Shotzi’s WarGames team assembles to gain a rare advantage

The women’s ladder match main event of the Dec. 2 NXT didn’t quite live up to the men’s one from the week prior, but it ended in a more interesting place, for a couple reasons.

Raquel González and Shotzi Blackheart certainly didn’t hold back in their fight to decide which of their teams would have the entray advantage in WarGames this Sunday at TakeOver. They showed off with plenty of the kind of innovative and painful-looking spots ladder matches are known for.

The real fun started when Indi Hartwell brought a ladder to help Candice LeRae’s team escape from the platform where they were watching the action. Blackheart’s teammates Ember Moon & Rhea Ripley escaped too, and evened the odds on the floor with LeRae, Toni Storm & Dakota Kai.

But when Hartwell helped González head to the briefcase that earned a team the right to have numbers in the build-up to full WarGames, the as-yet-unrevealed fourth member of Team Shotzi appeared. In her typical amazing fashion:

Women’s champ Io Shirai took out Raquel, then moonsaulted onto the masses at ringside.

That allowed Blackheart to retrieve the case, and make hers the rare babyface team who will have numbers in the two cage set-up this weekend at TakeOver: WarGames.

Shotzi’s superteam posed on the ladder as the episode drew to a close.

With their squad assembled, and one other match added to the line-up for Sun., Dec. 6, the card for TakeOver looks complete:

- Undisputed ERA (Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly, Roderick Strong & Bobby Fish) vs. Pat McAfee, Pete Dunne, Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch in WarGames; McAfee’s team has the entry advantage

- Candice LeRae, Toni Storm, Dakota Kai & Raquel González vs. Shotzi Blackheart, Ember Moon, Rhea Ripley & Io Shirai; Blackheart’s team has the entry advantage

- Johnny Gargano vs. Leon Ruff (c) vs. Damian Priest for the North American championship

- Dexter Lumis vs. Cameron Grimes in a Strap Match

- Timothy Thatcher vs. Tommaso Ciampa

Ready for war?