WWE NXT TakeOver: Phoenix 3 Biggest Takeaways

The War Raiders Are The Tag Team We Needed

Recently, colleague Brett Grega penned a piece in which he argued that THIS is the time for War Raiders to win the WWE NXT Tag Team Championships, and I really didn’t understand Hanson and Rowe’s ceiling until tonight’s showing.

Sure, I knew that War Raiders are damn good in the ring, as they were one of the best tag teams in the world in NJPW and looked solid in the ring on NXT Television and at TakeOver: WarGames 2. But I didn’t truly see what they were capable of until this performance against the Undisputed Era.

Kyle O’Reilly and Roderick Strong are two of the most respected technical wrestlers in the world, and in terms of pure in-ring ability, it’s them and The Usos at the top of the list. On this night, though, War Raiders reminded people like me why they are in the conversation, and it is an absolute treat to get to watch these two athletes in the ring.

Hanson’s resiliency and agility, and Rowe’s in-ring IQ and strength led War Raiders to an NXT Tag Team Championship victory over the dominant Undisputed Era. We got to see a satisfying conclusion to the match, and the action had the crowd fired up for the rest of the card, which is just par for the course for UE.

But what stood out to me the most was how the crowd reacted to War Raiders. Even after a bad-ass entrance, the Phoenix crowd was only going to start the match cheering forcefully for the Undisputed Era, but their attention eventually turned to War Raiders, who started receiving plenty of cheers by the end of the match.

The NXT Tag Team Division has talent, but they desperately needed another exciting babyface tag team to emerge alongside the Street Profits. NXT needs to start getting better tag team wrestling involved, and War Raiders are the first team that seem to be around UE’s level.