8 Secrets We Learned From WWE's Leaked NXT TakeOver Script
Tommaso Ciampa should've thought twice before throwing Mauro Ranallo's script...
NXT TakeOver: War Games II was another roaring success for the developmental brand, and its string out outstanding, dramatic matches guarantee it'll finish prominently on many a fan's 'Show Of the Year' ballot.
Tommaso Ciampa's successful NXT Title defence against Velveteen Dream was a major highlight on a night full of outstanding individual performers. The brand's supervillain was at his blazing best throughout, including one particularly notable spot where he grabbed Mauro Ranallo's event script and threw it back in the popular announcer's face. Said runsheets occasionally make into the hands of opportunistic fans, and Reddit user chrs_castaneda successfully snatched this unique piece of TakeOver memorabilia, releasing War Games' secrets to the internet in the process.
The full seven-page document has been uploaded to Imgur for your viewing pleasure. Though far from comprehensive, it offers a segment-by-segment rundown of everything that went down at TakeOver, from hype videos to the matches themselves.
Found within are a number of easter eggs, details, and other interesting nuggets that provide an insight into the inner workings of one of the year's best wrestling shows, though WWE almost certainly threw in a few red herrings to cover situations like this...
8. "Ballyhoo" Is Still A Thing
Per the Online Etymology Dictionary:-
"ballyhoo (n.): 'publicity, hype,' 1908, from circus slang, 'a short sample of a sideshow' used to lure customers (1901), which is of unknown origin. The word seems to have been in use in various colloquial senses in the 1890s."
Yet here we are in 2018, and whoever drafts NXT's TakeOver runsheets is bringing the term back to life. It's listed as part of the script's fourth point, and seems to comprise a pre-show buzz-generation video putting each of the night's big matches, narrated by that one guy who does all the movie trailers.
"Ballyhoo" might be an outdated term, but its use is entirely appropriate here. Still, it's hard to imagine that whoever marked it down did it for any reason other than to pop themselves.
Vince Russo once ran a subscription-based website named Pyro & Ballyhoo, on which he'd fantasy book WWE shows, host podcasts, and interview wrestlers. That met an abrupt end when he weirdly resigned from his own creation in February 2015, leading to the formation of his new podcast, The Brand, a few months later.