7 Ups & 2 Downs For Last Night's NXT (May 20)

1. Queen For A Day

My god this ruled.

I think purely in terms of bringing different elements to a match, Rhea Ripley and Io Shirai might be the best combination NXT have at its disposal currently. Ripley takes the women's power game to previously uncharted heights while still being technically great, and Shirai flies around the ring in ways you can scarcely believe are possible, let alone safe.

If they weren't both playing compelling anti-heroes this could have been one of the greatest ever NXT rivalries.

We only got 8 minutes here tonight, but contrast to the underwhelming main-events put on by Cole/Dream and Riddle/Thatcher in recent weeks, this one filled the time perfectly. They gave us so much, including a brutal finishing sequence, but still felt like they left a lot on the table for a TakeOver rematch someday.

The only criticism here is that Charlotte's appearance at the end felt like a needless attempt to move the spotlight away from the two women in the ring and, while the DQ finish technically protects both her opponents, we had the same result for Shirai vs Flair mere weeks ago. This is, of course, leading to a triple-threat which, let's face it, will rule also.