8 Ups And 1 Down From NXT TakeOver WarGames

by Scott Carlson

1. One Terrifying Bump After Another

Kevin Owens NXT
WWE.com

This writer is by no means advocating that wrestlers go out there and shorten their career and jeopardize their health for our entertainment, but holy hell WarGames is a simultaneously thrilling and terrifying match to watch.

The men’s edition featured tables galore and a series of highspots that took your breath away, including and especially the final bump: an Air Raid Crash by Tommaso Ciampa to Adam Cole off the top of the cage through two tables. Thankfully, Cole didn’t kick out and that ended the match. Because how were you going to top that?

There was an awesome string where Kyle O’Reilly had Keith Lee in a heel hook, and Dominick Dijakovic broke it up with a springboard moonsault. He went for a pin, and Bobby Fish broke that up with a moonsault of his own. Then Kevin Owens broke up Fish’s pinfall attempt with a swanton bomb.

It’s damn near impossible to top a match like that, which combined the traditional beatdown segments with the craziness of the plunder and insane maneuvers. Just a spectacular car crash from beginning to end.

Your move, Survivor Series.

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Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.