NXT TakeOver: War Games is this Sunday and will feature two big War Games matches, both a men and women’s, as well as a triple threat match for the North American title, a strap match between Cameron Grimes and Dexter Lumis, and a singles match between Timothy Thatcher and Tommaso Ciampa.
The Women’s War Game will feature the team of Ember Moon, Io Shirai, Rhea Ripley and Shotzi Blackheart taking on Candice LeRae, Dakota Kai, Raquel Gonzalez and Toni Storm with Indi Hartwell. In a weird twist, the babyface team will have the advantage in this one.
The Men’s match will have Pat McAfee, Pete Dunne, Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch taking on the Undisputed Era team of Adam Cole, Bobby Fish, Roderick Strong, and Kyle O’Reilly. This is the more traditional War Games match with the heel team having the advantage thanks to Dunne’s win over O’Reilly a week ago.
Take Over will also see the North American title on the line as Leon Ruff defends against Damian Priest and Johnny Gargano. They are doing the whole “this little guy is champion? lol” storyline with Ruff so you have to think that his title reign is going to end at some point. Could it be Sunday? Maybe!
BetOnline also has betting odds for the strap match between Cameron Grimes and Dexter Lumis.
WWE NXT TakeOver 31 Betting Odds:
- Strap match – Dexter Lumis (-250) vs. Cameron Grimes (+200)
- North American title: Leon Ruff (-200) vs. Johnny Gargano (+150) vs. Damien Priest (+225)
- War Games – Adam Cole, Bobby Fish, Roderick Strong, and Kyle O’Reilly (-300) vs. Pat McAfee, Pete Dunne, Oney Lorcan and Danny Burch (+240)
- War Games – Ember Moon, Io Shirai, Rhea Ripley and Shotzi Blackheart (-200) vs. Candice LeRae, Dakota Kai, Raquel Gonzalez and Toni Storm (+150)
I looked at the previous War Games results and the babyface team has won every time except for the first one, which was a three-way so it really doesn’t count. That was what this match was designed to be, but I think we might get something different here in one of these two. I’m just not quite sure which one.
The betting odds favor the women’s match for the potential upset, but does that even make sense? The Ripley team gets the advantage in the match so they are going to have the advantage and then lose? I know this is the same company that had Ripley lose to Charlotte, but that seems just dumb.
The men’s match feels like a better bet for the upset. Undisputed Era has dominated the scene for years as a heel team so now that they are the babyface team in this match, them losing makes a certain amount of sense. Poetic justice, if you will.
I might just bet both of these underdogs though because I know one will win and as long as one does that will be a profit.
Lumis should win the strap match. My only real reservation is that Lumis is thirty-six years old and should probably go to Raw or Smackdown at some point, but I also know that we are beyond that kind of thinking when it comes to NXT.
Finally, we have the three-way for the NXT North American title. This is a tough one because they are doing the underdog storyline with Ruff, but Gargano and Priest don’t really need this title. Priest is thirty-eight and they clearly like him, but like I just said about Lumis – we are beyond that thinking. So I’m going with Priest here, getting revenge for his loss against Johnny at Halloween Havoc.
Upcoming Events:
Event: | Date: | Where to Bet: |
---|---|---|
WWE Royal Rumble 2022 | January 29 | BetOnline.Ag. |
AEW Revolution | March 6 | BetOnline.Ag. |
WWE WrestleMania | April 3 | BetOnline.Ag. |