NXT Takeover: San Antonio Review - 6 Big Talking Points
6. Five More Minutes!
The Fatal 4-Way Women's championship match was excellent while it lasted - but it needed an extended finishing sequence to live up to the accepted yellow brand standard.
It was a booking masterclass elsewhere. Asuka was positioned as a monster, in drilling the irritating antipodeans with a lethal-looking double German suplex, and the crazed, brief sequences she exchanged with Nikki Cross teased something both unique and special - if and when their singles match takes place. Ominously, however, Cross did not factor into the finish.
Billie Kay and Peyton Royce are not particularly believable performers - especially in unflattering comparison to the unhinged talents of Asuka and Cross - so having them lay waste to the latter by dumping her through a table was an astute shortcut. Kay did exchange some fierce kicks with the champion in the closing scenes, matching Asuka's singular stiffness - but that made the sudden credits sequence that bit more aggravating.
The stretch of the match focused on Cross was the most gripping; it was little surprise, then, that the momentum of the bout crashed through that table alongside her. If she had crawled back from the wreckage, it would have put her unhinged schtick over the top and elevated the match into awesome territory.
Alas, it was merely good. And good is no longer good enough.