NXT TakeOver: New York Match Predictions
Shayna Baszler (c) vs. Bianca Belair vs. Kairi Sane vs. Io Shirai- Fatal 4-Way match, NXT Women’s Championship
You could argue that this match should main even the show given the interwoven, longstanding issues between these four women, but unfortunately, there’s a better chance that this match will get the short end of the stick in terms of alotted match time.
Hopefully, these women get some breathing room to cook, because there’s enough talent between Bianca Belair, Kairi Sane, Io Shirai, and Shayna Baszler to produce a potential match of the year contender.
We’re getting this fatal 4-way thanks to Baszler enacting the “heel attacks multiple challengers to avoid facing them” trope when she locked Belair and Shirai in the Kirifuda Clutch midway through Belair and Shirai’s number one contender’s match and then applied her signature choke to Sane after that match was ruled a no contest.
The writers likely booked this multi-woman match as a way to move the NXT Women’s Championship off of Baszler without having the champion suffer a pinfall or submission defeat. While the desire to uphold Baszler’s menacing mystique is understandable and welcomed, whoever wins the title from Baszler needs to beat her if the creative team wants to truly cash in on the equity they’ve built with the former mixed martial artist.
With that in mind, the writers will probably wait a little longer to take the title off of Baszler. Belair seemed like the obvious choice after TakeOver: Phoenix, but she’s acted way too heelish over the past few weeks to make a title win feel especially impactful (to be clear, it would still be significant, but the lack of a more traditional babyface journey has dampened her story arc a bit). Plus, we’ve already seen the Sane-as-champion scenario play out and it feels too early to put the belt on Shirai. So even if she’s on the call-up block, a Baszler title retention wouldn’t be a surprise.
Prediction: Shayna Baszler pins Kairi Sane, retains NXT Women’s Championship