6 Ups And 2 Downs From Last Night's NXT (April 7)
4. Io Shiria
It had to be, didn't it?
Even in a match that worked as well as this, in the midst of a division as flourishing and a championship as hotly-contested, one woman stood head and shoulders and then some above everyone else. Io Shirai is probably the best thing NXT have at the moment and, were it not for her injury earlier in the year, lord knows what she'd have been lined-up for this past week.
Her contribution's to the ladder match were exceptional. She has the poise, the timing, and the execution to rival the best in the world in any company at the moment and she routinely pulled off the most brutal looking moments in this match without ever looking close to putting her fellow performers in any danger. Mia Yim and Raquel González's near-disastrous table spot reminded us just how fine the line is in these matches.
I said last week that there's a universe out there, not that much unlike our own, where we're going to be getting Charlotte Flair vs Io Shirai for the NXT Women's Championship. While it's always nice to be right, it's even better when you're not expecting to be. This match should be a banger.