9 Ups & 2 Downs From NXT TakeOver: In Your House

1. Io Shirai Pins Rhea Ripley (Not Charlotte)

Charlotte Flair Rhea Ripley Io Shirai
WWE.com

Hmm x2.

It always slightly cheapens things whenever a title changes hands during a Triple Threat match and the reigning champ going in isn't the one taking the fall. Of course, this is a neat way to protect someone and still switch a belt, but it wouldn't have hurt Charlotte Flair too badly to lose to Io Shirai.

Worse, Rhea Ripley is (yet again) the proverbial ugly duckling of the situation. The super-talented future of WWE's female ranks has been beaten in back-to-back major matches on pay-per-view, and that really sucks; it's hard to see why she'd take the fall here. Rhea vs. Io is surely next up for NXT now Flair is gone.

One cannot shake the feeling that Shirai could've hit her moonsault on Flair and pinned her instead as Ripley rolled around in agony from the Figure Eight. That, actually, would've made more sense - what was stopping Charlotte from reaching over and breaking up Shirai's pin on Rhea?

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