With NXT TakeOver: WarGames coming up, it’s time to pick the winners for the annual pre-Survivor Series show, including the two eponymous matches.
It’s fitting that WWE has used the two-hour version of NXT — a move the company made to stymie AEW — to build to this Sunday’s Survivor Series — a pay-per-view that was originally created to sabotage Jim Crockett Promotions. This strategy, however, has served to the creative detriment of the brand and tonight’s NXT TakeOver: WarGames event.
Don’t get me wrong, the show is still quite good — it still laps the main roster several times over in terms of consistency and logic — but since the move to USA Network, many fans’ fears of increased hotshot booking and a presentation more in line with RAW and SmackDown have somewhat come to fruition.
Take the lackadaisical hype for tonight’s NXT TakeOver: WarGames, for example. While the creative team hasn’t ignored the event altogether, but it has taken a backseat to “brand supremacy” and the desire to best their nascent competitors over on TNT.
Regardless, NXT TakeOver: WarGames has the makings of another great event. With only four matches scheduled for the main card, all of them should receive more than enough time to produce the level of quality audiences expect from these shows.
But who should we expect to win? Well, the only way to know for sure would be to watch the show and see for yourself, but if you can’t wait until then, here are some predictions to hold you over.
Angel Garza vs. Isaiah “Swerve” Scott (Pre-show match): This match should set the tone nicely for the rest of the night. Scott will get a chance to drop some jaws with his highspots, but since Garza has a Cruiserweight Championship match coming sometime soon, look for him to score the win.
Prediction: Angel Garza pins Isaiah “Swerve” Scott
Finn Balor vs. Matt Riddle
Riddle is ostensibly taking the injured Johnny Gargano’s place in this special singles match at NXT TakeOver: WarGames, meaning we are in store for one hell of a consolation prize match while we wait for the Gargano vs. Finn Balor dream match.
The creative team should also get credit for heating this match up in a relatively short period of time; a couple of brawls were all this feud needed to push past the time-filler midcard match threshold.
It will be interesting to see how well these two world-class workers mix with one another once the bell rings, but the end result is much less in doubt. Balor just turned heel several weeks about, so having him lose in not only his first match as a villain but also his first match back in NXT would require a level of stupidity reserved only for promoters who get okey-doked by Scarface cosplayers. Meanwhile, Riddle is Riddle: He isn’t getting a super aggressively pushed, but the bookers have protected him well enough to where a loss to Balor won’t hurt him.
So, expect a great match filled with counters and stiff-looking offense, but one that ends with Balor picking up the needed clean win.
Prediction: Finn Balor pins Matt Riddle
Pete Dunne vs. Damian Priest vs. Killian Dain – Triple Threat Match, winner gets an NXT Championship Match at Survivor Series
No disrespect to Damian Priest and Killian Dain, but Pete Dunne feels like the easy choice to win this and challenge Adam Cole for the NXT Championship at Survivor Series. After all, he’s the only babyface in the match and the only wrestler of the trio who profiles as a viable challenger to Cole’s belt.
But there are good reasons to doubt what feels like a formality. For one thing, Dunne vs. Cole is a match that could headline an NXT TakeOver in the near future. It seems silly and shortsighted to waste a premium match like that on a show where they would get, at the most, 12 minutes to put on a great match. It would harken back to those ROH World Championship matches at past NJPW Wrestle Kingdom shows: Just another match on a loaded PPV.
Plus, Cole is probably retaining at Survivor Series, so does WWE really want Dunne, a man the company has protected like few others, losing a mundane match in the middle of the PPV? I mean, McMahon, who probably thinks the fans will forget about the match as quickly as he will, likely doesn’t care, but it would still be a dumb move.
So, Dunne probably won’t eat the pin here, but look for one of the monsters in this match to score the upset win. It will set up a heel vs. heel match with Cole on Sunday, but the fans will probably cheer Cole, so it won’t feel that weird.
Prediction: Damian Priest pins Killian Dain
Shayna Baszler, Bianca Belair, Io Shirai, and Kay Lee Ray vs. Rhea Ripley, Tegan Nox, Mia Yim, and Candice LeRae – Women’s WarGames Match
Before diving into this one, can we talk about how contrived those ladder matches to determine which WarGames team gets the advantage? It’s understandable that Triple H and his creative team wanted to arrive at the usual destination of giving the heels the unfair edge in a unique way, but it felt like an excuse to not only add flimsy stakes to a pair of ladder matches, but also serve as a reason to put Kay Lee Ray in a match that doesn’t seem to need her outside of “We ran out of heels and didn’t want to turn Dakota Kai…yet”.
Speaking of that, I don’t think we’ll see Kai turn to the dark side at NXT TakeOver, either. It’s possible that she runs down and costs the babyfaces the match, but such interference would ding the mystique around WarGames and after Hell in a Cell, WWE doesn’t need anymore gimmick matches losing credibility.
So with that out of the question, the only logical direction is for the babyface team to win, especially if the creative team wants to have Rhea Ripley eventually beat Shayna Baszler for the NXT Women’s title. There are other ways to get there, but let’s keep this simple.
Prediction: Rhea Ripley’s team wins (Ripley pins Bianca Belair)
The Undisputed Era (Adam Cole, Roderick Strong, Bobby Fish, and Kyle O’Reilly) vs. Tommaso Ciampa, Keith Lee, Dominik Dijakovic, and TBA – Men’s WarGames Match
As far as that open spot on Ciampa’s team is concerned Velveteen Dream and Johnny Gargano are the only ones who stick out as obvious replacements for Matt Riddle. But both men are apparently nursing legit injuries — Dream isn’t expected back anytime soon and if Gargano were healthy, he would be wrestling Finn Balor — so the chances of them getting the nod are slim.
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If those two are out, it’s anybody’s guess who the fourth man could be. Maybe it’s a main roster wrestler coming to NXT or someone from NXT UK. Who knows, maybe it’s no one and the babyfaces wrestle at a further disadvantage (Adam Cole won his team the man advantage in a ladder match this past Wednesday), which would give the babyfaces an out for losing.
But as is the case with Ripley, Ciampa needs a big win to keep his momentum going and eventually get an NXT Championship match. That would be hard to do if his team loses inside War Games.
So, look for the mystery man — if there is one — to come out last and help Ciampa and his teammates beat The Undisputed Era, probably by pinning either Bobby Fish or Kyle O’Reilly.
Prediction: Tommaso Ciampa’s team wins (Ciampa pins Bobby Fish)