A glorious victory for a gimmick that's had mixed results since NXT relaunched it in 2017, the last TakeOver of the year had the challenge of presenting two distinct variations of the stipulation without dragging down the remainder of the card. It was an unqualified success.
In front of a blisteringly hot Chicago crowd, the first ever all-female WarGames encounter stole the show in the opener with a f*cking fantastic angle (more on that later) augmenting an all killer no filler spectacle. Victories for Pete Dunne and Finn Bálor were understated but far from underwhelming in the heated efforts that followed, before the Allstate Arena roof rattled at the surprise return of Kevin Owens to make up the numbers for Tommaso Ciampa's babyface team against the seemingly unassailable Undisputed Era.
A glorious finale saw all four fiends put through tables, with Ciampa's Air Raid Crash from the top of the cage through the wood serving as a grisly and glorious finale.
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 7 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back almost 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 60,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett
