10 Times Wrestlers Got Standing Ovations In Defeat
3. Bayley (NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn II)
Did Bayley know how hard the road ahead would be when she paid tribute to the NXT logo on the stage just before she passed through the TakeOver curtains for the last time?
She's always appeared to be one of the more prudent performers of this current crop, but was she already aware that it'd be a full (and fully unfair) four years until the bond with the audience was quite as tight?
Did she already know there'd be nothing she could do about it?
These shouldn't be the questions we have to ask of talents making the jump from WWE's supposed "developmental" to its supposed "main roster", but 'The Hugger's best friend Sasha Banks had made the leap one year earlier only to be pigeonholed in trios matches before she was allowed to breakout as 'The Boss'. 'The Hugger' knew what all this counted for in the moment, and how little it mattered after the fact.
It wasn't just the amazing NXT Championship match with Asuka that earned the former titleholder such a memorable response - it was another heartfelt goodbye from an audience that smartly dared not to think about the aforementioned scenarios.
Banks and Becky Lynch were ringside marking out to the contest themselves - this was a building full of people using this elite era of the black and gold brand to forget what had to happen when it was all over.