NXT TakeOver: Respect streamed live on the WWE Network on Wednesday night, from NXT’s home base of Full Sail University, Florida. This was the seventh iteration of the NXT TakeOver series, the fourth so far this year, and while the year began with wrestling minds rapt on Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens, the story of NXT in 2015 has increasingly centred on its remarkable women’s division. Sasha Banks won the NXT Women’s Championship back in February, the gold allied to an imperious personality and vicious mastery of the ring elevating her to a lofty summit of the sport. The narrative since has been of Sasha’s savvy grandeur, and gradually of Bayley grasping to reach the same level.
For the first time, a women’s match was scheduled to headline a major WWE event. More, we were set to witness effectively the first Iron Woman Match: the first time in WWE history that an Iron Man stipulation, in this case that the match must last thirty minutes, had been attributed to a bout between women. At thirty minutes, this was also inevitably going to prove the longest women’s match in WWE history. And all of these firsts were fitting, because over the past few months Sasha Banks and Bayley have emerged as two of wrestling’s brightest talents, managing to utterly captivate their audience by means of their tangible integrity and expert storytelling.
NXT TakeOver: Respect began on a different note but on the same theme, with the semi-finals of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. Finn Balor and Samoa Joe vs. The Mechanics (Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder) was a solidly constructed opening to the show, with The Mechanics knocking Balor off the ring apron at the beginning of the match, and seeking from there on to exacerbate his injured knee. Though Joe and Balor effected some early offensive flurries, Balor still managing a dive to the outside, Dawson and Wilder made cunning use of the ring to wear Balor down, utilising a variety of holds, the ring post and the ring ropes, and some crafty double-team manoeuvres. Eventually Joe got the hot tag, and with the match won, he reluctantly allowed Balor to take the pinfall after a Coupe de Grace which did nothing for his injury.
The second semi-final pitted the team of Jason Jordan and Chad Gable against Baron Corbin and Rhyno. Discounting the main event, this was arguably a surprise match of the night, as the two manhandling big men shone against such athletic opponents. Jordan and Gable – both with amateur wrestling backgrounds – achieved a series of agile reversals, conventional submission holds, and suplexes, with Corbin and Rhyno straining to make the most of their size and power. As the match reached a climax, Gable transitioned seamlessly from Corbin’s clutches to land a devastating German suplex which Rhyno just interrupted before the count of three. But then a Gore on Jordan and an End of Days on Gable allowed Corbin and Rhyno to progress to the final.
Thus the final of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic was as the tournament brackets had suggested at the outset: Joe and the plucky reigning NXT Champion against two tough overbearing heels. Taking place later as the penultimate match on the card, Balor bravely began the final despite still struggling with his knee, but soon tagged to Joe who proceeded to suffer a series of stiff slams, chops, and punches. When Balor finally got the hot tag, he hobbled through a series of high-impact kicks until Rhyno swiped his leg out from under him, sending Balor crashing down onto the ring apron. Corbin thoroughly worked over the knee, but Balor mustered a Sling Blade and Rhyno and Joe were both tagged. The two men exchanged signature moves, and after clearing the ring, it was the team of Balor and Joe who prevailed, courtesy of a Musclebuster followed by a Coup de Grace.
It is difficult to criticise the culmination of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic at NXT TakeOver: Respect, because it involved three strong matches and offered such a coherent, old-school wrestling narrative, Balor having to overcome a series of assaults on a worsening knee to lead his team to gold. The dissenting view is that tag team wrestling should be about tag teams; and that with the final essentially consisting of four mid-to-upper-card singles competitors thrown together, the opportunity to truly elevate the tag division was squandered. This was after all a unique occasion, coming just months after the passing of The American Dream: even if the tournament becomes an annual affair, Balor and Joe’s triumph cannot be avenged.
Yet the young teams of The Mechanics and Jordan and Gable still shone on the night, endearing themselves for their in-ring ability and superbly executing their respective roles up against more established opponents. With The Mechanics beating current NXT Tag Team Champions The Vaudevillains in the quarter-finals, they are established as legitimate challengers and the likely source of the next title feud. The successful enhancement of two exciting teams significantly bolsters the one division which has often been light in NXT.
