NXT In A Nutshell: Who Will Survive The Sinister Structure?

Hello again my NXT fans! It’s time for the second NXT revival of WarGames, and by the end of the evening we should know who will survive the sinister structure. Between now and then, we will get an NXT women’s championship match, an NXT title match and a grudge match. We have four announced matches on the card, and they all look pretty good on paper. Let’s see how things turn out in reality….which means let’s crack open this Nutshell!

Best Match of the night:

Several candidates here, to be honest.

The women’s match was pretty good, but you could argue it either relied too much on the outside interference, or there just was too much of it.

Gargano and Black was very good.

Ciampa and Dream were excellent.

WarGames was as good, or even better than last year’s edition

If I had to select just one, I’d go for the NXT title match. But if I had enough time to really debate this, I’d have a hard time not choosing the WarGames battle too. Two different match styles, both very strong and very entertaining.

Worst match of the night:

Matt Riddle and Kassius Ohno. Especially if you are Ohno, because this impromptu match was barely a match, over in like 5 seconds. Great for Riddle though.

Crowd Chants of the Night:

Bro

Let’s go Kairi

NXT! NXT! NXT!

And on and on…the crowd was hot all night.

Star of the Night

As with match of the night, you can toss a coin here and you wouldn’t be wrong with any of these options, I don’t think.

Gargano and Black had very good nights.

Ciampa and Velveteen Dream were amazing.

Both squads in the WarGames spectacle were strong.

If I had to select just one, I’d go with Tommaso Ciampa

Spot of the Night:

Have to give some love to Kairi Sane’s insane elbow from the top rope all the way to the floor, taking out Baszler, Duke and Shafir with the move.

Io Sharai’s moonsault was impressive

Baszler’s winning pin move, turning an Insane Elbow into a pinning predicament.

Some really good action in several matches. For the main event, too many to choose.

Jobber of the Night:

Kassius Ohno, and it was not even close. Serious question, but is the vet on his way out of NXT? I mean, he could have gotten a big push, but instead he seems to be the jobber to the stars

Upset of the Night:

I don’t think much on the show could be called an upset. I mean, you might argue that Riddle over Ohno, at least in that fashion, was a shock…but a shock is not an upset.

Holy Sh** Moment of the Night:

Forgetting for a moment about the scripted nature of the show, it was still pretty surprising at how much outside interference was booked into the women’s title match. Ref let a lot go (as I am sure the script called for).

And then there was the major job done by Kassius Ohno which was also surprising

Noteworthy Moment:

Not a single title change tonight. With only two of the belts being defended, the chances for a change were less, but still there.

Overall lowlights:

Nothing I would complain about, outside of it being weird to have a TakeOver show end so early. If you are in LA, the show wraps so early you can go out and still have plenty of time for an evening out.

Overall highlights:

Really the whole card, from top to bottom. After the last TakeOver or two felt a little lacking compared to previous efforts, tonight’s show served as a reminder of exactly how great the TakeOver shows can  be and have been.

The crowd was hot throughout too-I know I didn’t catch nearly all of the chants.

After the final bell:

Since this is the last NXT show of the year, we have to believe that this event brought closure to some feuds, while setting up some future clashes. Gargano and Black, even though it was only one TakeOver match, felt over at the end of it-Black definitively deafeated Johnny Wrestling. Kairi Sane lost to Shayna Baszler, which leads me to believe Baszler will move on to a new challenger soon enough…which surprised me as I expected Shayna on the main roster soon enough.

All in all, a satisfying conclusion to the 2018 TakeOver series.

Results:

Matt Riddle knocks out Kassius Ohno in 5 seconds

Shayna Baszler defeats Kairi Sane, 2 falls to 1 and retains the NXT women’s championship

Aleister Black takes a measure of revenge by defeating Johnny Gargano

Tommaso Ciampa successfully defends his NXT title against the Velveteen Dream

The team of War Raiders, Ricochet and Pete Dunne defeat the Undisputed Era