8 Ups And 3 Downs From Last Night's NXT (5 Feb)

3. The Respect She Deserves

When news leaked that Charlotte would be using her Royal Rumble win to challenge Rhea Ripley for her NXT Championship, questions were immediately raised about how they'd build to this when the focus surely has to be on Bianca Belair's match at TakeOver: Portland. Given how seamlessly they managed to spin all the plates leading into Survivor Series, we shouldn't have worried.

Somehow, the advertised appearance of Charlotte that the entire broadcast was promoted around ended with the one woman who won't feature at WrestleMania coming out of it he best. Belair came out, taking issue with being forgotten in all of this WrestleMania talk, and despite Flair's best efforts to sideline her in the segment, she persisted.

Her delivery on the mic has really emerged as a bright spot in the division recently as well. Crowd-popping moments like "you don't even go here" and her visual reactions during the segment were the highlight of the whole bit. We'll get to Ripley and Flair eventually, but right now the spotlight's on the current challenger, and that's how it should be.