Dave Meltzer reported in the latest issue of The Wrestling Observer Newsletter that NXT Takeover: Houston was originally supposed to be headlined with Drew McIntyre defending his NXT Title against Adam Cole. Those plans were switched to McIntyre defending against Andrade “Cien” Almas instead because the company needed to accommodate the new direction for the event, which is now a “War Games” Takeover show.
Meltzer indicated that the decision to switch the branding from “Takeover: Houston” to “Takeover: War Games” was a made recently and not the original plan.
In regards to why the company decided to bring War Games back, Meltzer speculates that it had a lot to do with the success of Sting & Bill Goldberg’s returns to the company. The idea of bringing the event back has been discussed many times over the years, but Vince McMahon always nixed the thought of it because it was a successful idea that he had nothing to do with.
