8 Ups & 9 Downs For WWE NXT In 2020
6. Panic Booking
As good as the contest was, and how okay the all-too-brief story was heading into it, Io Shirai Vs Sasha Banks felt like a special request by Triple H to his Father-In-Law. Mainly because it almost certainly was. And this habit rush-releasing undercooked "classics" in search of the next big hit was about to get worse.
Faced with the dilemma of a Keith Lee double-strapped after defeating Adam Cole, he simply surrendered the belt. Tough sh*t when he lost his remaining one to Karrion Kross eh? Tough sh*t for him when he gets injured and they book an insane 60 Minute Iron Man Fatal Four Way that didn't have a f*cking finish. Tough sh*t for us when we had to wait for a singles match to settle it. Tough sh*t for the wrestlers gutting it out in triple threat qualifiers just to make it into a multi-man ladder match. Tough for everybody, because the booking's so sh*t.
A brand that had earned more generous appraisal may have been given a pass for this particularly dispiriting bit of matchmaking, if only because of the timing of Kross' injury. 2020 NXT wasn't that brand, and moreover, the knock only brought into focus another issue plaguing the show...