Eric Young recently wrote a new ‘Life On The Road’ column for ESPN.com recapping his experience competing in the War Games match at NXT Takeover: War Games; you can read a few excerpts below:
When I stepped out to the floor of the Toyota Center for the first time, the cage was already lowered, and it was insane-looking — everything I thought it was going to be. It was this kind of shiny, weirdly terrifying object sitting over two rings, and it’s SO big. You’re used to seeing one ring, and having two side-by-side in a space like this was pretty staggering. To think that I was going to be allowed to play in there in a couple of hours, it’s pretty exciting.
In that moment, I felt as many nerves as I’d ever felt, but good nerves. I felt like we had a pretty good one planned for this setting. The way it was set up, the whole night was going to be a constant reminder to the crowd of what was to come, between the two rings set up and the cage hanging overhead the whole time. It set the mood nicely as fans filed in. I imagine it felt cool for wrestling fans who were in attendance to be a part of that history as well.
WWE NXT Takeover War Games Results (11/18) New Champions Crowned, Who Survived War Games?
This is an iconic wrestling match. No matter if you watched NWA or WCW or WWE when you were growing up, War Games is its own thing. It was the culmination of the bitterest rivalries — a way to settle the score by locking two groups of people in there and having them beat the crap out of each other until one side emerged victorious.
At my core, I’m a wrestling fan too, and I like to try to think about moments like this from the fan’s perspective as well. What is that like? In 10 years I’m going to be saying I was there for the first one, and I’m guessing these fans who were in Houston will say the same. I will be written into the history books as one of the nine people who took part in the WWE’s very first War Games match.
