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War Games

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War Games

Postby Hanley! » Nov 21, '17, 8:30 am

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.
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Re: War Games

Postby The Legend » Nov 21, '17, 12:05 pm

I thought the match was pretty good (not the best on the card - I enjoyed the women's match and the NXT championship match more), but I couldn't really find major faults in it. You are right that they made it a little clunky with the rule changes and trying to make the last team an advantage vs a disadvantage. Altogether though I really enjoyed the show.
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Re: War Games

Postby Str8Shooter » Nov 21, '17, 4:25 pm

I thought it was an enjoyable clusterfuck. I do think it was a worthy re-debut of Wargames if this is indeed the first of more to come.

I agree there was little actual heat, especially for the first couple portions of the match until Authors of Pain came in and started wrecking guys. Part of that is the build to the match and there really not being a whole lot of reason for this to be a violent car wreck Wargames match.

I also thought a few times throughout watching the match that was dragging a bit because of the length, I think it was 37 minutes so it wasn't that surprising.

I'll give credit to everyone in the match though, they all brought it and I really felt like they knew this match was important and they all wanted to bust their ass and do everything possible to make it memorable. I mean they really pulled out all the stops. From the towers of doom, the weapon shots, a superplex off the cage, a German off the top rope through two tables, they were very creative. We even got a little colour, even if it was by accident.

As for the rules, I didn't mind them. Not having a roof was probably so they could go up top and do some stuff up there, and I'm fine with it. At least they made mention that if they climbed out of the cage their team forfeited. The two entrants at a time thing worked alright for me, one at a time probably makes the match drag a bit more than it did. The match really picked up when everyone got into the match and there were no slow points.
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Re: War Games

Postby Hanley! » Nov 21, '17, 5:27 pm

I don't like the two entrants at a time thing. Hopefully they fix that if they do the match next year. And hopefully the match will be two teams also. It just works better that way. And hypothetically selling some extra shark cage toys isn't a good enough excuse to let them dictate the rules of a classic match.

Other than that I mostly agree with your take. Though I don't really see the need to have guys doing moves from the top of the cage. That's going to turn the match into more of a spot-fest than a violent war. But I guess that's just more WWE's wheelhouse these days.

I did laugh at one point in the match when one of the commentators said that Eric Young had "never been in a match like War Games". My instant thought was "he's actually been in a match a lot more like War Games than this one: Lethal Lockdown". For all the faults that match had some years, it was a lot closer conceptually to the classic War Games matches, even without the two rings.
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Re: War Games

Postby Str8Shooter » Nov 21, '17, 5:37 pm

I'd rather have two teams as well, and hopefully they'll do that if there's another one.

I don't see the big issue with the shark cages other than the obvious attempt to sell merch. It's just the difference between the teammates standing ringside or on the stage. I'd probably prefer at ringside just for the effect of seeing them and having them shouting into the ring, but I don't think it really has much of an effect overall.

The problem with having that "violent brawl" is it's very hard to have a violent brawl that matches up with the violence in the previous Wargames matches. There won't be blood (unless it was accidental like here), they can't choke guys, etc. Having the roof off and just made it into a more modernized Wargames in my opinion.
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Re: War Games

Postby Hanley! » Nov 21, '17, 6:26 pm

I don't mind the shark cages themselves, I think they work fine. My concern is that they're letting the entire teams in at once, because the teams are being locked in one shark cage and having a shark cage for each member of the team would be seen as unworkable.

The match works better with team members coming in one at a time, so I'm worried that they might let their use of the shark cage gimmick mess with that important rule. Otherwise I have no problem with them.
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