Did anyone catch this match on Saturday for NXT Takeover? What did you guys think?
@Str8shooter, I'm interested in your thoughts particularly after so many years waiting!
I thought it was a fun spot-fest, and a good main event. But it could have been contested under any number of stipulations. It never felt like War Games. Even with the two rings - it wasn't enough to recapture the magic of those old matches.
The three teams put them at a disadvantage straight away, because it makes for a weird dynamic. Particularly when one of the teams was just thrown together for this one match. When the match includes the random element of multiple teams, it's hard to put across the impression that a team is at a disadvantage, which is the essence of the gimmick.
The lack of a roof didn't really work for me from an aesthetic point of view. I think the match looks cooler with the roof on the cage (though if they wanted to make it taller, that would have been okay). It also meant there were people trying to climb the cage and that's better left for regular shitty WWE cage matches. We didn't need it in War Games. That's not supposed to be about escaping, or even about high spots. It's supposed to be about violence.
I also like the submission only rule for War Games, because it really makes the match a war. A team can only lose when one of them has been broken. And you can imagine the kind of pressure that would put on the performers to not be the guy who lets down the team. So it was disappointing to see this end with a pin fall. This version of War Games could have hypothetically ended in a roll up. That just seems so wrong to me.
The biggest problem with this match is that there wasn't any real heat. That was always the focus of War Games. The team with the advantage gets to work over the babyface team and build heat, and then the crowd goes nuts when a new babyface team mate comes in to even the odds. All of that was missing from this match. There was no drama. And without that drama, what's the point of doing the match?
The commentators didn't help matters. I had a bunch of problems with the way they were calling this, but worst was that they kept driving home that the team that came in last had the advantage because they were fresher. That's the opposite of the goddamn point of this gimmick! The team that comes in last should be at a disadvantage because the guy who started out for their team has been outnumbered this whole time and is now dead.
I'm not trying to shit on the match itself, because it was very entertaining. But it could have just as easily been a no disqualification match. I actually would have probably enjoyed that more - particularly as the match didn't really get going until all nine guys were in the ring. As a War Games match though, this was a bit disappointing to me.