What went right and wrong at the NXT WarGames PPV

As WWE continues to alter the NXT brand into what it thinks will ultimately benefit the company in the macro, Sunday’s NXT WarGames pay-per-view represented a pivotal step in the process. Whether or not this change pays off in the macro remains to be seen, but on this night, WWE deserves some kudos for putting together a good show.

(Nevermind that the NXT mainstays were primarily responsible for making this show a success, but it is what it is.)

Of course, this doesn’t mean everything on the show worked, but enough things went right to make the three-hour experience an enjoyable one. Today, let’s look through those good and bad moments from the show.

This is what went right and wrong at NXT WarGames.

Honorable Mention (Right)- Cameron Grimes keeps his hair: Grimes and Duke Husdon had a very good Hair vs. Hair match that ended with the right guy winning. Booking Grimes to win with his finisher would’ve made for a better ending, but given what they did during the post-match, the rollup was fine.

Honorable Mention (Right)- Roderick Strong keeps the NXT Cruiserweight Championship: The match was fine, but more importantly, Strong picked up the clean win to keep the Cruiserweight Title. As for Joe Gacy, he’s a good wrestler, but as long as he continues with this gimmick that Vince McMahon and/or Bruce Pritchard greenlit to laugh at left-wing ideology, he is interest-repellent.

Honorable Mention (Right)- Men’s WarGames match: Like most of these matches, this was very good and very long. Team Black and Gold contributed greatly to this match’s acclaim. For Team 2.0, Bron Breakker and Carmelo Hayes stood out as obvious main-event stars, Tony D’Angelo showed that his ceiling stops at “midcard” (which isn’t a bad thing), and Grayson Waller is talented but needs a repackaging in the worst way.

Right: Giving plenty of time to the NXT Tag Team Championship match

When it comes to the quality of workrate in matches, 99.999999 percent of the credit belongs to the performers. That honor, in this case, goes to Kyle O’Reilly, Von Wagner, and NXT Tag Team Champions Imperium (Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel) for putting together one of the best tag team matches of the year.

That said, WWE gets some props for giving these four guys plenty of time to cook — a little under 15 minutes — and for booking a great finish (Aichner lifting O’Reilly while locked in a Triangle Choke, allowing him and Barthel to hit the Imperial Bomb to get the pin and retain).

This match reaffirmed how good Imperium and O’Reilly are in the ring and while Wagner is still green, he showed that he can somewhat hold up his end while working with top-end talent.

Seeing O’Reilly thwart Wagner’s post-match attack was great to see, too. It also made sense given his history of having partners turn on him. Sure, it made Wagner look dumb, but heels looking dumb is far preferable to doing the same to babyfaces. Besides, O’Reilly’s probably putting Wagner over before he leaves, so it’s not the end of the world for the upstart.

Right: Attempting to get Cora Jade over in the women’s WarGames match

In the women’s WarGames match, WWE appeared to have two goals on its agenda: continue to establish Toxic Attraction as the lead heel attraction while hiding their in-ring weaknesses (likely part of the reason why the babyfaces got the advantage) and boost Cora Jade’s credibility.

While the promotion failed to accomplish the former — giving the babyfaces the edge created a difficult heat-generating situation for the rudos, and none of them, outside of Dakota Kai, stood out — their attempt to give Jade that boost somewhat worked. Having Jade overcome a shoulder injury to score the pin for her team helped her come across as a tough and resilient competitor who earned the respect of her more seasoned peers.

Of course, WWE could’ve achieved this more optimally by having Jade actually fight from underneath instead of sitting in the corner for most of the match and getting the pin after one of her teammates hit their finisher. Booking the heels to get the advantage would’ve also helped garner sympathy for her and would’ve made her eventual comeback all the more impactful.

WWE instead took a more arduous, less effective route, but it mostly got the job done, which is surprising in and of itself considering how often WWE screws up the entire “get the babyfaces over” assignment.

Wrong: Give the babyfaces the advantage in the women’s WarGames match

As alluded to, WWE repeated their mistake from last year by giving the babyfaces the advantage in the women’s WarGames match. With the heels getting the advantage in the men’s version, this felt like more of WWE’s patented 50/50 booking combined with the likely need to protect Mandy Rose by having her enter last.

The end result was a muddled match that undercut the hard work the women put into this one. There were too many moments where the babyfaces ganged up on the heels and the antagonists didn’t really start to get some heat on the babyfaces until Cora Jade’s “injury”.

At least the babyfaces didn’t lose again, but this was another case of WWE overthinking no-brainer booking decisions.