Shayna Baszler Grinds Her Way To A Nearly-Fatal 4-Way Win At NXT TakeOver: New York

Kyle Fowle
Shayna Baszler (source: WWE)

If you’re a champ in NXT, anything that isn’t a singles match is your worst nightmare. You don’t have to be pinned to lose your title, and you have more than one competitor to worry about. After weekly attacks on the women of NXT, Shayna Baszler ran into a bit of karma. She walks into NXT TakeOver: New York as the champion, but forced to defend her title in a Fatal 4-Way match against Bianca Belair, Io Shirai, and former NXT Women’s Champion Kairi Sane. The odds, as they say, were stacked against Baszler.

The four women stare each other down to start, but the Sky Pirates get thrown out of the ring, giving us a brief rematch from the previous TakeOver between Baszler and Belair. It’s all strikes and pin combinations, and then Shirai and Sane join in on the fun. There’s a number of pins early on, but no quick wins. We’re off and running.

Shirai and Sane, who’ve tagged together in multiple matches, team up eventually, seeing a benefit to knocking out Baszler and Belair early on. That leaves them both in the ring alone, and they understand the stakes. They know they have to put friendship aside to battle for gold, and that’s what they do. They counter each other’s offense for awhile until Baszler and Belair trip them up and get back in the ring. Baszler stomps on Belair’s arm and then tries to use her hair to pull her into the ring post, but Belair counters, driving the champ face first into the post. Belair gets a near fall in the ring, but the match continues.

Baszler rolls to the outside, and that gives Sane room to attack a dazed Belair. She comes off the top, hits Belair, then flies to the outside to take out Baszler. Meanwhile, Shirai takes control of Belair with forearms and some high-flying offense. She goes for one high-risk move too many though, and Belair catches Shirai off the top rope and hits her with a fallaway slam, coming close to victory.

The four women work their way into the corner, and that leads to Shirai and Sane slamming Belair and Baszler off the top rope. All four bodies are strewn across the ring, nobody having a clear advantage. So, Shirai and Sane work together, with Shirai popping up Sane so that she can fly over the top rope with an elbow. Sane goes for another dive, but Belair intercepts her with a spear, and then Baszler gets hit with a suplex from Shirai. Once again, all the women are on the mat, and the championship is up for grabs.

Again, Sane and Shirai team up, laying out Belair with a bunch of strikes. When Baszler takes Sane to the outside though, Belair gains control. She picks up Shirai, raises her above her head, and throws her into her three opponents.

Belair takes this opportunity to attack the champ, but Baszler counters and locks in the Kirifuda Clutch. Belair survives though, digging deep and standing up out of the submission and reversing it into the KOD. That should be it, but Shirai breaks up the pin. This is her chance. She hits two devastating moonsaults on Baszler, and it looks like she has the win, but Sane breaks up the pin, not letting her friend and tag team partner get the win. Then Sane hits Baszler with the InSane Elbow, and Shirai break up that pin. Two close victories, but not enough to get it done. And that leaves room for the champion to recover.

When Sane goes back to the top, Belair hits her with a hair whip and then loads both Sane and Shirai up on her shoulders. She somehow hits both women with the KOD, but her pin is broken up by Baszler. With Sane and Shirai out of it, there’s no saving Belair. She has to tap, because there’s just no escaping at this point. Baszler has found her moment, allowing the other competitors to wear themselves out and laying in wait for a time to strike. Belair taps out, and Shayna Baszler is still the NXT Women’s Champion, and still running the show throughout NXT. The reign of the “Queen of Spades” continues, with no end in sight.


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