Kyle O’Reilly and Von Wagner stepped up to challenge WWE NXT Tag Team Champions Imperium (Marcel Barthel and Fabian Aichner) for the titles at the WarGames event in Orlando, Florida at the Capitol Wrestling Center on Peacock.
The match featured Imperium to beatdown Kyle in the early going until Von got the hot tag. Von hit some powerslams including on the apron and an angle slam. Kyle was taken out with a moonsault while having Barthel in an ankle lock. Imperium pinned Kyle with their finisher.
Post-match, Wagner tried to turn on O’Reilly, who saw it coming and laid out Wanger before leaving the ring. This could’ve been O’Reilly’s last match in NXT as his WWE contract expires this week.
WWE set up this contest this past week on NXT 2.0 when O’Reilly & Wagner defeated Legado del Fantasma’s Raul Mendoza & Joaquin Wilde in a number one contender’s match to earn the title shot.
This marked Imperium’s first title defense since becoming NXT Tag Team Champions when they won the titles from MSK in a Lumberjack-O’-Lantern match at Halloween Havoc in October.
The storyline with O’Reilly and Wagner was that Kyle was initially hesitant to form another tag team after the way that Undisputed Era broke up. Their pairing started following the premiere episode of NXT 2.0 this September. This show is where Wagner made his debut and saved O’Reilly from an attack by Pete Dunne and Ridge Holland.