work or someone overcoming some sort of disadvantage that makes them the underdog (which Lumis really isn’t in this feud because he’s been portrayed as having magical powers and no-selling enough times that I no longer buy that any damage done to him will be meaningful) there isn’t much to do but sit there and watch the moves, and in a match that you feel like you’ve seen a million times (most strap matches without a real story are the same), it gets hard to care after a while.

A KARRION KROSS-ESQUE VIDEO HAPPENED- I guess he’s coming back soon.

NXT NORTH AMERICAN TITLE MATCH: Leon Ruff(c) vs. Johnny Gargano vs. Damian Priest- 7/10
Gargano sees Ruff as the weak link and is trying to get rid of Priest so he can go after Ruff, Priest sees Ruff as an undeserving interloper and wants him to just leave so that he can finish his business with Gargano, and Ruff is trying to prove that both of them are wrong about him.
Priest powerbombed Ruff into the barricade and he had to be taken to the back. Priest seemed to regret doing this. Gargano and Priest wrestled for a bit until Ruff came back. The action was good and they did a great job keeping to their story… until a bunch of Ghostfaces came out and attacked Martinez. He fought them off, but got cocky again and Ruff almost pinned Gargano after a Frog Splash. Another Ghostface showed up to take Martinez out with a pipe, and Gargano pinned Ruff soon after. I am now officially out of patience with this Ghostface crap. If there are one or two mysterious allies then that’s fine. When you’ve got a whole gang, it’s just Retribution all over again.

THE GHOSTFACE WITH THE PIPE REVEALS HIMSELF AS AUSTIN THEORY- fine… but where did the other six come from? Who are they?

WAR GAMES MATCH: Undisputed Era vs. Team McAfee (Pat McAfee, Pete Dunne, Danny Burch, & Oney Lorcan)- 9/10
See! THAT is how you do War Games! The way they came up with for Kyle to fight back down two on one was extremely clever, and I loved the little variation of actually having the heels be in control when McAfee comes in so he can do the big strut and also get the weapons and have it make more sense than it did in the women’s match. Cole looking for the fire extinguisher before going in made sense because he had to clear everyone away from the door so he could get in.
I also liked that they limited the weapons to things that felt significant (one weapon for he heels to introduce first and cut the babyfaces off, the tables with UE’s names on them, and the chair, which is what Dunne used to turn on O’Reilly). Compare this to the women’s match, where it just felt like they were hitting each other with a bunch of stuff.
I absolutely adored the way this built up the intensity over time, and almost all of the nearfalls felt like believable finishes. It was so satisfying to see all of UE just beating the sh*t out of McAfee. The fact that Kyle pinned Lorcan rather than Cole pinning McAfee makes me think this feud will continue, and if that’s the case, I think it really needs some sort of shake-up (Ridge Holland returning to feud with Cole being the obvious idea if Ridge is healthy).

This was… really not a good show from NXT, even with the tremendous main event. I think I’m pretty much over War Games at this point. Making it an annual thing has completely removed its soul, and looking at the alternatives, I think instead of forty-two minutes of women’s War Games, the card would have been greatly improved by some sort of women’s undercard tag, and then Io defending her title in the semi-main event. With only the North American Title on the line, this show definitely felt like it was missing something. The finish of the North American Title was also quite frustrating, and when you combine that with the disappointments that were Grimes vs. Lumis and the women’s War Games match, this show really felt like it under-delivered.

[KILLdozer]

Hmmm.

BRM doesn't say "AWH SON OF A BITCH WHAT A GOOD SHOW GOOD SHOW BOY! YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS NOW!", About an NXT War Games....I think that's a first lol.

[Big Red Machine]

Hmmm.

BRM doesn't say "AWH SON OF A BITCH WHAT A GOOD SHOW GOOD SHOW BOY! YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS NOW!", About an NXT War Games....I think that's a first lol.

Like I said, it's a combination of them losing the concept of the fight in their quest for cool spots, and the forced nature of it. This was the first year where the build really didn't feel organic.

And the weak undercard didn't help.

[NWK2000]

Making it an annual thing has completely removed its soul, and looking at the alternatives, I think instead of forty-two minutes of women’s War Games, the card would have been greatly improved by some sort of women’s undercard tag, and then Io defending her title in the semi-main event. With only the North American Title on the line, this show definitely felt like it was missing something. The finish of the North American Title was also quite frustrating, and when you combine that with the disappointments that were Grimes vs. Lumis and the women’s War Games match, this show really felt like it under-delivered.

I think the War Games is Undisputed Era's specialty match type, so it make sense for them to continually be in them (the "young upstart teams coming to take the UE's crown as the top faction in NXT is a story that writes itself, similar to Undertaker's streak) and the women's war games in past years have been pretty decent, but this is the one where I was like "Why are we having War Games?" So I think it would even be less bad if we didn't do a women's War Games every year.

[Big Red Machine]

Making it an annual thing has completely removed its soul, and looking at the alternatives, I think instead of forty-two minutes of women’s War Games, the card would have been greatly improved by some sort of women’s undercard tag, and then Io defending her title in the semi-main event. With only the North American Title on the line, this show definitely felt like it was missing something. The finish of the North American Title was also quite frustrating, and when you combine that with the disappointments that were Grimes vs. Lumis and the women’s War Games match, this show really felt like it under-delivered.

I think the War Games is Undisputed Era's specialty match type, so it make sense for them to continually be in them (the "young upstart teams coming to take the UE's crown as the top faction in NXT is a story that writes itself, similar to Undertaker's streak) and the women's war games in past years have been pretty decent, but this is the one where I was like "Why are we having War Games?" So I think it would even be less bad if we didn't do a women's War Games every year.

Even doing it with UE all the time will get old. You'll have the same problem you had this year where as soon as two other guys allied themselves with McAfee, everyone said "oh, this must be for War Games," and a lot of people saw the Dunne turn coming just because McAfee's team needed a fourth.

[KILLdozer]

Making it an annual thing has completely removed its soul, and looking at the alternatives, I think instead of forty-two minutes of women’s War Games, the card would have been greatly improved by some sort of women’s undercard tag, and then Io defending her title in the semi-main event. With only the North American Title on the line, this show definitely felt like it was missing something. The finish of the North American Title was also quite frustrating, and when you combine that with the disappointments that were Grimes vs. Lumis and the women’s War Games match, this show really felt like it under-delivered.

I think the War Games is Undisputed Era's specialty match type, so it make sense for them to continually be in them (the "young upstart teams coming to take the UE's crown as the top faction in NXT is a story that writes itself, similar to Undertaker's streak) and the women's war games in past years have been pretty decent, but this is the one where I was like "Why are we having War Games?" So I think it would even be less bad if we didn't do a women's War Games every year.

OOOOOHHHH!

"NO WOMEN'S WAR GAMES"!?!?!?

OOOOOHHH! THIS MAN SEXIST! VINCE MCMAHON IS THAT YOU?!??! "DIVAS" ARE GONNA BROTHER!