6 Ups And 2 Downs From Last Night's NXT (April 7)
5. On A Rung And A Prayer
If I've said it once, I've said it a million times, but the quality of this match should embarrass every single other division in WWE.
This was a contest directly linked to the NXT Women's Championship that didn't include a) Charlotte Flair, the reigning champion, b) Rhea Ripley, the next most recent holder and recent WrestleMania debutant, c) Bianca Belair, most people's current pick to be the next challenger, and d) recent high-profile acquisitions like Mercedez Martinez and Shotzi Blackheart. And yet it was still absolutely stacked.
You take the Champion, top two challengers, and most recent debutants out of the equation anywhere else in WWE, try to throw together a 6-person match with what's left, and you don't have anything that's going to get the pulse racing. Everyone in this match approached it like a proper TakeOver contest and the commitment to the bigger spots was as commendable as it was wince-inducing.
We saw at WrestleMania this weekend that with enough energy from the performers (and, admittedly, enough carnage in the ring to match) you can very easily forget that these are empty arena shows. Our opening match this week achieved that and then some.