NXT TakeOver: Dallas: NXT Women's Championship - Bayley (c) VS Asuka

[Jack-Hammer]

After picking up a tag team match win over Eva Marie and Nia Jax tonight, William Regal announced Asuka as the #1 contender for the NXT Women's Championship and will face Bayley for the title at the TakeOver event in Dallas during WrestleMania weekend.

This is the women's bout that a good many people have been wanting to see in NXT for quite a while now and it's easy to understand why. Asuka has this strange sort of "it factor" in that she has so much energy, has such a colorful & unique look and can go in the ring. Bayley puts me in mind of a female version of Daniel Bryan in that she does great in underdog situations, people genuinely enjoy cheering for her as a babyface and WANT to cheer for her as a babyface and she knows how to use that emotion to help tell a strong story inside the ring.

I'm not really sure who walks out as champion. Asuka, if I'm not mistaken, is undefeated in NXT and a good number of fans are clamoring for Bayley to be brought to the main roster. Whenever talks go on about who'll pop up on the main roster from NXT on the post WrestleMania Raw, Bayley's name is usually among the most mentioned. As a result, maybe she drops the NXT Championship or she may very well retain and show up on the main roster as champion in a similar way to we saw with Kevin Owens last year as NXT Champion; she could sort of divide her time, though most of her time will be on the main roster, before she soon drops the NXT Women's Championship as a means of fully locking herself onto the main roster.

At any rate, there's lots of potential for this match. I don't know that it'll have the storytelling and emotion that Bayley generated with Sasha Banks last year, but it could still be highly entertaining.

 

[Wrestlingaholic]

I want Bayley to retain. I think that the women are finally getting good exposure and thought put into them on the main roster, but there's too many of them not being used to warrant Bayley's promotion just yet, plus although they have fleshed out the NXT women's roster with acquisitions recently, they still haven't featured enough for anyone to take Bayley's place on the NXT roster.

Think of it like this:

Heels: Eva Marie, Nia Jax, Emma, Dana Brooks, Alexa Bliss
Faces: Bayley, Asuka, Carmella (who has only recently started wrestling more)

Until the new batch start to get more recognised (and they seem to be starting with Deonna Purazzo, though she has jobbed 3 straight times now) then it is a bad move to promote Bayley as it will effectively leave Asuka as the only viable face in the division, and you CANT have a division with only one babyface

 

[ShinChan]

Whats more exciting than a fight between your two favorites?

I am really expecting a good match as its Bayley and Asuka is an icing to the cake. I believe that it would surely cross Nia Jaxx VS Bayley in terms of every concept, be it entertainment or wrestling.

But I am just torn between Asuka and Bayley for the winner of the match. Still Asuka 51-49 Bayley so that we can get Bayley VS Sasha at Summerslam for the title.

 

[Harthan]

This is very interesting booking because it's almost a perfect echo of the Balor/Joe match for the men's title. On the one end, the face champion who's become a standard bearer of NXT (female wrestler of the year Bayley and male wrestler of the year Balor, for 2015). On the other end, the international/independent star with a reputation as a legitimate ass kicker (Asuka's gonna kill you / Joe's gonna kill you). And, both matches will test something critical about the future of NXT - what's the purpose, truly, of the people like Joe and Asuka on this roster? As people unlikely to reach the main roster and whose purpose is largely to give NXT some main eventers who can safely put people over without losing credibility, it seems to me that NXT doesn't have much of an interest in putting titles on the Asukas and Joes of the world.

That said, this match strikes me as very different than the Joe/Balor match in some ways. Unlike the Joe/Balor match, which I think was realistically the only title match to be made for Takeover, there were plenty of other legitimate options for this show. Perhaps none that were quite as big, but there were matches to make for Bayley other than this - or a three or four way could have been concocted as well. Instead, they've chosen the direct confrontation between their hottest star in Bayley and their biggest legitimate threat in Asuka, which to me suggests they intend to make a statement about one or the other. Someone is going over here and will look like a mega-star in doing it. Maybe in another situation, it makes sense that Asuka would be the one doing it, and there's a good, long term booking for argument for Asuka to go over. But at their biggest show of the year, on the developmental brand, in a match guaranteed to make someone look amazing, does it really make sense for them to put over someone not likely to reach the main roster, or to put over someone they must see as the future face of women's wrestling in the WWE? It seems much more likely that they'd go with the latter.

I'm very intrigued to see this play out, since it's a situation where traditional booking suggest Asuka, but the developmental nature of NXT suggests Bayley. I think they'll go with Bayley, but it will be very tight. Probably the most unpredictable match of the show.

 

[OYDK]

Incredible match that probably didn't get the recognition it deserved following Zayn/Nakamura. I'm guessing that was the original position for Samson/Crews before it got bumped, but even so, Bayley and Asuka didn't miss a beat. I loved the mix of styles in this match, especially the way that Bayley was able to adapt to Asuka's ground-based offense. This was probably out and out, the best pure wrestling match on the entire Dallas card and that's saying a lot in 2016. It's incredible that we've come to a point where we can say that a women's match was the best wrestling match on a card full of 4 star wrestling matches.

I expect Asuka to absolutely dominate the NXT Women's division going forward and easily become the longest reigning NXT Women's Champion in history. My guess is that they'll attempt to build Nia Jax into the next legitimate contender for the strap but that'll likely take some time. Until than Asuka's position on top seems pretty secure as long as Bailey moves up to the main roster. And barring any acquisitions (hem, Awesome Kong, erm).

 

[Navi]

What a fantastic match and both ladies deserve the highest praise. Following Nakamura/Zayn couldn't have been easy, but they did it, and did it with style. Asuka is pound for pound the best female wrestler they have in both the WWE and NXT, and I can't wait to see her title run and her move to the main roster maybe later this year. Bayley I expect to see on RAW on Monday, and she'll get the Daniel Bryan treatment from the fans, and it will be deserved. I also think she and Banks will have one hell of a feud. Just keep Vince as far away from her as possible.