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WWE NXT Recap – Lines Have Been Drawn for NXT Takeover War Games

On WWE NXT this week, Cameron Grimes gets attached to Dexter Lumis. Plus: the end of an Undisputed Era? Read all about it here!

I'm Jude Terror, and this is The Shovel: Wednesday Night Wars edition, covering AEW Dynamite and WWE NXT. It's the day before Thanksgiving, but the struggle for ratings dominance doesn't take a holiday, and neither does the 24-hour wrestling news cycle. And so, you can be thankful this week that you didn't have to spend four hours watching wrestling on Wednesday night because I've done it for you. But enough words. Let's get to recapping!

WWE NXT Recap for November 25th, 2020 Part 2

McKenzie Mitchell talks to Pete Dunne backstage about his match with Kyle O'Reilly tonight. Dunne saw what O'Reilly did to Finn Balor, but Dunne would have done worse. Now it's time for The KO Show. Kevin Owens is in the ring. He brings out Leon Ruff.

Owens gives Ruff the floor to get his message across. He says he wanted to be a WWE Superstar his whole life, and honestly, I think he's always been cut out for it. Like I've been saying for a few weeks now, Ruff is perfect for some kind of dog-themed gimmick.

Owens asks Ruff what it means to have the North American Championship. He says it proves all the haters and naysayers wrong. He wants to be an inspiration for people to live their dreams. Owens coaches Ruff on being less humble and more assertive. He says people need to hear who Ruff is.

Ruff stands up and starts yelling and kicking chairs around. He says he beat Johnny Gargano twice, and he can do anything he wants. Owens says now Gargano is gonna come out now that Ruff said his name. Gargano comes out.

Gargano disagrees that Ruff beat him. He makes a reference to Punk'd and Ashton Kutcher. Even Owens calls him out on the dated reference. Owens gives Gargano a chair. Gargano calls it stupid and tosses it out of the ring. Actually, it looks like a pretty nice chair, to be honest.

Owens gets out another chair. Gargano asks who it's for. Owens says he has a hunch. Gargano starts berating Ruff and says that the only reason he won is because of Damian Priest. Owens says now Damian Priest is gonna come out, and Priest does.

Priest talks some trash to Gargano and says, "the little homie" beat Gargano twice. Gargano says that was because of Priest and shoves Ruff backward into one of the chairs. Ruff gets in Gargano's face. Priest breaks it up and brings up Ruff's challenge last week, saying he'd defend the title against both of them.

Owens says he wishes Teddy Long were here to come out and make a Triple Threat match. They don't have Long, but they do have William Regal, who comes out and makes that match.. for Takeover War Games.

This segment was really god damn long for something that I thought was already settled in a 30-second backstage segment last week when Ruff originally made the challenge. Did they just have nothing else to do tonight and needed to fill time?

Finn Balor, in a video package, cuts a weird promo about kitty litter. Then NXT takes a commercial break. Then Cameron Grimes and Jake Atlas have a match. Grimes wins clean with a Cave-In.

Cameron Grimes defeats Jake Atlas via pinfall.

Dexter Lumis appears behind Grimes while he's celebrating, and Grimes runs from the ring. Lumis has a video played on the titantron making fun of Grimes, with footage of him running away from stuff intercut with Lumis's cartoon of Grimes running. Grimes gets mad. Lumis tosses a strap out of the ring at Grimes. Grimes says he's not gonna face Lumis in a strap match (which, of course, means he will).

Rhea Ripley is seen walking backstage as NXT takes a commercial break. After the break, William Regal tells Cameron Grimes he will face Dexter Lumis in a strap match at War Games. See?

Rhea Ripley is in the ring to cut a promo. She gives Io Shirai props for their match last week and mentions all the speculation that Ripley is headed to the main roster, which she attributed to the hug between Ripley and Shirai last week. But Ripley says that hug was just respect and not a sendoff. Ripley is here to stay, and she wants the championship.

Candice LeRea comes out with Toni Storm. LeRea mocks Ripley. She says Ripley is all talk and can't back it up. But LeRea can. Dakota Kai and Raquel Gonzalez come out. Gonzalez has an unconscious Io Shirai on her shoulder. They charge the ring. Ripley fights back but can't take them all for long. No one comes out to help Ripley, so she just gets beat down. LeRea and her War Games team leave. NXT takes a commercial break.

A terrified Boa and Xia Lee are driven to a secretive location (actually, it appears to just be the other side of the WWE Performance Center), where they meet with a mysterious figure in a hooded robe, to whom they apologize profusely. They ask for one more chance. An old man writes a mark on their hands. Okay?

Ever Rise are in the ring for a match, but they're attacked from behind by two guys in suits who commentary says are Grizzled Young Veterans. Apparently, they're from NXT UK. They beat down Ever Rise and introduce themselves. They're back in NXT and will soon be the number one tag team. They hit an assisted codebreaker on one of the Ever Rise guys for emphasis.

McKenzie Mitchell asks Candice LeRea to explain herself as she's walking to her car in the parking lot. LeRea says anyone who joins Shotzi Blackheart's team is getting run over. Johnny Gargano shows up. He says LeRea will win at War Games, and so will he. They get in an SUV with Indi Hartwell and another person in the Scream costume, and they leave. So another mystery person? Who could it be?

Kyle O'Reilly comes out to the ring for the War Games advantage match. Undisputed Era and Lorcan and Birch are at the top of the stage on platforms to keep them from interfering. Pete Dunne heads to the ring. They have a match. A ladder match. It's a pretty good match. Nothing too special. All the usual ladder match spots, including a suplex through a ladder suspended at ringside. If anything, the match is a little long, at least to appreciate at midnight on Thanksgiving Eve.

When O'Reilly is about to win the match, a person wearing a mask comes out and pushes the ladder over, sending O'Reilly falling to the floor. Then Pete Dunne grabs it.

Pete Dunne defeats Kyle O'Reilly in a ladder match.

And that's a wrap for WWE NXT and for me. For two days! That's right, I wrote enough articles and banked them that I don't have to write a single thing until Smackdown starts on Friday night! And what more could a comics/wrestling "journalist" be thankful for?! Happy Thanksgiving, unless you live outside the U.S., in which case: f*** you.

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