5 Ups And 2 Downs From WWE NXT (Sep 8)
1. Mercedez Bends
If you were wondering if perhaps putting the NXT Championship match at the very start of the show would backfire come the main event, my god how stupid must you have felt sitting through this.
NXT has us trusting the process by our absolute fingertips at present. Where once the brand had almost infinite goodwill in the bank, now fans are a little more apprehensive about the longterm direction of its biggest feuds. It's a weird time for pro-wrestling (and everything else) and putting the women's divisions two hardest bastards in a story with Robert Stone was probably about as weird a move as you could imagine.
But the process was trusted. Even with the hokey segments, even with the debilitating win/loss records, the idea of Martinez and Ripley finally getting at each other in as violent a match as possible meant that it would likely all be worth it in the end and OHMYCHRIST was it. The two absolutely mullered each other in a genuine contender for NXT Women's Match of the Year.
You'd have expected Martinez to win this, but hading Ripley the dub shows she's still a big deal on this brand even after a very hit and miss 2020. The feud should rage on, Martinez should recover, and we should all trust the process at little more.