Between the tag semis and final, the show saw the first TakeOver appearance of the recently debuted Asuka, who faced Dana Brooke. Asuka stands out immediately for her multi-coloured hair and attire, and she brings an intriguing new dynamic to the NXT women’s roster with her Japanese wrestling background, which manifests itself in a rapid style of quick strikes and flowing submissions. With Emma in Brooke’s corner, the two wrestlers exchanged reversals before an ill-advised slap brought Asuka’s ire.
A rear to the face sent Brooke to the canvas, and Asuka displayed her sharp-witted, playful personality, making an elaborate mockery of Brooke’s posturing. Interference from Emma briefly switched the order of the match, but after a German suplex and wrenching in a series of holds, Asuka made Brooke tap in the Asuka Lock, a crossface chickenwing with body scissors. As Brooke develops and Emma looks set to return to the fore, the introduction of Asuka and the imminent debut of Nia Jax amount to a new-look NXT women’s division after the recent mass departure for the main roster, and it is a look with lots of potential.
Then Apollo Crews continued his winning streak in a match against Tyler Breeze. The opening moments saw Crews overpowering Breeze, breaking when requested by the referee, and flooring Breeze with a fine dropkick. Give-and-take action on the outside resulted in Breeze tossing Crews violently into the ring apron, and after a couple of near falls and a backstabber, he cinched in a Sharpshooter which would cause Crews repeated bother in his lower back.
From this point Crews struggled to regroup. He hit a clothesline, a resounding kick to the back of the head, and a gorilla press slam, but each time Breeze responded, with forearms, a hurricanrana, and a superkick which brought a count of two. Then Breeze raised his knees to spoil a standing moonsault, and rolled Crews up for another close fall. However it was Crews who prevailed, hoisting Breeze for a powerbomb and the 1-2-3. This was an excellent battle in less than ten minutes, the only shame being that Breeze failed to achieve the surprise pinfall which could have led to a series of matches between such elegant athletes. Breeze is an NXT original, a memorable part of any show, and he certainly remains a prospect for an eventual run with the NXT title belt. But it is important for him to win at least the odd match at these major events.
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Sasha Banks and Bayley played no part in the earliest NXT special, styled ‘arRIVAL’. The first live wrestling event to show on the newly established WWE Network when it aired in February 2014, the only women’s match on the card saw Paige retain her Women’s Championship versus Emma. At the inaugural TakeOver, Sasha and Bayley faced off in singles competition – but only prior to the show proper, Bayley defeating Banks in a dark match. Then Bayley and Sasha took turns across the next two TakeOver specials, each succumbing to the reigning Women’s Champion Charlotte.
When Sasha finally realised her goal and claimed the NXT Women’s Championship from Charlotte, it was at NXT TakeOver: Rivals in February of this year, in a Fatal 4-Way match which also featured Bayley and Becky Lynch. Sasha subsequently embarked on an angle with Lynch, and Bayley had to wait – not only for a shot at the gold, but for the sort of acclaim being justly heaped on her three counterparts, who in July were called up to the main roster. When Bayley returned towards the end of July from a brief absence owing to a broken hand, her first thought was to issue a challenge to Banks for the title. And after proving her mettle against Lynch and Charlotte, at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn in August, Bayley earned a momentous victory and the ultimate respect of Sasha, who embraced the new champion.
NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn was NXT’s grandest show to date, in front of almost 16,000 fans in the Barclays Center over SummerSlam weekend. By contrast, home at Full Sail can house only hundreds, although many of these are the brand’s most devoted followers. Yet the rematch at NXT TakeOver: Respect felt just as vital, and not only thanks to the stipulation and its standing as the show’s main event: reading between the lines, with WWE staggering ahead with its ‘Divas Revolution’, there seemed a good chance that this would be Sasha’s last match on NXT, at least for the foreseeable future.
The 30-minute Iron Woman Match for the NXT Women’s Championship between Bayley and Sasha Banks demonstrated everything that is great about wrestling, and highlighted so much of what is wrong with the main roster. WWE’s shortcomings cannot be reduced to impatient storytelling: while the story of Bayley and Sasha has deep roots, their title rematch the resting point of an unusually long arc, even though WWE always tend to grope for a quick fix, they still often allow feuds which run three or four months. But often these drift into meaninglessness, or alternately experience mind-numbing shifts in course from week to week. One problem with today’s WWE is simply inconsistent, careless, resolutely low quality writing, which seems to lack any perspective beyond the company’s biggest stars.
Wednesday’s TakeOver was subtitled ‘Respect’, which the introductory montage – showing past WWE champions at career-defining moments – called ‘the ultimate prize’. Yet respect is something sorely lacking across the main product. The NXT women’s division under Sasha Banks, Charlotte, Becky Lynch, and Bayley has been built on a rich sense of camaraderie. These wrestlers give to one another in the ring, and outside of it appear to have established firm friendships based on respect and shared endeavour: they have developed as a unit, each making the other profoundly better. While friendships clearly exist on the main roster, there the company seems to have caught itself within the cage of a narrow hierarchy, where everyone must kick and claw their way to a top spot. If you are not pulling on the leg of the person above you, and pushing down the head of the person below, respect is refused by those making the big decisions, who take the view that you must lack the drive and determination to become a success.
Whatever stance is taken regarding John Cena’s capabilities as a wrestler, it seems clear that his singular presence always towards the pinnacle of the card, and with a character impervious to pain or nuance, only serves to hold others back; while the Divas Revolution appears to have been stymied in some part owing to pettiness against former champion AJ Lee, whose longest-ever reign had to be broken regardless of the cost, and by Cena’s real-life partner Nikki Bella. On the main roster, there is infantile drama and results which seem subservient to forces beyond the ring. On NXT every member of the roster has a clearly defined role, and results are made to matter, depicted as a legitimate means of advancing towards title gold.
In general NXT gets so much right: beyond carefully rendered, realistic storylines, well-paced matches with give-and-take and dependable selling, a proper emphasis on results, and an atmosphere both educational and inquisitive, it excels too when it comes to presentation. The darkened crowd focuses attention on the in-ring action, and while a few superstars possess fairly generic music, still NXT can boast some of the most elaborate and engaging entrances in wrestling, including those of Bayley, Finn Balor, and The Vaudevillains. With the titles duly important and the whole ethos of the NXT brand so admired, the audience readily understands why wrestlers are out in front of them, and they are made to feel special upon entering the ring.
After Sasha slinking her way to the ring in shutter shades and Bayley’s ‘Turn it Up’, their match began with the two athletes soaking up the feeling of the crowd at Full Sail, pacing around the ring and eyeing one another before locking up. It progressed in three phases, with an early display of catch wrestling, takedowns and pinning predicaments which resulted in near falls. Signature moves were teased but instantly blocked, Bayley landed two arm drags, and Sasha one of her own from the corner, sending Bayley sprawling across the mat. When Bayley offered Sasha a helping hand up from the canvas, Sasha took it, only to slam Bayley down: the first indication that despite their friendship, Sasha was here to be bad and here to win. Then the action briefly ventured to the outside, and Bayley chased Sasha with two sliding dropkicks beneath the bottom rope.
Back inside, the first fall of the match came when Sasha coyly blocked the view of the referee in the turnbuckle, thumbing Bayley in the eye and folding her up for the cheap pin. But just as the match passed the first ten-minute mark, a sudden Bayley-to-Belly evened the score at 1-1. The second stage of the match saw a brutal brawl on the arena floor. Sasha initiated, still snarling after losing her lead, swinging Bayley viciously into the ring steps and twice more tossing her into the steel. And when she then drove Bayley into the video board in the entryway, Bayley was down and out as the referee counted to 10 to give Sasha the 1-2 advantage.
Sasha dragged Bayley through the ropes and began working her opponent’s back, with a backbreaker and Boston crab. At NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn, she had made a successful tactic of abusing Bayley’s broken hand, and now she repeated the gesture with several sharp stomps. But when she sought to lock in the Boston crab for a second time, Bayley flipped her and held onto the legs for a pinfall out of nowhere. So it was 2-2 with twelve minutes left.
Sasha looked to up the aggression, but Bayley fought back, sledging Sasha across the body, charging her three times in the corner, and landing a spinning back-elbow from the middle rope. She hung Sasha in a tree of woe and dropped an elbow, only for Sasha to respond with a tree of woe of her own and a double-knee drop which brought a count of two. Now into the final ten minutes of the match, Bayley avoided a shoulder charge and sent Sasha to the outside. Summoning her rival’s mean streak, she slammed Sasha’s left hand a couple of times onto the steel steps, and then ran up the same steps for a diving clothesline. Sasha countered, but when she dove through the ropes Bayley caught her, and delivered a Bayley-to-Belly on the hard floor. Yet by the time she had Sasha back in the ring, she could only muster a near fall.
The quality of the storytelling and the level of attention to detail was exceptional. Both wrestlers showed wonderful presence of mind. Early on Sasha had taken an arm drag and landed high on her neck and left shoulder: capitalising immediately, Bayley began stretching the shoulder area, targeting it also with a few kicks. Sasha retaliated in a similar fashion by going after Bayley’s back and returning to the Boston crab. The two women made ready use of the ropes, Sasha using them for leverage, and Bayley reaching into them to break a pin. And whenever a submission was attempted, both superstars made sure to lock the hold in tight, squatting away any obstructing body parts.
Sasha played the heel role perfectly: respectful at the outset, but quickly showing her nasty side, portraying a ruthless will to win. Never becoming the caricature of a villain, every movement, every gesture, every glance was in character. As she battered Bayley on the outside, before throwing her into the video board, she taunted Bayley’s family and support in the front row, going so far as to snatch the headband of young Izzy, Bayley’s biggest fan. And while the referee counted Bayley out, Sasha mischievously adorned the headband, before spitefully flinging it back towards Izzy and her father, with the youngster now in tears. It was just the right accent to an already superb match, playful but especially shocking given the context, and consolidating the shape of the crowd’s support.
Just five minutes remained, and the women were fading against the onslaught of the match, their energies almost spent. Bayley battled Sasha to the top turnbuckle, and sprung forth with a belly-to-belly superplex – but Sasha showed great awareness to roll through, draping a foot over the bottom rope. Then Bayley went for the reverse hurricanrana from the top which had proven so effective in Brooklyn, but Sasha managed to land broadly on her feet, and as Bayley turned she met her own finishing move, a Sasha-to-Belly just marginally not enough to keep Bayley’s shoulders to the mat. Yet Sasha segued effortlessly into the Bank Statement, and with two minutes to go, Bayley was in the most perilous of positions.
However the earlier attack on Sasha’s hand showed its worth, preventing Sasha from fully cranking back on Bayley’s neck. Bayley struggled to the the ropes, only for Sasha to roll the hold back into the centre of the ring. But she still could not tighten her grip, and Bayley found the strength to smash her fingers into the canvas, breaking the submission. With thirty seconds on the clock and both ladies up on their feet, Sasha tried to initiate a third Bank Statement. Crucially, Bayley reversed, and took Sasha to the canvas in an arm bar, wrenching back on Sasha’s shoulder, and pulling and tearing at her injured hand. With just seconds left to run, Sasha was forced to submit.
This was a breathtaking ending to a brilliant match. Ostensibly the first women’s match to headline a major WWE show, in fact Sasha vs. Becky Lynch at NXT TakeOver: Unstoppable was effectively that event’s final bout, with Sami Zayn already injured and his brawl against Kevin Owens inevitably resulting in a no-contest. And Sasha vs. Bayley in Brooklyn was the meaningful match on that card, tugging at the heart of every NXT follower more than the ladder match between Finn Balor and a swiftly departed Kevin Owens.
Still, Bayley vs. Sasha Banks at NXT Takeover: Respect was a landmark, for WWE and for wrestling as a whole, and for two performances of rare shine and heft. Sasha can now boast three match of the year contenders, and at the age of just twenty-three stands as one of the most complete and enthralling wrestlers the business has seen. She will undoubtedly challenge soon for a WWE Divas Championship which perhaps only she can suitably remould. Bayley meanwhile, aside from her excellence in the ring, possesses a unique warmth and likeability which already makes her the company’s strongest face. She will lead a new generation of NXT women, and with her the division could not be in better hands.
