In a match that was supposed to take place at the canceled TakeOver: Tampa Bay, Io Shirai became your new number one contender for the NXT Women’s Championship. After the weekend of WrestleMania, we have a new champion in that of Charlotte Flair. So the Joshi Judas will take on The Queen in a future match up with the gold on the line.
Shirai defeated five other women in a grueling ladder match as she climbed up the ladder across from Candice LeRae and was able to grab the hanging briefcase. Along with LeRae, the other women in the match included Chelsea Green, Mia Yim, Tegan Nox, and Dakota Kai.
The landscape was littered with prior rivalries in which many of the women seemed to still have fresh wounds. The match started with Kai having the advantage over all the women. She also had her equalizer with her, Raquel Gonzalez. She was the first to bring a ladder into the ring with the help of her right hand woman.
Kai wouldn’t stay in control long as she was soon surrounded by all the women she had wronged since November. These were LeRae, Yim, and Nox who all took their shots delivering cannonballs into the corner.
Other highlights of the match would involve the seventh woman at ringside and that is Gonzalez. She did what she could to help Kai who was seemingly hurting to stand. Gonzalez would lift Kai up on her shoulders and scale the ladder. This was thwarted by Yim. Yim would then concentrate on taking on Gonzalez by trying to putting her through a table that was set up on the outside of the ring.
Gonzalez was holding onto the ring ropes to prevent this, but Nox would get some retribution from TakeOver: Portland as she choke slammed Gonzalez through the table taking Yim with her. Nox would then be taken out as she crashed through a ladder on the outside by Kai.
This would lead to a battle between Kai and LeRae at the top of the ladder with the briefcase. Shirai would interject.
Much like Kai, Green had Robert Stone with her to assist her. She was nursing a leg injury and unable to climb the ladder. So Stone would climb the other side and try to hoist her up to grab the briefcase. They did what they could, and although Green had her hands on the prize, Shirai and LeRae dumped the two off the ladder.
In the end, Shirai and LeRae were face to face at the top of the ladder. Shirai would knock her off which caused her to hit a ladder on the way down that was bridged up in the corner on the ring ropes.
Shirai unhooked the briefcase and will be the next woman to face Charlotte Flair.
What were you thoughts on this match? Did you like that Shirai won? Leave what you are thinking in the comment section below.
