8 Ups And 1 Down From NXT TakeOver WarGames

2. Against All Odds

rhea rhipley
WWE.com

For the better part of the last 19 months, Shayna Baszler has run roughshod over the NXT women’s division.

The Queen of Spades has been champ for all but two months’ of that span, defeating all comers, including most of the wrestlers in the women’s WarGames match. So for someone to be built up as a seriously credible challenger, she needed to really overcome tremendous odds.

Cue Rhea Ripley.

Ripley and Candice LeRae overcame a 4-on-2 deficit to take out their opponents and win the first women’s WarGames match, with Rhea defeating Shayna in dramatic fashion. Trapped in Baszler’s Kirafuda Clutch, Ripley handcuffed herself to Shayna, then hit a Riptide through two steel chairs for the pinfall win.

Yes, winning a match with such a huge deficit might seem like a bit much, but if you want to build someone up who can overcome Baszler and her Horsewomen cronies, this is the way to do it.

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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.