Off of the heels of a, if I can be partial, fantastic WarGames and a pretty solid Survivor Series match, the women of WWE are sitting pretty high. While the men also killed it, history was made on the women’s side of things with their first ever “WarGames” match, and they delivered.
Team Ripley showed heart and grit to overcome Team Baszler, and Dakota Kai finally turned heel and she beat the snot out of her good friend and tag team partner, Tegan Nox (is it me, or does her nickname sound like a weird mashup of Harry Potter and Edward Cullen? The Shiniest Wizard..). The match had weapons, group beat downs, the moonsault off the cage, saw Kay Lee Ray bumping like a mad woman, Candice hold this match together as the glue. Ripley turned a star-making performance and Ms. Bianca Belair had yet another solid performance (I’m looking at you, Sam Roberts), and the match fired on all cylinders.
Coming into tonight, as always during TakeOver weekend, the main roster had to bring it, and while the matches offered were good and serviceable, it was the women of N T who again stood out. During the traditional tag match, it looked like the women of the black brand would start behind the 8ball with Candice LaRae and Io Shirai pulled out for an “injury”, as the women on the other team dwindled down, Toni Storm, Rhea and Belair, they remained cohesive and fended themselves off before Storm went down to a punishing Bank Statement/Sharpshooter and BelAir to a Hart Attack.
When all was said and done, the previously injured LaRae and Shirai made the save and used their numbers to overwhelm Sasha Banks to give NXT the win. The main event saw Baszler lower the boom on Becky and Bayley and then tap out Bayley after Bayley dominated most of the match.
NXT has been consistently killing it for years now when it comes to women’s wrestling. Many WWE faithful would watch NXT over the main roster because their work, stories, and characters are head and shoulders above the main roster. WWE has storylines and writers that often were convoluted, overproduced and went again what the fans wanted or connected to, whether the superstar was male or female.
NXT has the old school booking and WRESTLING, where they go out and connect with the crowd and show the fans who they. Simply put, the women of NXT hit it out of the park this weekend. Even though the main event did not do much for me in terms of wrestling.
I found it clunky, awkward, and slow, there’s no doubt where the best brand in all of the women’s wrestling is. The fear was after Sasha, Paige, Emma, Summer, Charlotte, Becky and eventually Bayley and Asuka left, NXT would go downhill. Well, the weekend proved that these women waiting in the wings are to be taken seriously, and the future of mainstream women’s wrestling in North America is in very capable hands.
