[2019-01-26-WWE-NXT Takeover: Phoenix] Roderick Strong & Kyle O'Reilly vs War Raiders

[paul sosnowski]

Kyle O'Reilly & Roderick Strong defend the NXT tag team titles against Hanson & Rowe.   Talk about it here

[RingoPlaysDrums]

I loved this. My MOTN. I wasn't that into War Raiders beforehand and since I don't expect TUE to get the call up to the main roster any time soon I figured they might retain here. But I wasn't too bothered either way. However, this match got me really into the Raiders and I became convinced that this was their time and they NEEDED to win the belts here over the course of the match. TUE will live to fight another day and likely get them back at some point over the next few months. Hanson was the star of the show here. That hand spring elbow was ridiculous. 

[Kadaveri]

Very good fun opener. The Roddy/Kyle tag team has been one of the most consistently good acts in WWE the past year or so, can't think of a single match where it felt like they didn't believe. This was War Machine's big night though, they've been good on the indies/NJPW for a while but this was the night where they had to show newcomers what they're all about. Hanson looked great.

***1/2

[Tenese Sarwieh]

This was the second MOTN and possibly the best Hansen/Rowe has ever looked in their careers. Strong/O'Reilly were great as usual and they bumped their asses off trying to make the raiders the two baddest beast in the world. The power spots were on point and that hot tag from Hanson was incredible. 2019 has already been a good year for tag team wrestling. 

[ShittyLittleBoots]

Let's get to the brief positives first: Roddy & Kyle sure excel at bumping their asses off for their babyface opponents' shine & comebacks. Hanson's hot tag with that cartwheel spot was also really good. Sadly the match just wasn't overall very interesting. It didn't have half the energy UE's matches vs. Burch & Oney + Moustache Mountain had. Neither did it have the laser focused psychology of their matches vs. AOP & MM. Also the Rowe FIP bit surprised me, because of how bland it was. So far I've LOVED every other heat segment by Roddy & Kyle, but my goodness were they just straight up dull as hell working the heat here. Kyle's offense looked super weak too - it's something that wasn't unusual for him pre-WWE, but I think he has kept it very nice & tight ever since the UE run started, so it surprised me here quite a bit. Not a good match, and very disappointing because the Kyle & Roddy pairing is one of my favorite things in wrestling right now. **

[Makai Club #1]

Yet another good opener by The Era. They did a pretty good job at cutting War Raiders off and slowing them down by attacking the legs like only they can. They also did some very smart wrestling, coming in attacking the other when they looked like they were gonna get a tag, hit some double team moves and generally covered for each other well. War Raiders did some impressive acrobatics but other than that, I feel like they didn’t contribute much. Maybe the entrance. ***

 

[Boss Rock]

One of if not the best match on the card (the other being Bianca-Shayna). The fast-paced, "anything goes" style of UE matches are always fun and it's a credit to Strong and O'Reilly that they're so consistently good at it. It was going to be tough to for UE to have believable heat segments with Hanson and Rowe, but Hanson taking himself out with a suicide dive really helped. Not to mention UE are so good at working over and breaking down their opponents in 2-on-1 situations. Loads of bombs, near-falls, and urgency. Can't go wrong.

****1/4

[nivvad]

Probably the best match I've seen the War Raiders have, like, ever? They were fine in ROH and New Japan, but I guess they finally put all the pieces together here in this very hard hitting match against the Era. Kyle and Roddy obviously have insane chemistry together as a team, so it wasn't any surprise they tore it up here again. Raiders showed off their unique athleticism too which gave the match an extra feeling of fun. The title change felt fresh too as Kyle/Roddy have held onto those belts for quite a while now, ****1/4.