{"id":9629,"date":"2017-11-18T13:56:56","date_gmt":"2017-11-18T18:56:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=9629"},"modified":"2017-11-18T13:56:56","modified_gmt":"2017-11-18T18:56:56","slug":"nxt-takeover-preview-drew-mcintyre-vs-andrade-cien-almas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2017\/11\/18\/nxt-takeover-preview-drew-mcintyre-vs-andrade-cien-almas\/","title":{"rendered":"NXT Takeover Preview: Drew McIntyre vs Andrade Almas"},"content":{"rendered":"

The NXT Championship<\/strong> takes a step back as the War Games<\/strong> in NXT Takeover: War Games <\/strong>will be the main attraction, but that doesn\u2019t mean that Drew McIntyre<\/strong>\u00a0vs\u00a0Andrade Almas<\/strong> will be bad match.<\/p>\n

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Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In one side we have the returning son of Scotland, Drew McIntyre, who came back to WWE<\/strong> after almost 3 years of killing it the indie scene as Drew Galloway<\/strong>. The man who entered the WWE in the late 2000 and was billed, by Vince McMahon Jr<\/strong>. no less, as \u201cThe Chosen One\u201d, has shown his real potential in WWE\u2019s\u00a0third brand. After some victories at the start of the summer \u2013 one that includes a victory over Killian Dain for the #1 contendership for the NXT Title \u2013 McIntyre defeated Bobby Roode\u00a0at NXT Takeover: Brooklyn III<\/strong> <\/em>to win the NXT Championship. Immediately after winning the title, the attention shifted to the debuting Adam Cole<\/strong>, who, with the help of his colleagues of the Undisputed Era<\/strong>, attacked Drew McIntyre to plant the seeds that now take us into Takeover: War Games. WWE knew that they couldn\u2019t put McIntyre vs. Cole immediately, so instead we get the title match that we are presented this Saturday. McIntyre has been on a roll and taking on Almas is a way to show that he is the man of the brand and that he will take any challenge that wants a piece of his title.<\/p>\n

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Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the other side of the ring, we get a \u201cIngobernable\u201d<\/em> who has had a very rocky ascension to this Saturday\u2019s stage. When Andrade \u201cCien\u201d Almas debuted in NXT \u2013 previously known as La Sombra<\/strong> in CMLL<\/strong> and New Japan Pro Wrestling<\/strong> \u2013 his character seemed awkward with fans at Full Sail University. The man was given a generic baby face gimmick with an attire that didn\u2019t even fit the bill of those who have heard of former IWGP Intercontinental Champion La Sombra. The man quickly learned that he had a long way to go, with a late heel turn in 2016\u00a0in a move that woke up his arrogant style that got him to the dance.<\/p>\n

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Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The heel turn started with Almas being an overconfident\u00a0bravado who put priority on his life style outside of the ring rather than inside of it. NXT showed lots of vignettes of Almas leaving the arenas to go hang out with women, with him often not caring if he lost or if he put 100% in the ring. This sequence would change on August, when Almas was paired with his new manager (and the reason for his rise in the NXT ladder), Zelina Vega<\/strong>. With Vega \u2013 formerly known as Thea Trinidad<\/strong> \u2013\u00a0at his side, Almas started to pick up wins. Almas always had the looks and the ability, but always seemed to fall short in the ring when it came to deliver the final blow –\u00a0Vega gave him that final touch to his character.<\/p>\n

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Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Andrade quickly delivered alongside Vega in NXT Takeover: Brooklyn III<\/em>, where he beat Johnny Gargano<\/strong> thanks to mind games played by his new ally\u00a0at ringside. It wasn\u2019t long before we started seeing\u00a0the complete puzzle for Almas. The title opportunity\u00a0tonight represents a level of success that we thought we never see from Almas, as\u00a0at times, he even seemed to want to get back to Mexico and leave this nightmare known as WWE developmental. Now, he is challenging for the main title of the place that he never saw himself fit to conquer.<\/p>\n

Prediction:<\/strong> This is a sure win for Drew McIntyre. As much as we’ve seen of Almas’ development, it\u2019s obvious that is time to move him to the main roster \u2013 probably to 205 Live<\/strong> <\/em>\u2013 and that the money match for NXT is Adam Cole vs. Drew McIntyre. In comparison, this match looks like Hideo Itami<\/strong>\u2019s<\/strong> match against Bobby Roode<\/strong> in NXT Takeover: Chicago<\/strong><\/em>. Both guys \u2013 Itami and Almas \u2013 showed some development, but we knew who WWE was going with. But even if the result is obvious, the match at will definitely still\u00a0deliver.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The NXT Championship takes a step back as the War Games in NXT Takeover: War Games will be the main attraction, but that doesn\u2019t mean that Drew McIntyre\u00a0vs\u00a0Andrade Almas will be bad match. In one side we have the returning son of Scotland, Drew McIntyre, who came back to WWE after almost 3 years of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2085,"featured_media":9475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,320],"tags":[84,216,686,435,1748,116,1749,613,241,47,1747],"class_list":["post-9629","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-nxt","category-wwe-women","tag-adam-cole","tag-andrade-cien-almas","tag-drew-mcintyre","tag-killian-dain","tag-la-sombra","tag-nxt","tag-takeover","tag-thea-trinidad","tag-vince-mcmahon","tag-wwe","tag-zelina-vega"],"modified_by":"Jamie Greer","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2085"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9629\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}