6 Ups And 2 Downs From NXT UK TakeOver: Blackpool

1. Storm/Ripley Falls Flat

toni storm rhea ripley
WWE.com

Let’s get this out of the way: Toni Storm is an incredible wrestler and is going to win or defend a title at WrestleMania someday soon. Rhea Ripley has the look and raw talent to be dominant in the women’s division in a way Nia Jax could only dream of.

But their NXT UK Women’s Championship match at TakeOver could be described as disjointed and disappointing. The match ambled through a series of moves and wasn’t bad by any stretch, but it never really clicked. Storm in particular flailing away on Ripley at various points didn’t look like an underdog babyface challenger, but a desperate, overmatched wrestler trying to topple the unbeatable champ.

The finish itself – Storm escaping a Riptide and pulling Ripley’s hair into a second Storm Zero – seemed to come out of nowhere, and not in the way you typically would want it to.

Odds are these two are going to lock up a bunch more during their careers and probably have way better matches. This bout just wasn’t up to the potential it had.

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Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.