7 Ups And 3 Downs From NXT TakeOver: New York

2. Women Underperform

Bianca Belair Io Shirai Kairi Sane NXT TakeOver New York
WWE

It’s a tough call when you consider what qualified as a passable women’s match just a few years ago, but Friday’s NXT Women’s Championship match was a disappointment.

The fatal four-way bout between champ Shayna Baszler, Kairi Sane, Io Shirai and Bianca Belair had a good amount of action, but it was very disjointed and felt more like just a series of moves. Yes, there was the undercurrent of Io and Kairi teaming up and then squaring off, and everyone hit their finishers on Shayna, but other than that, it fell flat.

It’s a shame, because we’ve seen Baszler have a few really good title defenses, but this certainly was not one of them. If you’re going to skip one match from TakeOver, this is it. It’s perfectly watchable, but it doesn’t match up to the other four, or even past NXT Women’s Championship bouts.

Advertisement
Contributor
Contributor

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.