WWE: Ranking The Top 20 Matches of 2017

credit: wwe.com

18. Asuka vs Nikki Cross – Last Woman Standing – NXT 6/23/2017

At the 2016 Hell In A Cell pay per view, Charlotte Flair and Sasha Banks took part in the first ever women’s hell in a cell match. Then in June of 2017 the women of SmackDown Live took part in the first women’s MITB match. The result of the match produced so much outrage that the blue brand added a second MITB match just nine days later. Then, on the December 18th episode of RAW, Stephanie McMahon announced that the 2018 Royal Rumble will feature the first ever women’s match of that namesake. It’s truly been a remarkable couple of years for the women’s division in the WWE.

Mixed in with all these major milestones for women’s wrestling was the somewhat under the radar match between Asuka and Nikki Cross on the June 23rd episode of NXT. On that night, Asuka and Cross went to war in what was the first ever Last Woman Standing match in the history of the company. And unquestionable it was the best so far of all the firsts. Over the course of 20-plus minutes these two warriors tore into each other with a level violence rarely seen in a women’s match.

Battling for Asuka’s NXT Women’s Championship, Cross seemed willing to do anything to dethrone “The Empress of Tommorow” as she employed a bevvy of chairs while also delivering a guardrail aided spinning neck breaker on the cement. But the champ was up to the challenge as she finished off the challenger with highlight reel superplex from a ladder through the announce table, rendering Cross unable to answer the ten count.

It was a star making performance from Cross who has future NXT gold written all over her. And for Asuka, it was another notch on her already sparkling WWE belt. Here’s hoping these two cross paths again in the near future.