Match Predictions and Heat Index Anticipation Levels
Temperature Scale = Scorching > Hot > Lukewarm > Temperate > Chilly > Cold > Freezing
Heat Index is my assessment of how interesting the segment is, including how excited I am for the match and how intriguing the feud has been. The hotter, the better. Scorching translates to not being able to wait to see it, while Freezing means I couldn’t possibly care less and think it will be awful.
MEN’S WARGAMES MATCH:
Bron Breakker, Carmelo Hayes, Grayson Waller and Tony D’Angelo vs. Tommaso Ciampa, Johnny Gargano, LA Knight and Pete Dunne
Heat Index = Lukewarm
Prediction: Team 2.0 wins.
Thoughts: This is a far, far cry from what WarGames has been in the past. It’s hard for me to get super invested in these new guys without knowing them well enough to sink my teeth in their stories. All I know about Breakker is that he’s intense, he’s a Steiner and he failed to win the NXT Championship. Hayes is cocky and has some talent, too, but he’s still so fresh that I’m not going gaga yet. Waller’s all over the place and can’t settle on a direction, while D’Angelo is much better as a babyface. The Black and Gold team feels thrown together, too, as Ciampa and Gargano make sense, but Knight and Dunne? Look. Talented people are here, so I’m sure it’ll be fun to watch, but I can’t pat WWE on the back for just tossing some names into a cage and saying “Good enough. You’ll like it, or shut up, we don’t want to hear your opinion and you’re a bad fan.”
WOMEN’S WARGAMES MATCH:
Toxic Attraction (Mandy Rose, Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jayne) and Dakota Kai vs. Cora Jade, Io Shirai, Kay Lee Ray and Raquel Gonzalez
Heat Index = Lukewarm
Prediction: Team Gonzalez wins.
Thoughts: I expect Team 2.0 to beat Team Black and Gold for the men, so I think the women’s match will go to the babyfaces. Someone like Kay Lee Ray scoring the pin for the team could lead to the next challenger for Mandy Rose, too. Just like the other match, though, I don’t feel like this has a lot of synergy to it. Toxic Attraction makes sense and for them to recruit Dakota Kai is logical, but Cora Jade and Kay Lee Ray feel odd to me on the opposite team. They just started feuding with them for the sake of this match and KLR even turned babyface out of nowhere for that. Had this been Zoey Stark, who is injured, it would be a little easier to get on board with, but that’s not to say KLR won’t make the match itself better. Still, I can’t say I’m Scorching or Hot because I don’t think this will be too much more than a fun mess that won’t come close to a Match of the Year candidate like some others have in the past.
NXT CRUISERWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH:
Roderick Strong (c) vs. Joe Gacy
Heat Index = Cold
Prediction: Roderick Strong wins.
Thoughts: I don’t get this. Why is Joe Gacy, who is 240-some pounds, fighting for the Cruiserweight Championship? It’s not even as if he’s a babyface to go up against Diamond Mine, as Gacy’s even more of a heel than Strong is, by proxy. None of this makes sense and it came out of nowhere at random a few weeks ago. Not only do I not dig the feud, I also don’t think the match will be great.
HAIR VS HAIR MATCH:
Cameron Grimes vs. Duke Hudson
Heat Index = Temperate
Prediction: Duke Hudson wins.
Thoughts: I like both these guys and I’m curious who will get their head shaved, but I can’t say I’m particularly excited for this match. The feud’s been kind of lackluster and I don’t think they’ll end up having the best chemistry. This feels more like it should have been someone else against Grimes, rather than Hudson, who should be feuding with someone else in an entirely different storyline, too. I’ll go with Hudson winning since he has a clean cut look already and there had been rumors of Grimes getting a haircut for a while.
NXT TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH:
Imperium (c) vs. Kyle O’Reilly and Von Wagner
Heat Index = Chilly
Prediction: Imperium wins.
Thoughts: I’m assuming this will at least be decent, but I can’t say I’m particularly excited for it. The belts aren’t changing hands. If they are, it’s going to feel every bit as completely random and without direction as things have been lately. This pairing of O’Reilly and Wagner is odd and I’m not too fond of it. In the long lineage of fantastic tag team bouts at TakeOver events (although this isn’t a TakeOver anymore), I don’t expect this to be one of those classics.
OVERALL PPV:
How excited am I for the event as a whole?
Heat Index = Temperate
Thoughts: NXT pay-per-views are usually pretty good. However, this is a new regime with a new lineup in total disorder. The card feels very thrown together and random, which doesn’t give me a lot of hope that there’s much thought into this. I can’t even also say that you can just bet on the wrestlers pulling off a great show anyway despite the odd booking, because so many of them are so new that I’m not sure what their level of output on a show like this can be. Therefore, I’m in the middle range. I’m interested to see what goes down, but I’m not expecting much, to be honest.
What do you think is going to happen at WWE NXT WarGames? Which matches are you most excited to see? Keep the discussion going in the comments below!
