As we continue to wind down from the excitement and grandeur of SummerSlam weekend, we’re able to look back on some of the amazing moments that happened over three days in the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
Some of these unbelievable moments include Seth Rollins leaving with the WWE World Heavyweight Champion AND the United States Champion. The Undertaker, despite tapping out to Brock Lesnar’s kimura, got vengeance by leaving with his arm raised anyway. Bayley finally became the NXT Women’s Champion, defeating Sasha Banks in a gruelling match-up that proved to steal not only NXT Takeover, but the whole weekend.
We were subjected to some amazing moments, and with the returns of Sting and the Dudley Boyz, WWE have done their very best to keep us watching over the coming weeks.
That being said, one of my favourite moments from the weekend only aired on NXT on Wednesday, as we saw some of the matches that took place before the beginning of Takeover. These include a massive eight-man tag, Carmella in action against Eva Marie and Bull Dempsey competing in the ring. The biggest moment, however, came in the final match where Emma emerged victorious against Dana Brooke, and two of Monday Night Raw’s newest acquisitions, Charlotte and Becky Lynch.
People seem to forget just how important Emma has been to the Divas Revolution happening on the main roster in WWE today. After all, you can’t have revolution without emmalution, and while that may seem like a silly rhyme, it’s actually true. We all credit Paige with laying the foundation of this new-found vitality in the Divas division, but Emma was right there with her when it all began.
At NXT ArRival, the brand’s very first live special on the WWE Network, Paige and Emma put on one hell of a match for the NXT Women’s Title. The match was incredibly back-and-forth, and showed the women in a different light to the main roster Divas at the time. They could actually go in the ring!
Hell, this was during the build-up to WrestleMania 30, where Batista was competing in the main event, and Emma’s vicious powerbomb actually inspired “better than Batista” chants, which merely exemplified the level of talent being put on display by the two women. The match ended with Paige applying what she now calls the PTO, retaining the title and putting NXT women on the map.
It can be argued that if this match never took place, or simply wasn’t booked on this particularly show, that NXT’s special events wouldn’t be synonymous with spectacular women’s wrestling as it is today. That alone is reason to throw credit in Emma’s direction.
In fact, I was at Shawn Michaels’ Q&A event in London in April 2014, and upon being asked about the women of NXT, The Heartbreak Kid commended Emma on her ability to play such a whacky character so well. This was at the time when Emma was still dancing her way to the ring amidst hundreds of bubbles, and Michaels’ said that her passion for the industry shined through when she came to the ring with such enthusiasm.
It might be fair to say that the “bubbly” gimmick was what led to her main roster debut ultimately failing, as she was instantly paired with Santino Marella, a man famous for being the ridiculous goofball that everyone knew would never make it past the lower mid-card. That’s likely a contributing factor in why Emma is back in NXT right now, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
Emma now sports a much more serious persona, and the fact that she toppled two of the most popular women in WWE proves that it’s working. I’ll be honest in saying that I’m not the biggest fan of Dana Brooke, and hope that Emma’s victory on Wednesday will put an end to their alliance, but either way, Emma is on the rise again. If Bayley’s looking for a suitable challenger for her new NXT Women’s Title, look no further than this woman.
I sincerely hope that the disrespect shown towards the Divas by the Brooklyn crowd on Monday Night Raw doesn’t derail the revolution in any way, because I have been loving it thus far. I would rather see one-on-one rivalries going forward from SummerSlam instead of more team-based stuff, but anything is better than nothing. Everyone involved, including Emma and Bayley, in the Divas Revolution has been doing a fantastic job and one lousy crowd shouldn’t negatively affect that.
The fact that Team PCB will be competing in a Beat the Clock challenge this week to decide who faces Nikki Bella for the WWE Divas Championship at Night of Champions means we could be headed in the right direction.
Let’s hope we see some great feuds for the Divas Championship in the coming months, and that both NXT and WWE continue to deliver great women’s wrestling. All they need is opportunity.
That’ll do it for today, folks. If you enjoyed this piece, please feel free to share it on Facebook, Twitter and other various social media. You can also comment down below if you want to join the conversation. You can also follow me on Twitter @AdamOB_UTS to speak with me about wrestling, my writing or anything at all.
Thanks for reading!
Self-Professed Conversational Wizard.
Admin, Editor and Writer for SLTD Wrestling.
Creator of 'Under the Spotlight'.
Studying Computing in Games Development.
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