WRESTLING REVIEW: War Games V

Opening the show to this years Dusty Rhodes brainchild was the NXT women’s champion Mandy Rose and her team of Toxic Attraction against some of the usual stalwarts and new faces of what was once known as the black & gold brand.

The War started with Kay Lee Ray and Dakota Kai going head to head with baseball bats and Singapore canes as the women duked it out to gain an early advantage. Cora Jade popped up like an ollie, with her skateboard in hand, and assisted KLR in a two-on-one beatdown of Kai until GiGi Dolin made her presence known and echoed all of Kai’s thunderous kicks. As the ring filled up with women, trash cans, chairs, and canes the momentum kept a steady pace until the crescendo of Jade climbing to the top of the cage and crashing into Jacey Jayne waiting on the table below signified the official start of the match better than any bell could. Prior to this, Raquel Gonzalez made a more convincing face turn than she had in recent weeks, focused on getting vengeance on Kai for her part in ending her championship reign. She came into the ring with a shovel and blasting a fire extinguisher, the type of innovation that the bloodthirsty NXT audience can just eat up since they didn’t pay to see just another TLC pay-per view.

Though there was plenty of that, and the consequences were all the more brutal leading to an endearing spot where Io Shirai played nurse to Cora Jade by re-locating her shoulder, only briefly showing mercy before throwing her own ribs on top of a trash can while launching from the fourth rope. While Dolin played like Dakota Kai 2.0, she had a unique spot by using the trash can lid like Captain America’s shield, to accentuate her fancy footwork. Rose was a typical heel : on her knees at her worst , and baseball sliding a chair into an opponents face at her best. Kai rag-dolled her way through the match, but overall had one of the best stories in the matchup, seemingly burying the hatchet with Gonzalez while pushing forward her new erratic persona.
And though Kay Lee Ray teased a heel turn on Jade midway through the program, the stories were kept simple, nothing over complicated, but still interesting as seeing Gonzlaez throw Kai in a trash can more times than could possibly be counted ! Cora Jade saved the day at the end of the match, sneaking a roll-up on Jayce Jayne while all the competitors were out cold. No match stoppages for her injury that was then attended to after the match, the valor in her effort for her PPV debut will put her over for years to come. And to think she was just on 205 Live a month ago, a message for the girls performing on the canvas there every Friday.

With multiple women in this crazy match up that have held the main title in the past or present, it was a feat in itself that none of them overshadowed the fresher faces here on their pay-per view debut. Smackdown might want to change their slogan, because the Women’s NXT War Games just solidified the graffiti colored brand as the new land of opportunity.

Score : 5/5