8 Ups And 1 Down From NXT TakeOver WarGames

Downs...

1. Poor Buildup

Regardless of how entertaining and incredible Saturday’s PPV was, it has to be noted that the buildup to WarGames was decent at best and was severely hampered by what’s happening Sunday night.

Survivor Series being the same weekend as WarGames is not a new concept, but with NXT participating in the Big Four PPV for the first time, it meant that NXT programming was building to two PPVs in the same weekend. It’s doubtful that has ever happened before in the modern era. (The closest might be when one of the Saudi Arabia shows is sandwiched just a week or two before/after a WWE PPV.)

Worse, NXT wrestlers spent the last couple weeks invading Raw and SmackDown, meaning that they had to show unity as a promotion against the “main roster.”

All of this led to the WarGames storylines getting muddled, mixed and somewhat downplayed. Rather than being the sole focus of the show, the writers and superstars had to divide their attention. Look no further than NXT this week, where the go-home show for WarGames instead was filled with invading Raw and SmackDown superstars.

As a result, you had a match with huge WarGames repercussions – Adam Cole versus Dominick Dijakovic – segueing into a massive three-brand brawl to close the show. You had Kay Lee Ray and Dakota Kai wrestling with the backstory of Ray joining the women’s WarGames match giving way to an all-women mass brawl. And you had a post-match battle that involved both Survivor Series and WarGames rivalries.

It’s just all too much and waters down the significance of one set of PPV storylines by mushing them together. If they had been separated out, this could have worked much better.