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NXT Recap – Roster Honors Pat Patterson at WarGames Go-Home Show

Going head to head with AEW's Winter is Coming on Wednesday, December 2nd is WWE NXT's go-home show for Takeover War Games, airing this Sunday. Tonight we'll learn who has the advantage in the women's War Games match at the show, and maybe even who the fourth member of Shotzi Blackheart's team is. Plus… probably some other stuff, I guess. WWE tends to book their matches an hour before the show.

I'm Jude Terror, and this is The Shovel: Wednesday Night Wars edition, the column where I watch wrestling, so you don't have to. And this is part one of the WWE NXT recap (split into two parts, one for each hour so that I can get paid twice).

WWE NXT Recap for December 2nd, 2020 Part 1

NXT opens with the roster on the stage having a moment of silence for Pat Patterson. Then a Pat Patterson video package. These are always a tearjerker. It's set to My Way by Sinatra, which Patterson was famous for singing on Karaoke (we see a clip of that). They show a ton of photos of Patterson throughout the decades with all the wrestlers, many of whom are also gone. One of the last shots is Patterson with Mean Gene. Man. I'm not crying. You're crying. The roster, including coaches, is all standing there… and…. they ruin it with a piped-in "thank you, Pat" chant. Goddammit, WWE. It was particularly obvious, too, because "thank you, Pat" isn't something they can just pull out of some ten-year-old show, so they very clearly had the roster chant it in unison and record it earlier today.

NXT appears to have a new metalcore theme song. After the opening, Damian Priest is in the ring. Johnny Gargano is on commentary. Leon Ruff comes out. We see a video of Legado del Fantasma getting in Priest's face backstage earlier today. Priest jacks one of them up. That explains what's going on here, which is Priest and Ruff teaming up to face Santos Escobar and Raul Mendoza, who come to the ring now.

They have a match. Every week Leon Ruff is out here and not rocking some kind of dog-themed gimmick is a week that WWE has wasted. Strap a rocket to Leon Ruff's back, and strap a fake tail to his ass, and push him to the moon, dammit! Ruff wins this match after tagging himself in while Priest hits the Reckoning on Mendoza. One splash later, and he has the pinfall.

Damian Priest and Leon Ruff defeat Legado del Fantasma via pinfall.

Priest and  Ruff stare down Gargano after the match. Then we see a video package recapping last week's main event, and NXT takes a commercial break. After that, more video promoting War Games. Cameron Grimes is seen backstage with a bag in his hand. Is he huffing glue? Find out after some more commercials.

After the break, McKenzie Mitchell interviews Candice LeRae and her War Games team. Candice puts over Indi Hartwell for taking a bullet for the team last week. She says her team has everything it needs to win on Sunday. Raquel Gonzales says she'll win the War Games advantage match against Blackheart tonight.

August Grey is in the ring. Cameron Grimes comes out. I can see now his bag is more of a burlap sack, like the one from the blindfold match. Probably a strap in there, I guess. Yup. Grimes whips it out. He and Grey have a match. Grey loses, as jobbers do.

Cameron Grimes defeats August Grey via pinfall.

Grimes cuts a promo on Lumis after the match. He says Lumis made a mistake asking to be strapped to a real man like Cameron Grimes. He puts the strap on himself and on Gray and kicks Grey's ass a little more. But while he's not looking, Lumis replaces Grey, and then he kicks Grimes's ass. Grimes flees. NXT takes another commercial break.

Jake Atlas is in the ring. So is Tony Nese. They have a match. Commentary does their best to claim this would be a big win for Atlas if he can beat Nese. It's such a huge match that the camera cuts outside to Pat McAfee and the Kings of NXT arriving at the building in the middle of it. Atlas wins with a cartwheel DDT.

Jake Atlas defeats Tony Nese via pinfall.

After the match, McKenzie Mitchell interviews Atlas. He says, taking one step forward and two steps back is the story of his life. But he never gives up. This is just the beginning. He's going after Santos Escobar and the NXT Cruiserweight Championship. Basically generic babyface promo #5.

Pat McAfee and the boys are walking backstage as NXT takes a commercial break. They'll be in the ring to cut a promo after the break, and you can read about that promo in part two of this NXT recap.

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