5 Ups And 3 Downs From WWE NXT New Year's Evil (Jan 4)

2. Rose Reigns Supreme In Weak Three-Way

It was always destined to be somewhat of an intriguing combination when Mandy Rose put her strap on the line against Raquel Gonzalez and Cora Jade.

In the NXT Women's Champion you have a star who has become stronger when it comes to talking a good game and definitely improved her all-round in-ring work too. But she still lacks the conviction and confidence of a woman leading an entire division. Cora Jade is the greenest of the bunch, playing the underdog to a decent standard but still not coming across as much more than a flukey potential victor. And Big Mami Cool has felt like the uncrowned champ ever since she dropped the strap via nefarious means at Halloween Havoc.

Sure enough, when it came to the contest itself, Gonzalez felt every bit the dominant force, routinely breaking up her rivals' attempts to steal a fast one and even having Rose well and truly beat in the middle of the ring post-spinning Chingona Bomb. But a Jade senton break-up and subsequent derailing of Gonzalez paved the way for the newcomer to fall victim to her own most effective weapon; that being a cheap roll-up victory at the hands of Rose.

If that conclusion sounds a bit underwhelming, well that's because it most definitely was and the crowd's lack of response highlighted this. The bout in general was devoid of any real cohesion and the aforementioned lack of time to fully develop as main event-level stars was exposed once again in both Rose and Jade's performances, with the former's half-arsed reactions to an incoming, p*ssed off Gonzalez killing the momentum in the later stages.

Here's hoping things pick up for the Toxic Attraction leader from this moment on, but you'd be forgiven for not being entirely filled with confidence on the back of another lacklustre showing for a once-show-stealing division.