10 Things NXT Got Right At TakeOver: Philadelphia

5. Shayna Baszler Beats Herself

shayna baszler ember moon
WWE.com

Ember Moon managed to survive NXT TakeOver: Philadelphia with the NXT Women’s Championship intact, somehow finding a way to overcome the violence of Shayna Baszler. This seems to be the match that has garnered the most criticism so far, with fans rightly contesting the length of the doctors' involvement towards the end.

Going into the match it wasn’t clear what the best move was. Was NXT going to jeopardise Baszler’s aura by having Moon defeat her? Or would the brand immediately throw Ember under the bus in favour of capitalising on Shayna’s impressive performances to date? In the end, NXT played this perfectly.

Baszler had the beating of Ember Moon throughout the match, and was only defeated thanks to her own inexperience. Moon managed to roll up Baszler when the Queen of Spades was unwilling to release an armbar, the challenger clinging to the hold like an anaconda while the champion knew that she only needed three seconds to prevail.

The match itself was certainly hurt by the involvement of the doctors, one of the rare missteps from NXT at the event. The challenger got her heat back with an attack in the post-match, but she lost nothing in defeat before that. Shayna Baszler was beaten by her own inexperience more than anything else, and at this point in the game it was absolutely the right way to go.

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Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.