7 Ups And 3 Downs From NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn IV

2. Killer Instinct?

In the lead-up to the NXT Women’s Championship match, we heard Shayna Baszler tell Kairi Sane that she couldn’t win because she lacked a killer instinct.

The idea then was that Sane had to get vicious to finally defeat Baszler.

But Kairi would win the title by reversing the Kirifuda Clutch into a pin. That isn’t a bad way to win – if the build was centered on no one has escaped the submission hold or been able to overcome her as champ. But it doesn’t register the same when the theme was about killer instinct.

More importantly, Sane didn’t really get vicious, aside from trying her anchor submission in the ropes. If she had attacked Baszler’s arm repeatedly or something like that, the finish wouldn’t have stood out, because Kairi’s killer instinct would have been on display during the match.

As mentioned earlier, this is really a minor gripe in the grand scheme of things during another really good match.