NXT UK TakeOver Blackpool II: 5 Ups And 3 Downs

2. Pay The Piper

If the opening match scored well going forward but weakly in the moment, the women's match reversed the formula. Let's get nothing twisted here, Kay Lee Ray, Toni Storm, and Piper Niven did deliver a TakeOver quality banger - arguably one that should have opened the show - but by having the champion retain in the manner she did was the least interesting of all possible outcomes.

Toni Storm goes forward to face Rhea Ripley at World's Collide but, despite how interesting last week's NXT made the idea sound, she does so without the NXT UK Women's Championship. Piper Niven, on the other hand, missed an opportunity to overcome the series of personal struggles that had seen her so naturally and warmly welcomed back to the brand. Getting pinned in the process means it's a long road to rehabilitating her to challenge again.

Perversely, Kay Lee Ray absolutely deserves to hold onto that title, but the groundwork put in on NXT's both sides of that Atlantic sort of demanded that she step out of the spotlight going forward. In a just world, it would be her going on to face Ripley now but, alas, here we are.