By: Mike Kelly
The ropes stretch back to their limit, testing the strength of the tensile material that holds them together. More quickly than they are pulled back, those same ropes snap forward. Wooden planks thud and groan as over 300 pounds of humanity comes crashing down. An official’s hand hits the mat once, and the atmosphere changes as roughly 18,000 humans exclaim in unison:
“ONE!”
The official’s hand comes down a second time, and the crowd obliges once again:
“TWO!”
A young lady in the upper deck loses her composure, and from 200 feet away cries, “Kick out!”
The official’s hand begins to fall for a third, potentially final time and the crowd tenses itself, reluctantly ready to help the official finish the match:
“Thr-YES!” The crowd explodes as a shoulder flies off the mat, narrowly escaping the official’s match-ending third count. The woman in the upper deck excitedly shoves the man in the row in front of her while the packed house in Rosemont, Illinois’ Allstate Arena comes unglued.
One fan named Adam Taylor was already comparing some of the moments from the weekend to other iconic wrestling events.
“My mouth just completely fell open,” Taylor said after the first night’s event.
This was the scene at “NXT Takeover: WarGames” on Saturday, November 23 a few miles outside of Chicago, Illinois. Saturday night’s event was the second event in World Wrestling Entertainment’s “Survivor Series” weekend in Chicago. Over the course of four consecutive days, fans at Allstate Arena were treated to four live and televised professional wrestling events including “WWE Friday Night Smackdown,” Saturday’s “NXT Takeover: WarGames,” Sunday’s “Survivor Series 2019,” and Monday’s bookend with “WWE Raw.”
The shows on Friday and Monday night served more ancillary roles, though, as the focal point of the weekend was undoubtedly the pay-per-view events that took place on Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday’s event was highly anticipated, and built around the inclusion of the iconic WarGames match stipulation, which was made famous in the 1980’s and 1990’s. The stipulation is loved by wrestling fans because of its dual-ring setup and massive steel cage. “NXT Takeover: WarGames” was only the third time the stipulation had been used since 2000.
Along with a match featuring eight popular performers like Adam Cole and Roderick Strong, the “WarGames” was promotion was also bolstered by a history making use of the stipulation: the first ever WarGames match featuring women’s wrestlers.
The team led by former MMA competitor and NXT Women’s Champion Shayna Baszler faced off against team captain Rhea Ripley’s squad in a violent affair that had the crowd on the edge of its feet. The physicality of the performers in the match left fans blown away and satisfied that they had seen something memorable. As the cage came down around female competitors for the first time, the crowd showered all eight women with praise, thanks, and congratulations for tearing down another barrier in women’s professional wrestling.
“It was awesome to see those athletes get out there and just destroy each other,” said Dan McMurray, another fan in attendance.
Sunday’s “Survivor Series” event was equally hyped, as competitors from all three of WWE’s major brands squared off in a series of matches meant to showcase the strength of the company’s three television shows. Throughout the night a series of triple threat matches pitted champions from Raw, Smackdown, and NXT against one another. Becky Lynch squared off against Baszler and Smackdown’s Bayley, while Raw US Champion AJ Styles shared the ring with Strong and Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura.
In the most important match of the night, the men’s teams from each show met in a five vs. five vs. five Survivor Series stipulation match to determine brand supremacy. Smackdown’s team, led by Roman Reigns, prevailed over the Raw and NXT squads, respectively led by Seth Rollins and Adam Cole.
At the end of Sunday night, fans left the arena simultaneously exhausted but exhilarated by an unforgettable weekend of pay-per-view events.
“That really wore me out,” said Matt Cassidy, a fan in attendance, “but they pulled off a great couple of days.”
WWE had never hosted such a packed weekend in Chicago before, but if the atmosphere at the events was any indicator, they will have a willing crowd if they choose to do it again.
Link to video story: https://youtu.be/PILTXzKOZwA