Ranking Every NXT TakeOver From Worst To Best
17. WarGames (2018)
A WarGames match remembered more for a moment of freakish magic from Ricochet more than just about anything else was evidence that NXT hadn’t quite figured out the double-ring/double-cage formula beyond the big spots, but the annual event’s undercard did far more the show at large beyond 2017’s uneven original.
Tommaso Ciampa was never losing the NXT Championship to 23-year-old enigma Velveteen Dream, but what a fabulous job the pair of creating the hope that he might. In one of Dream’s best matches to date, the Champion stripped away at the unchecked confidence of the Challenger before being subjected to a near-the-knuckle fightback that generated one of the best teasing two-counts of the year. Johnny Gargano’s descent into villainy saw him reach new heights in a fabulously-well handled tweener display against Aleister Black. A smart removal of Matt Riddle’s debut match against Kassius Ohno earlier that week initiated even more thirst for it on the a night, so much so that a six second flash win was the best case scenario for the ‘Original Bro’.
Lost to time already, Shayna Baszler’s two-out-of-three falls banger with Kairi Sane was an ingenious way to squeeze one more magnificent dream match from the tried and tested two. They barely appeared to pause for breath in an 11 minute sprint, robbing a frenzied audience of the same privilege.