Posted in: Sports, TV, WWE | Tagged: NXT, recaps, The Shovel, wargames, wrestling, wwe

NXT Takeover Wargames Results – North American Championship Match

Who won when Leon Ruff defended the North American title against Johnny Gargano and Damian Priest in a triple threat at NXT Takeover WarGames?

Emanating from the COVID Wrestling Center (CWC) in Orlando, Florida, on December 6th, NXT Takeover WarGames is the final NXT PPV event of 2020. There are just five matches scheduled for the show. Timothy Thatcher will face Tommaso Ciampa in an alpha male dominance match. Dexter Lumis and Cameron Grimes will do battle in a strap match. Leon Ruff defends his NXT North American Title against Johnny Gargano and Damian Priest in a triple threat. And then there are the two WarGames matches. For the women, on one side, Ember Moon, Rhea Ripley, and Io Shirai join Shotzi Blackheart to take on Candice LeRea's team of Toni Storm, Dakota Kai, and Raquel Gonzalez. For the men, Undisputed Era's Adam Cole, Kyle O'Reilly, Roderick Strong, and Bobby Fish face Pat McAfee's team of Pete Dunne, Danny Burch, and Oney Lorcan. The show can be watched live and on-demand on the WWE Network.

[MULTINAV]

NXT Takeover WarGames 2020 Results Part 5

Pat McAfee and his boys are seen getting ready backstage. Undisputed Era too. But before that main event, there's a triple threat match. And before that, Vic Joseph shills for Mattel's NXT Takeover WarGames playset, which is admittedly pretty damn cool. A video package shows a bunch of creepy video of a vulture that ends with the words "Tick Tock." Karrion Kross will be back as soon as he's done testifying at one of those Trump election fraud trials.

Damian Priest and Johnny Gargano come to the ring, and then the champ comes out. Disappointingly, Leon Ruff has not taken my advice and gotten a dog-themed gimmick, even though his name demands it.

The match gets started. Priest is dominant at first, prompting Gargano and Ruff to team up, but Gargano quickly turns on Ruff. The brawl moves up the stage, and Priest powerbombs rough through one of the plexiglass barriers (which was gimmicked to tip over and didn't have any people behind it.

Officials tend to Ruff and carry him away. Gargano DDTs Priest on the floor. Gargano gloats at Ruff and then brings Priest over to the ring. He goes for One Final Beat on the stage, but Priest dodges. Gargano dodges a Reckoning. They trade moves in the ring. Gargano ends up with the advantage, but then Ruff comes running back to the ring to the wild cheers of a half-real, half-fake crowd. Ruff hits some flashy, flippy dives on Priest and Gargano that focus groups say would be 10% more likeable by viewers if Ruff were wearing some floppy ears, a dog nose, and painted-on whiskers.

Ruff takes on and defeats Gargano, but he's no match for Priest, who hits a double flatline on both of them (with one arm). Priest hits running elbows on both guys and then tosses Ruff into Gargano. He goes for Razor's Edge on Gargano, but Gargano shoves him into the ring post. Then he literally tosses Leon Ruff like a lawn dart, headfirst into Priest's head.

Gargano ties Priest's arms up in the ropes so he can't get free. Gargano and Ruff go at it. Ruff hits a crucifix bomb, which Vic Joseph points out is how he won the belt. But Gargano kicks out. Ruff foes up top and goes for a frogsplash. Gargano puts the Gargano Escape on right in front, but out of reach, of Priest.

Priest breaks free and saves Ruff. He hits a spin kick off the top rope. Gargano rolls out of the ring, so Priest goes after Ruff. Ruff tries to clothesline Priest twice but can't budge him. Priest tosses Ruff toward the ropes, and Gargano hits him with a knee strike mid-air.

Priest is about to beat Gargano when several people in Scream costumes show up and attack Priest. Priest makes short work of all of them. The fake crowd goes wild. More of them show up, and Priest hits a big springboard flip over the top rope on them. Then another dive out the other side of the ring on another bunch. Then he catches a Gargano ambush attempt mid-air and chokeslams him onto the apron.

Gargano rolls inside, and Ruff hits a frogsplash and almost gets the pinfall, but Priest slides in just in time to break it up. Priest takes out Ruff. Then he goes for a Reckoning on Gargano. Gargano avoids it. They trade kicks, and Priest takes Gargano down. He goes for Reckoning but gets hit with a lead pipe by another scream costume guy.

With Priest out cold outside the ring, Ruff tries to roll up Gargano, but Gargano escapes, hits One Final Beat, and gets the pin.

Johnny Gargano pins Leon Ruff to win by pinfall.

The lead pipe wielding Scream mask guy removes his mask to reveal he's Austin Theory. "It was me all along: Austin." Heh.

That was an inspired triple threat match—great work by Ruff, believable in the underdog role here. Gargano won in the most despicable way possible, with a ton of interference and by pinning the (half fake) crowd favorite and crushing his hopes and dreams. Priest looked like a monster in the match despite losing. It will be tough to top this match, but the main event has a good shot, if only for pure numbers!

Bleeding Cool's live coverage of NXT Takeover WarGames continues for one more match. Check back for the results of the final match soon.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!