8 Ups And 3 Downs From NXT TakeOver: Portland

7. Ripley Beats Back Belair

Rhea Ripley Bianca Belair
WWE.com

While it wasn’t the strongest match on the card, Rhea Ripley and Bianca Belair had a perfectly acceptable wrestling match for the NXT Women’s Championship at TakeOver: Portland.

The two battled back and forth, trading slaps, escaping each other’s finishers and showing off their raw power. Belair used her hair whip at one point – you had to believe that was going to play into things – and took to the sky with a tope to try to take Ripley down, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the NXT Women’s Champion.

Ripley would catch Belair on the turnbuckle and launch her into a Riptide for the pinfall victory, setting up the aftermath, which we’ll get into later.

It’s worth noting, however, that while this was a decent match, it’s the second TakeOver title bout involving Ripley that’s been a bit disappointing after all the hype surrounding her. We’ll give it positive marks here (and note that Ripley is only 23, so there’s plenty of time and room to grow), but we’re noting it in case her WrestleMania match underperforms.

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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.