Weekly NXT Recap and Road to the Women’s Championship

Now I know it’s been a little while since this whole “Women’s Revolution” has started, but I really have to say thank you to these women in NXT. Yes HHH has something to do with it as well, but if not for them, this would have been yet another lackluster NXT show. Drew McIntyre fights another jobber for an easy win with still no hint of any story heading to Takeover:Brooklyn. Authors of Pain face another jobber team, and only needs one of them to participate in this match, in order to demolish their opponents, but at least started to build toward Brooklyn, as Heavy Machinery finally confronts them in ring. And aside from the announcement of Ember Moon returning next week (I’m sure to get an easy win over yet another jobber), along with a potentially great main event in Kassius Ohno versus Aleister Black, the women’s triple threat match carried this week’s show.

Now, I’m not a big fan of the Ruby Riot character, indifferent toward Nikki Cross, and Asuka is carrying the division since the initial draft, but these women put on a damn good match. With about a 20 minute time limit, this match had a pretty quick pace to it, with plenty of action, and was a great follow up to their match at Takeover:Orlando. The bout goes on for a little bit before Nikki Cross nails a swinging neck breaker to Asuka, who escapes a pitfall by rolling out of the ring. Then Nikki hits a swinging neck breaker from the top rope on Ruby Riot, to eliminate her.

This leaves a one on one matchup between Nikki Cross and Asuka. While some vicious strikes are handed out and goes on for a handful of minutes, it ultimately ends up being thrown out, as both women battle all the way to the back. Not even a double count out and this seems like this trend has been increasing lately (happened to Hardyz vs Sheamus/Cesaro), and I can’t say I’m a big fan. But looking at the time left in the broadcast, there was still about 5 minutes left, so you knew something had to happen. These two women battled outside of the arena and backstage, and with a small glimpse of what could have been a female hardcore match, made their lack of a victor to the match, very compelling. The battle finally leads to Nikki and Asuka coming back in the arena, and fighting into the Tech area of Full Sail. The brutal back and forth ends when Nikki hits an elevated cross body on Asuka, which takes out both women as they end up crashing through a table.

This obsession Nikki Cross has had with Asuka has been going on since Takeover:San Antonio, and the aggression has only continued here. I can’t see this ending anytime soon, and a likely triple threat match with Asuka, Nikki Cross and Ember Moon, could very well be the top female match at Takeover:Brooklyn, and I am very much looking forward to it, especially in what seems like another possible poor card on paper, for another Takeover.

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