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With one of the most highly anticipated Survivor Series on the horizon, NXT WarGames needed to set a high bar for the weekend of wrestling to come. More often than not, the Wednesday night developmental territory has surpassed the main roster PPVs, leaving WWE's main event wrestlers and writers looking slightly embarrassed.
With the in-ring return of Triple H and the Shield, NXT had to do something special in order to keep the pace. The result we received was War Games, a match made popular by WCW which involves multiple men/teams in the ring at one time, all vying for supremacy.
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Did they do enough to impress us on a weekend that will also see an ROH show and the start of NJPW's world tag league? Here are 5 questions from the event that might help us decide:
#1 How low must Kassius Ohno be feeling right now?
Lars Sullivan's victory over Kassius Ohno at NXT Takeover had a degree of cruel irony to it. For those unaware, Ohno was the man originally set to join Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins as part of The Shield before the role was given to Roman Reigns back at Survivor Series 2012.
Now, five years later, while The Shield is set to take part in a highly anticipated traditional Survivor Series match involving Kurt Angle, Triple H and John Cena, Ohno finds himself kicking off the weekend by ''jobbing'' to Sullivan.
The loss might not have been a complete squash, but there was little hope of Kassius coming away with the win. The WWE clearly want to push Sullivan owing to his size and strength, and they needed him to look impressive against somebody relatively established on the roster.
Perhaps Ohno is the kind of person who takes all this in his stride and uses it as motivation to get better. However, it would take quite a strong constitution to not feel disheartened seeing as though things could have gone so differently for him if the WWE's bookers had listened to CM Punk all those years ago.
#2 Can this feud please continue?
Simply put, the match between Aleister Black and The Velveteen Dream, as well as the feud leading up to it, was sensational. In a night where two new champions were crowned and War Games made its hugely anticipated return to our screens, these two men more than did enough to distract our attention and maybe even steal the night.
The beauty of this feud stems from its ability to add more layers to two promising yet relatively untested characters - at least in terms of the WWE. Black may have come to the company with a readily made cohort of fans, but is yet to prove himself on the biggest stage. Velveteen Dream is also slowly winning his way into the hearts of the WWE Universe and this bout from last night went a huge way towards making that a reality.
Wrestling feuds always benefit from having two men or women with contrasting styles and personas. On the surface, you would struggle to get two more different gimmicks than Black and Dream and the contrast worked fantastically. Apart from the in-ring action being great in itself, you also had the ongoing battle for psychological supremacy, and the fact that Dream wanted his opponent to 'say his name'.
If the WWE are smart, they will revisit this feud again, preferably in the next few weeks as these two did more than enough to prove they are a solid part of the NXT lineup, especially when they are working off each other.
#3 Should the Mae Young Classic winner have won the title?
Going into the Fatal 4-way for the NXT Women's Championship, it felt like there were really only two worthy winners of the title - Kairi Sane and Ember Moon. Moon had come closer than anyone else to ending Asuka's streak and had the Empress of Tomorrow not suffered her injury, it's likely Ember would have eventually taken the belt away from her.
On the other hand, Sane was going into the match as the inaugural winner of the Mae Young Classic. The fact that she failed to gain the title might have downplayed the importance of the tournament somewhat. Perhaps it would have been better to validate Sane's achievements by gifting her the belt at the first time of asking.
Also, there might also have been a story to tell with Moon not walking away with the title. The fact that she has come so close on numerous occasions would have served to give her, even more, babyface sympathy from the NXT Universe. Fans would have rallied behind her in her ongoing attempt to claim what is rightly hers.
This would have given a whole other dimension to the feud that is likely going to occur between Sane and Moon - and could have perhaps precipitated a heel turn somewhere down the line.
The fact that Sane is still empty handed probably hurts her more as now she has to start from square one, despite proving she is worthy of winning a huge tournament. That being said, we can surely look forward to some great matches between the two of them going forward.
#4 Was this the most shocking NXT Championship victory ever?
Despite the widely held appreciation we all have for NXT, there's no denying that in terms of championship victories, the product can be a little predictable. Usually, there is a familiar pattern to how to NXT belts are handed over - someone works their way up the ladder, has a couple of attempts and eventually wins the title while the loser looks forward to a promotion to RAW or Smackdown.
Starting from Adrian Neville, we saw a steady progression from him to Sami Zayn, then to Kevin Owens, Finn Balor, Samoa Joe, Shinsuke Nakamura, Bobby Roode and Drew McIntyre. On none of these occasions was the victory particularly unexpected. Of course, we did see Joe's shock victory on a house show, but that was more about the occasion rather than the person involved.
This is why Cien Almas's victory last night proved to be such a shock. While his stock has certainly improved since being partnered with Zelina Vega, not many people expected him to be gifted the NXT Championship just yet.
Not only has the feud between him and McIntyre been short, but Drew seems a long way off from a main roster promotion, meaning these two will probably meet a fair few times before that happens.
This gives the current championship feud a sense of originality, which is by no means a bad thing.
#5 Is this NXT's strongest mid-card division?
Some might have looked at the card for NXT War Games and felt a little sorry for Drew McIntyre and Cien Almas. While we are used to seeing the championship match not main event PPVs on the main roster, NXT typically concludes its shows with either the men's or women's title bout.
Far from being a fault with either competitor, the fact that War Games did not finish with the men's title match owes to the fact that NXT has one hell of a mid-card division at the moment. For quite a while, Sanity were at a bit of a loss seeing as they were the only established faction on the roster. This made them look slightly awkward, spinning their wheels between meaningless feuds.
Now, with the debuts of Cole, O'Reilly and Fish, and Roderick Strong's temporary alignment with the Authors of Pain, Sanity finally has some worthy competition. So much so that people are all but completely focused on them rather than the two championship feuds.
Never before has NXT enjoyed such a healthy mid-card. Sure, we have seen quite a few boom periods for the product, but normally it is made up of a group of singles stars all looking to get their hands on the NXT Championship. This feud between the three teams has been fun, engaging and feels like it has a point to it away from the title.
If NXT continues down this road, this could be the greatest era the developmental territory has ever seen.
