10 Times Wrestlers Got Standing Ovations In Defeat
4. Sasha Banks (NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn)
Sasha Banks is so exceptional at playing a heel that a subsequent babyface turn feels inevitable long before she's even teased it.
It's honestly a little bit frustrating and one of those strange quirks isolated to the live audience element of pro wrestling. In 2020, people clamoured for her to turn on Bayley from inside their own homes because she'd been so effective in the six months or so she'd be back on the dark side before then.
She was in irresistible form in 2015, peaking impeccably at TakeOver: Brooklyn when she was due to depart NXT forever and put over beloved babyface nemesis Bayley in the process. Problem was, she was 50% of this work of art, and the Barclays Center crowd were going to let her know about it.
The hugs and handshakes have become a little bit tropey all these years later, but the Four Horsewomen's curtain call felt more earned than most. They'd changed the game for real and through immensely hard, against-the-grain work. The preceding match had been a celebration of all of that, hiding underneath an era-defining bell-to-bell classic.