TakeOver: War Games II

NXT Championship Match – Tommaso Ciampa vs Velveteen Dream: Tommaso Ciampa’s reign of terror nearly came to an end at NXT TakeOver against the flamboyant Velveteen Dream. The match had its silly moments, like Ciampa taking Dream’s Hogan-inspired Hollywood headband, and Dream retaliating by grabbing Ciampa’s precious Goldie.

It honestly looked like Dream had Ciampa’s number several times during the match, including elbow drops, double ax handles, and a gorgeous figure four. However, Ciampa battled back from everything Dream could throw at him after a HORRIFYING DDT on the steel band between the two rings. Dream’s dream is over, but Ciampa had to earn every bit of the victory.

2-out-of-3 Falls for the NXT Women’s Championship – Shayna Baszler vs Kairi Sane: This match was a rematch after Baszler stole the Women’s Title at Evolution with help from her friends.

Sane showed a lot of fight in the first fall, taking it to Baszler from the start. Unfortunately, Baszler’s friends were in the house and they made sure that Baszler got the first fall by submission by keeping Sane from hitting her In-Sane Elbow.

Baszler tried to make the second fall a quick one, but Sane refused to give up. Baszler, extremely over-confident, refused to treat her as a threat, which is always a stupid thing to do. Sane SHOULD have gotten a DQ win here when Baszler’s friends blatantly attacked her while the ref watched and did nothing. Sane would get the pinfall, tying up the match after hitting an In-Sane Elbow.

The third fall is where things gets screwy. Baszler’s friends continue to be a problem, but the ref did nothing about it, even when he saw it with his own eyes. Hoping to help their friend out, Io Shirai and Dakota Kai ran out to even the odds, and Shirai proved that she could do her amazing moonsault while wearing skinny jeans. Unfortunately, Shirai and Kai’s efforts were too little, too late, Baszler would pick up the win after countering an In-Sane Elbow into a backslide and retain her championship.

Johnny Gargano vs Aleister Black: For months, the mystery of who attacked Aleister Black has perplexed the NXT Universe. The mystery deepened when Nikki Cross revealed that the culprit had been ultimate good guy, Johnny Gargano. Why did Gargano do it? Well, the simple answer is that Gargano has gone to the Dark Side, even more alarming is that he A. Doesn’t think he’s the villain and B. Likes the Dark Side. In Gargano’s view, Black was just collateral damage, nothing to get so upset about. Unfortunately, Black didn’t see it that way and the fight was on.

The match was no Duel on Mustafar or Battle of Hogwarts, but it was a hell of a fight. Black and Gargano tore each other apart, each man nearly defeating the other. Ultimately, it would take two nasty Black Masses before Black was able to vanquish Gargano, but he was…kind enough to absolve Gargano of his sins while doing so. I have a feeling this isn’t the end for these two, but I don’t think the rematch could match this.

War Games Match – Undisputed Era vs Ricochet, Pete Dunne, and War Raiders: The issues between the eight men have been brewing for months and it is finally time to put up or shut up, in War Games. Thanks to their assault on Team Ricochet on Wednesday, Undisputed Era was going to have the numbers advantage throughout the match, but anyone’s who’s ever watched the original War Games could tell you that the team that has the numbers advantage, usually doesn’t win.

The match was amazing, as predicted. All eight men tore the house down, which was a hard thing to do after the huge matches preceding them. Some of the highlight included Hanson being speared through a table, a Tower of Doom from the middle rope, and Ricochet’s death-defying moonsault off the top of the War Games structure. Team Ricochet would get the win with Ricochet and Dunne pinning, just to make sure Undisputed Era was dispatched. We’ll see what happens next week, but rest assured, Undisputed Era’s going to be out for blood after this.

Survivor Series

Undisputed Championship vs WWE Championship Match: In 2014, Daniel Bryan was supposed to take on Brock Lesnar for the WWE Championship. Unfortunately, Bryan’s neck injury forced him to forfeit the title before the match could happen and when Bryan go back, he lost his chance to face Lesnar at WrestleMania 31 to Roman Reigns. So now, four and a half years after it was supposed to take place, and after a shocking heel turn, Daniel Bryan vs Brock Lesnar happened.

The match looked to be a typical Lesnar affair. Lesnar spent most of the first part of the match throwing Bryan around, right on the injured neck. To everyone’s surprise, Bryan refused to give up, fighting back and giving Lesnar everything he had. It even looked like Bryan was going to make Lesnar tap to the Yes/No! Lock, but Lesnar powered out and put Bryan away, sealing RAW’s victory at Survivor Series.

Ronda Rousey vs Charlotte Flair: This match was supposed to be Becky Lynch vs Ronda Rousey, but after being taken out by Nia Jax, Lynch asked her former friend, Charlotte Flair, to take on Ronda Rousey in her stead.

The match was really fantastic, even with no build. Flair and Rousey were evenly matched and the situation with Becky only seemed to add fuel to the fire. When she couldn’t put Rousey away by pinfall and submission, Charlotte decided to finish her off any way she could. She viciously beat Rousey with a Kendo stick, earning herself a disqualification. Flair wasn’t done, however, she threw Rousey into the stairs before horse-collaring her with a steel chair and hitting Natural Selection before the officials were able to get her to leave. The dream match didn’t have a dream ending, but Charlotte definitely left an impression on the Baddest Woman on the Planet.

