10 Great WWE Moments We Came Agonisingly Close To
3. The Boss Vs. The Empress
NXT is so consistently superb because the roster exists in a state of constant flux.
A debuting Indy starlet seduces us all over again, they rack up victories to cement their credibility, funny how that works, they challenge for the top title and win it in a euphoric moment, funny how that gets over, and they go on to bigger but decidedly not better things. We then begin anew, as any notion of staleness is banished—even if this year has stretched that winning formula somewhat.
It’s this flux that put paid to an NXT Women’s Title match between Sasha Banks and Asuka. Asuka was in effect Sasha’s replacement, tasked with carrying the brand using her own brand of ultra-confidence.
We’ve seen Sasha Banks Vs. Asuka on the main roster, and it was good—but The Boss Vs. The Empress, produced by NXT’s immaculate team, is an altogether different proposition. It would have been great: Asuka using physical flex to counter Sasha’s psychological taunts, Sasha cockily slapping Asuka only to get the ever-loving sh*t kicked out of her in retaliation, Asuka finding some disgusting reversal to Sasha’s apron diving meteora…
Really, with 17-18 minutes with which to work, this could, through sheer personality alone, have bettered even Asuka’s seminal series with Ember Moon.