5 Ups & 3 Downs From Last Night's NXT (Aug 5)
5. The Kai's The Limit
For the second week in a row, NXT not only opened with a major event for its women's division but gave it a huge chunk of the opening hour. Yeah, Lee vs Kross might have salvaged the men's championship from a very underwhelming summer, but the quality (and the time) being invested in the female equivalent continues to be the best thing on the show.
Regardless though, NXT had booked themselves into a bit of a corner with this one. Dakota Kai vs Rhea Ripley was definitely the natural combination for a number 1 contenders match - with the former having undoubtedly earned the shot and the latter being long overdue for reconsideration into the title picture - but a loss for either woman sort of undermines the win for her opponent.
If Kai loses then what's been the point of building the division as a solid group? And if Ripley loses then what the hell has happened to her since WrestleMania?!
In the end, with no perfect solution, we just got a near-perfect match instead. The Mercedez Martinez interference could have ruined a lot of other contests in this situation, but such was the work done in establishing Kai as being Hard As F*ck, it didn't really matter. She looked vicious, she looked tough, she wasn't bullied by her larger opponent, and Ripley's even got herself an exciting TakeOver match out of it.