10 Ups & 3 Downs From Last Night's WWE NXT (Sept 25)
5. Rhea View
WWE.com
The final breakthrough act from the last version of the black-and-gold brand, Rhea Ripley's move from NXT UK to the new bigger version of the former developmental brand has been extremely welcome.
She remains unbeaten against division destroyer Shayna Baszler, and a series of squashes such as this semi-competitive effort against the capable Kayden Carter was at points, thrilling.
Ripley's got an enormous upside, regardless of the future of the Women's Title on the black-and-gold brand, but may slip from contention if Candice LeRae strikes gold next week. In the meantime, matches like this will keep her exactly where she needs to be.
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett
