5 Ups And 2 Downs From Last Night's NXT (Sep 23)

Ups...

5. LeRae Is Going To TakeOver - But Nox Is Going To The Hospital

Completely hitting the ground running, this week's NXT kicked off with the NXT Women's Championship Number One Contender's Battle Royal. However, our attention was quickly pulled away from the impending multi-woman showdown when a clip revealing a vicious Candice LeRae attack on Tegan Nox's already brittle knee was aired before the match got underway.

However, it was probably for the best that Nox sat this one out as, for the most part, this was the Rhea Ripley and Raquel Gonzalez show. After the pair dominated much of the over-the-top-rope affair, eliminating the majority of the field on their own, both stars flipped out of the encounter and proceeded to continually collide once their time in the match had come to an abrupt end.

With the two badass powerhouses out of the way, shortly followed by Indi Hartwell, that left the consistently impressive Kacy Catanzaro - in full Ninja Warrior mode - Shotzi Blackheart, Dakota Kai and LeRae as our final four.

Any one of these four would've made for an enjoyable next challenger for Io Shirai, but a resourceful LeRae monkey flipped Blackheart out of the game - after using the ringside steps to her advantage - for the victory.

Though the match itself was shorter than your average battle royal, it did what it needed to do. Ripley and Gonzalez now look set to collide in the Battle of the Badasses 2.0, Blackheart and Kai will throw down next week and LeRae's victory gives Shirai a fresh challenger... while a vengeful Nox will surely make her presence known further down the line.