The 2020 NXT TakeOver: WarGames was the 32nd NXT TakeOver and the fourth annual NXT WarGames professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was held exclusively for wrestlers from the promotion's NXT brand division. The event took place on December 6, 2020, from the Capitol Wrestling Center, hosted at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. It was the first WarGames event to air on traditional PPV in addition to the WWE Network. The 2020 event ended the show's tradition of being held as part of Survivor Series weekend. It was also the final WarGames held under the TakeOver series, which was discontinued in late 2021 with WarGames held as its own event that year.
Five matches were contested at the event. In the main event, The Undisputed Era (Adam Cole, Kyle O'Reilly, Roderick Strong, and Bobby Fish) defeated Team McAfee (Pat McAfee, Pete Dunne, Danny Burch, and Oney Lorcan) in a WarGames match while in the opening bout, Team Candice (Candice LeRae, Dakota Kai, Raquel González, and Toni Storm) defeated Team Shotzi (Shotzi Blackheart, Ember Moon, Rhea Ripley, and Io Shirai) in the women's WarGames match.
Production
Background
TakeOver was a series of professional wrestling shows that began in May 2014, as WWE's NXT brand held their second WWE Network-exclusive event, billed as TakeOver. In subsequent months, the "TakeOver" moniker became the brand used by WWE for all of their NXT live specials. While originally exclusive to the WWE Network, NXT TakeOver events also became available on traditional pay-per-view beginning with TakeOver 31 in October 2020. The 2020 WarGames event was the 32nd NXT TakeOver event and was held on December 6, 2020. It was the fourth in the WarGames chronology, a subseries of TakeOvers that feature the WarGames match and were originally held as a support show for WWE's annual Survivor Series pay-per-view. Unlike previous years, however, the 2020 WarGames was not held as a support show for that year's Survivor Series; it was instead held two weeks after Survivor Series. It was available for purchase on In Demand.
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic that began affecting the industry in mid-March, WWE had to present the majority of its programming from a behind closed doors set. NXT's programming was initially held at NXT's home base of Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida. In October 2020, NXT's events were moved to the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida, featuring the "Capitol Wrestling Center" setup, an homage to the Capitol Wrestling Corporation, the predecessor to WWE. Like the WWE ThunderDome utilized for Raw and SmackDown's programming, LED boards were placed around the Performance Center so that fans could attend virtually, while additionally, friends and family members of the wrestlers were in attendance, along with a limited number of actual live fans, divided from each other by plexiglass walls.
Storylines
The card included matches that resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the NXT brand, while storylines were produced on their weekly television program, NXT.
At NXT: Halloween Havoc on October 28, Johnny Gargano defeated Damian Priest in a Devil's Playground Match to win the NXT North American Championship, becoming the first-ever two-time NXT North American Champion. On the November 11 episode of NXT, Gargano defended the title against Leon Ruff, who was picked as his opponent by a roulette-style spinning wheel. During the match, Priest distracted Gargano and was pinned by Ruff to win the title for the first time. The following week, Ruff retained the championship against Gargano via disqualification when Priest, intentionally punched Ruff. On the November 25 episode of NXT, all three competitors were on The KO Show to state their case for why they want the NXT North American Championship, when NXT General Manager William Regal appeared to announce the title will be defended in a triple threat match at TakeOver: WarGames.