WWE NXT TakeOver New York Results, Grades, and Review

Shayna Baszler (c) vs. Bianca Belair vs. Kairi Sane vs. Io Shirai for the NXT Women’s Championship

Result: Shayna Baszler retains

Grade: A-, great match but questionable result to have Bianca submit to Shayna again

I really thought this match could have main evented WWE NXT TakeOver New York, but it gets the co-main event spot with Johnny Gargano vs. Adam Cole. Shayna Baszler is the most bad-ass wrestler in WWE today, and it is going to take a special effort from one of these women to dethrone her. But Bianca Belair is a future NXT Women’s Champion, Kairi Sane is a past NXT Women’s Champion who has beaten Shayna multiple time in big spots, and Io Shirai is the best wrestler in the world. These women are all more than capable of beating the only two-time women’s champion in the brand’s history/

This should be Bianca’s moment to shine, though, especially after a referee bump kept her from winning the title at TakeOver: Phoenix in January.

The match begins with a brawl as Shayna and Io go at it, Kairi and Bianca go at it, and Bianca and Shayna quickly face off after the events that unfolded at TakeOver: Phoenix earlier this year. Belair tried to use her anger against Shayna, and it nearly led to an early pinfall before Shirai broke things up. And moments later, Kairi saved Io from being pinned by Baszler.

Belair was in her element, blowing a kiss at Kairi Sane, who CAUGHT the kiss and pitched it to Io Shirai. The Queen of the Skies? Well, let’s just say she knocked it out of the park!

Shirai and Sane, however, stared each other down in the ring and started trading shots. But it didn’t take long for Bianca and Shayna to break up this brief dream match between two STARDOM legends, as they started to renew their own history together from Phoenix.

Baszler stomped on Belair’s arm to try and gain an early advantage, but Belair wasn’t fazed. She then stopped Baszler from using her hair against her, slamming Shayna into the ring post.

Sane and Belair started trading counters, and Shirai promptly jumped in to hit a lovely springboard dropkick on Belair to help Sane out. Shirai tried to walk on top of Belair to set up her moonsault, but Belair was still up. She countered, picked Shirai up out of the sky, and threw Io to the ground with a fallaway slam that Baszler had to break up.

The Queen of Spades had Belair in a rear-naked choke on the top rope, but she decided to go for a powerbomb. Instead, Sane caught up to her, and while she didn’t have enough strength to powerbomb both Shayna and Bianca, she and Shirai did. Future tag team champions, The Sky Pirates, teamed up for a big-time powerbomb off the top rope, and perhaps they could take advantage of this potential switch in momentum.

INSANE ELBOW and a Shirai Moonsault to the outside? Let’s go! The Sky Pirates are rolling and on the same page! But as the announce team asked, will they be willing to fight each other to the fullest if it comes down to it?

Anyway, Shirai was saved from a Belair pin by Kairi, and she followed that up with a lovely German suplex that led to all four women lying on the ground again.

Baszler had Belair in the Kirifuda Clutch, trapped in the middle of the ring. But with two women on the outside just waiting to stir, all Bianca had to do was last just long enough – and at this point in the match, there was still plenty of fight left in the EST of NXT.

Belair got out of it and nearly grabbed a title win, but Shirai broke up the win. Upset by the broken pinfall, Belair went after Shirai but received an X-Factor counter for her efforts. The Genius if the Sky then hit a beautiful moonsault that was BARELY broken up by Sane!

Shirai and Sane started wrestling again, and the NXT Universe was blessed. Sane hit Shirai with an Alabama Slam on top of Shayna, and then she hit an Insane Elbow that Shirai broke up! As Mauro Ranallo said, turnabout is fair play!

A big hair whip from Belair onto Sane on the top rope may have saved Shirai from an Insane Elbow, and Belair picked up BOTH Sane and Shirai on her shoulders for a DOUBLE KOD. But Shayna broke things up and locked in a MEAN Kirifuda Clutch on Belair to try and put the game away! Belair fought desperately to get out of it, grabbing for anything she could to save the match, but she tapped out.

And this crowd was NOT having it. That was a very questionable booking decision from WWE, and it will be interesting to see where all four women go from here, particularly Shayna. Many expected Baszler to be called up after WrestleMania, but she remains NXT Women’s Champion. Furthermore, Sam Roberts buried Bianca Belair on back-to-back NXT TakeOver specials, and now it’s worrisome that she’s been submitted in back-to-back matches.

That said, this was a great match, and the exchanges between Kairi Sane and Io Shirai were especially brilliant. Hopefully WWE has a plan for Bianca Belair, because this really wasn’t it. My question is, what if she is actually the one who will be called up after WrestleMania? We shall see.