Seth Rollins vs Shinsuke Nakamura: This has been another long-awaited dream match for the WWE Universe and for the two men involved. Unfortunately, the ongoing issues with Dean Ambrose had left Seth almost no time to fully plan how he was going to deal with Nakamura, who was not happy to find out that he wasn’t priority #1 in Seth’s mind.

The match was easily the highlight of the night. Despite Rollins’ lack of preparation, he quickly sussed out how to deal with the Rockstar and vice versa. Highlights included Rollins kicking out of Kinshasa kick and three suicide dives, finally putting Nakamura away with a Curb Stomp.

However, Rollins’ good times weren’t destined to last. While giving a post-match interview to Charly Caruso, Rollins had a bombshell dropped on him: He would be defending his Intercontinental Championship against Dean Ambrose at TLC in December, a significant show, since TLC was the show where the Shield had their first match as a unit. Rollins was stunned by the news, but recovered quickly.

WWE Cruiserweight Championship – Buddy Murphy vs Mustafa Ali: Buddy Murphy ended Cedric Alexander’s historic championship reign at Super Show Down in September, but now he faced a very familiar foe. Mustafa Ali has fought back against illness and bad luck to get back into the title picture.

The match was fantastic. Murphy and Ali had a great rivalry earlier in the year, but the managed to keep the story fresh. However, despite Ali’s heart and stamina, Murphy’s nickname of the Juggernaut was more than just a moniker. He put Ali away with a thunderous Murphy’s Law to retain the title. Ali came up short this time, but it would be safe to say this feud isn’t over yet.

Team RAW Men vs Team SmackDown Men: The build to Survivor Series has been rushed and took several unexpected twists, but it came down to the best of the RAW men vs the best of the SmackDown men, which included Shane McMahon. To add further stakes to the match, Strowman’s chance to face Brock Lesnar and get his hands on Baron Corbin was on the line, and he made sure his teammates knew it.

Strowman needn’t have worried. The RAW men tore apart the SmackDown team, though SmackDown didn’t make it easy for them, especially Shane who pulled out every stop to try and lead his team to victory, but ended up being sacrificed by Miz to Strowman. Strowman, McIntyre, and Lashley would be the last men standing on Team RAW.

Corbin, who seemed to have more guts than brains, attacked Strowman, seeming to forget that Strowman was promised a chance to get his hands on Corbin if he lead RAW to victory. I have a feeling that Strowman will make Corbin regret that hasty decision.

Team RAW Women vs Team SmackDown Women: Before the show got underway, both teams were hit by shakeups. Ruby Riott and Nattie were supposed to be on Team RAW, but when it was shown that they couldn’t get along, both were kicked off the team and Alexa, reluctantly, put Sasha and Bayley on the team.

As for SmackDown, Captain Naomi had a slightly easier time of it. Since Charlotte was going to be facing Ronda Rousey, there was an open spot on the team. Fortunately, there was an eager candidate just waiting to be called into action: R-Truth. A bemused Naomi had to break it to Truth that since he wasn’t a woman, he couldn’t be on the team, but Mandy Rose, who had made a lot of enemies when she was left off the team for Charlotte could be on the team.

The match was good. Nia had nuclear heat for what she did to Becky Lynch, but didn’t care, and it’s not a good look for WWE. This match was a fight on both sides, and everyone looked good, but it would come down to Nia and Sasha vs Asuka. Now, the smart thing would be for Nia and Sasha to work together to put Asuka away, but Nia and Alexa Bliss had other ideas. When it looked like Sasha was going to put Asuka away, Nia pushed her off the top turnbuckle, leaving Sasha at the mercy of Asuka, who was, in turn, defeated by Nia. It all seemed to be part of the plan to embarrass Sasha by Alexa Bliss, but I have a feeling that Bliss and Jax are going to be sorry for this.

Traditional 10 vs 10 Survivor Series Match – Team RAW vs Team SmackDown: This was the match without much build, mostly because the teams were going to going to consist of most of the tag team divisions of both shows and it would, mysteriously, be ignored in terms of the RAW vs SmackDown score.

That was a shame, because this was a really good match, eventually. Team SmackDown was introduced by New Day, for some reason. Team RAW did a really lame team Glorious entrance. The match had some surprising highlights, like Dawson of the Revival doing a suicide dive and the Usos making several tributes to Roman Reigns, including a Superman Splash to seal the victory over the Revival. It would be SmackDown’s only victory of the night, though WWE chose to ignore it.

Authors of Pain (with Drake Maverick) vs The Bar (with Big Show): This was another match that didn’t get much build, mainly because a lot of people thought it would be The Bar vs Ambrose and Rollins.

The match was okay, AoP aren’t the greatest in the ring, but the Bar was able to work them through a decent match, especially since they had Big Show to keep Drake Maverick in line.

Unfortunately, Drake Maverick proved that there was no low to which he would not stoop to help his guys win. When Big Show choked him, Maverick peed his pants. Yes, I’m serious. He peed his pants like a toddler who forgot to tell his mommy that he had to go potty. Big Show and the Bar were so stunned by this that it allowed AoP to hit a devastating powerbomb neckbreaker and rack up another victory for RAW. Though I’m sure Maverick is going to get the life ribbed out of him for this one.

That’s it for this week’s Week in Review. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving holiday, if you celebrate it. Have fun, be safe, and be good to each other!

What did you think of the week in WWE? Let us know on social media @theCHAIRSHOTcom and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!

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