During an interview last week, First Lady of NXT Lacey Evans made a vow to beat Kairi Sane. This week, Lacey got the chance to live up to her promise as she went one on one with the pirate princess.
Kairi took control of the early match up. After, following her signature springboard elbow drop, it was Lacey Evans who was controlling the offense. Evans would use numerous chops and submissions to try and keep Kairi down. Ultimately, however, Kairi was able to bounce back, hit her Insane elbow drop, and secure another win in the women’s division.
Tonight’s episode also reviewed all of the happenings from this past Saturday at TakeOver: New Orleans. Following a recap of the match between Ember Moon and Shayna Baslzer, Kayla Braxton’s interview with Shayna post TakeOver was aired. Shayna said that this is not a bandwagon, but a war wagon. She went on to explain that she remembers who supported her before her title win and who did not. Moreover, Shayna claimed that with her win, the landscape of the NXT women’s division would change. Rather than the focus being on compliments and wardrobe, Shayna stated that from this moment on, the focus would be on wrestling.
Highlights of Ember Moon’s debut from this past Monday were also shown. After her debut victory, Ember was interviewed alongside Nia Jax. Mike Rome asked Ember if she felt disappointed in not being able to get a rematch against Shayna Baszler. Ember replied that her biggest regret was leaving that “monster” with the rest of the NXT women’s division. However, Ember expressed her belief that the NXT women’s division was full of strong competitors who wouldn’t stand to be bullied by Baszler.
Thoughts: The match between Sane and Evans was pretty decent. Nothing memorable but also nothing that stuck out as bad. This match also got a fair amount of time. While that may be due to the fact that it was a post TakeOver episode, it’s nice nonetheless to see the women get time to wrestle. Evans looked comfortable and confident in this showing, which is always something that’s great to see. And Sane had a great amount of energy while looking great in her offensive maneuvers.
The one thing that will be interesting is to see where Lacey goes from here. Kairi is the third woman that Evans vowed to beat. Yet for the third time in a row, Lacey was beaten. I’m not necessarily sure where this will put Evans going forward. However, if this does develop into an intriguing side feud for the NXT women’s division, I am all for that.
I will admit that I was pulling for Ember to retain this past Saturday. More so because they built up her journey to the NXT title for so long. So to have Ember’s reign end so soon, it was kind of disappointing. That being said, I enjoyed the match her and Baszler had at TakeOver. I liked that match far better than their encounter in Philadelphia. The one nice thing about Baslzer becoming champion is that I feel the crowd will detest her even more. Shayna’s already proven she can play the cocky heel very well. Now that she has a championship belt to back her claims up, I believe there is a massive potential for Shayna to be portrayed as an extremely arrogant champion.
Speaking of Ember, I want to give a huge shout out to her, Billie Kay and Peyton Royce for their main roster debuts this past week. All three of those girls are wickedly talented. I know there have been debates about whether or not Ember’s character was fully fleshed out or not. But I think we can all agree that in terms of in-ring ability, Ember is amazing. It’s bittersweet that we won’t see her on NXT again. But I hope she knocks it out of the park on Raw.
Similarly, I know some people may compare the Iconic Duo to Lay-Cool or any other generic pair of mean girls. But I personally am a huge fan of Billie and Peyton. I think they’re hilarious and play off each other so well. My only gripe is that those two didn’t have a lot of TakeOver matches, aside from San Antonio and War Games. But these girls have worked their butts off. And I hope they find the utmost success on the main roster.
What did you think of the match between Kairi and Lacey? How do you feel about Shayna’s title win? Are you looking forward to seeing the Iconic Duo and Ember on the main roster? Let us know in the comments below!
