5 Ups & 3 Downs From Last Night's WWE NXT (21 Aug)
Downs...
3. Mia Culpa
WWE.com
The stench of of Mia Yim's TakeOver: Toronto defeat hung over her routine win over Vanessa Borne, with the Full Sail crowd noticably less impassioned in their support of the former Number One Contender following her bruising and boring loss.
The commentators attempted to rehabilitate her act with platitudes about how close she ran Women's Champion Shayna Baszler, but the match ultimately served as the set-up to the bigger story - an intriguing offer from the 'Queen Of Spades'.
Baszler's spectacular presence and poise did more for the fallen challenger than Yim herself, putting the clash over to set up her sales pitch - she couldn't beat her, but did she want to join her? Yim rejected the invitation and took a kicking from Baszler, Marina Shafir and Jessamyn Duke as a result. Everybody's got a degree in hindsight, but Yim looked stupid in the moment - she should have taken the deal.
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 7 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 30 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz", Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 50,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett
