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WWE: NXT TakeOver’s Main Event of Bayley vs. Sasha Banks’ Underlying Truth

By Rob Wolkenbrod

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The NXT TakeOver: Respect main event tore the roof down last night but is there something fans should realize about this match?

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Last night, Bayley defeated Sasha Banks in a 30-minute Iron Man match that was everything fans expected and more. From the pacing, to the psychology and the technical wrestling, it made the match a masterpiece. The crowd was into it, the people at home watching on the WWE Network were loving it and quite frankly, it was awesome.

Women’s wrestling has taken off in NXT over the past year. The girls have been treated equal to the guys during this time, leading to logical booking and excellent matches taking place.

ALSO ON DAILY DDT: Ranking the Top 10 NXT TakeOver Matches Ever

Fans who watch the main roster Divas know that this is the complete opposite. For years they received 3-4 minute matches that were considered “bathroom breaks” with good reason because WWE did not prioritize them. It led fans to ask “Why should we care?” Things are steadily changing with the booking of the Divas and the hope is the use of them on the main roster will balance out with NXT. This especially comes after last night’s awesome main event. However, fans needs to realize something: what we saw last night will never be replicated on the main roster.

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    • Back in July, WWE called up Charlotte, Sasha and Becky Lynch to the main roster with the hope of infusing life into the Divas division. There was also a perception that the booking would change to be “more like NXT.” While that was nice to think at the time, it was clearly a stretch due to the incompetence of the past 20-plus years of booking the Divas.

    There are fans who have watched WWE since they really came to the forefront in 1985, the beginning of the WrestleMania era. Many of them grew up seeing the women treated as sex symbols, especially as the 1990’s progressed. This decreased over the years when WWE transitioned to PG content but as that happened, the Divas became a larger afterthought. WWE didn’t sell them as sex symbols anymore and didn’t have them wrestle, leading to the “bathroom break” term.

    Now with women’s wrestling becoming popular, there’s still people with the mindset of “I still don’t care about the Divas.” Those are fans who watch the main roster shows and choose not to watch NXT. That’s fine because some people may not be able to access the WWE Network. However, it means WWE has to try changing the opinions of those fans and so far, they haven’t been able to do that seemingly won’t be able to any time soon.

    The booking of the Divas is incredibly inconsistent on the main roster. It’s still very hard to tell who’s face or heel with the exception of Charlotte and Becky. We see Team Bella flip flop every week and even Team B.A.D., who started off as heels, are going back and forth between good and bad. It’s not the talent’s faults, that’s on WWE Creative for providing this content to go with. Sasha, who is part of Team B.A.D., even said in a WWE.com video about not wanting to leave NXT. Who could blame her?

    Divas matches will also never main event a main roster show for the 5-10 years because of this inconsistent booking and the history of the Divas that was previously mentioned. There’s just too big of a fix to be made to make the women as relevant as they are in NXT because the main roster shows don’t really tend to a “niche” like NXT does. They’re marketed to a larger audience made up of men, women, children, the three of these demographics grouped as “families” and the “casual fan” who wants to see the babyface go over and leave happy. To be able to get all of those types of fans into the Divas after so many years of making them obscure is a difficult and possibly impossible task.

    What we saw in the main event of NXT TakeOver: Respect will continue to be the norm for NXT and that’s excellent. It means fans have a place to see terrific women’s wrestling showcased by some of the greatest wrestlers out there. Just don’t expect this to be replicated on the main roster anytime soon, if ever.

    You can follow Rob Wolkenbrod on Twitter @RealRobWolkey. If you would like to send a report from a live event, email us at robert.wolkenbrod@gmail.com.

    Next: Ranking All 30 WWE Hell in a Cell Matches

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