8 Ups And 3 Downs From NXT TakeOver: Portland

DOWNS…

3. Street Fight Interference Falls Flat

Raquel Gonzalez
WWE.com

We’ll dish out praise for the women’s street fight later, but we have to dissect the ending of the match a bit.

Teagan Nox looked to be in control and ready to hit the knockout blow with Dakota Kai laid out on a table, when an unfamiliar face appeared. Raquel (formerly Reina) Gonzalez stopped Nox as she climbed the turnbuckle, smashed her face and then slammed her off the top and onto the table (which didn’t break – ouch). That directly led to Kai picking up the win.

Here’s the thing: Literally no one knew who Gonzalez was. She’s been in both Mae Young Classics, losing in the first round each time. She’s jobbed on NXT a couple times, but this was a “Who?” moment, not a shocked at the interference moment.

Worse, Kai looked perplexed, so this likely wasn’t some insurance policy she had. Sure, it’s good to see new faces debut, and this might play out pretty well, but in terms of initial execution, it fell pretty flat.

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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.