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Welcome to this week’s NXT Redux, my name is Stephanie and from here on out I’ll be covering the recap each week. I’m incredibly excited to usher in a new era of women’s wrestling as a new member of the Diva Dirt team! Now let’s talk about this week’s match.
After an intense stare down last week between Asuka and Nia Jax, Nia takes on challenger Tessa Blanchard, daughter of Hall of Famer and former Four Horsemen, Tully Blanchard. Is Tessa able to knock Nia down on her rise up the ranks of the women’s division again? Let’s watch the bout.
Both women make their entrances, Tessa strutting to the ring, just happy to be at NXT, while Nia looks on with an intimidating glare. The two tie up and Nia immediately tosses Tessa into the corner. Tessa attempts to hit and slap Nia, also trying a running cross body but Nia stops her in mid air. Nia then elbows Tessa and squashes her in the corner. She picks up Tessa, plants her with a Samoan Drop, then puts her away with a leg drop.
Thoughts: It’s a bit puzzling where the women’s division is going right now, NXT as a whole seems to be in a transitional period. Nia is coming up the ranks again to be a number one contender, as she utterly squashed Tessa here. However, it unfortunately was a very, very short match, not even lasting more than a few minutes at most. Tessa tried to get in some offense but was massively overpowered.
I’d like to see Nia introduce some more moves into her repertoire and I think adding some power moves, like a power bomb or Alabama Slam, would really drive home her strength and force. She’s still green and the potential is definitely there to become the hoss wrestler that she’s meant to be. After losing to Bayley in December, she’s climbing right back up to meet our new champion.
While everything is still in flux, we know this for sure, Asuka better watch out. Nia did not seemed phased by her at all last week and if she keeps it up, she may continue to quickly rise to the top and take the title from her. And where do the other women factor into the title chase? Bayley is gunning to be the first two time women’s champion and there’s several other challengers waiting in the wings with Alexa Bliss and Carmella, the latter proclaiming she still has unfinished business to attend to in winning the championship before joining her boys on the main roster. Meanwhile, we’re also lacking stories for building side feuds. It will be interesting to see what newcomers Aliyah and Liv Morgan bring to the table. Will they eventually butt heads with Dana Brooke or any of the other women? Hopefully we’ll find out soon.
