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The December 18 episode of WWE NXT had two huge Championship matches scheduled for the night. The NXT Championship was defended by Adam Cole against Finn Balor to kick off the night, while the women of NXT ended the night with a huge NXT Women’s Championship match.
A return from Johnny Gargano prevented Balor from winning the NXT Championship and set up another angle between the two men.
However, Rhea Ripley fought through countless intrusions and assaults to become the new NXT Women’s Champion.
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She ended Shayna Baszler’s reign of terror on the women’s roster with her win and has birthed a new beginning for the division. To celebrate the huge victory, we'll look at 5 reasons why Ripley won the NXT Women’s Championship after defeating Baszler.
#5 To shake-up the landscape
Shayna Baszler held the NXT Women’s Championship for a combined 548-days, becoming the longest titleholder after overcoming Asuka’s reign. Baszler dominated her opponents in her contests, and only Kairi Sane managed to break The Queen of Spade's reign for just over two months.
With Baszler’s current reign lasting over 400-days, the women’s roster seemed a bit stale although the competition was very high. Every time a competitor stepped up to her, fans always hoped that they’d see a change at the top, even though Baszler was an incredible Champion.
With Rhea Ripley winning the Championship, the landscape of the women’s division will shake up a bit for the first time since NXT signed a television deal and also stole the show at Survivor Series.
Ripley was already riding high on momentum after great showings at WarGames and during the buildup to Survivor Series, and with her as the Women's Champion, NXT might end up with even more viewers.
#4 Too many heel Champions?
WWE NXT has some of the best Champions in the industry today. Before last night’s episode of the show, the brand had some of the longest-reigning Champions who had enjoyed multiple reigns.
However, with The Undisputed Era holding all the men’s gold and Shayna Baszler holding the only gold for women, it felt like the brand had to force some babyfaces into the competition.
Apart from that, many major heels were sided up with the NXT Champions and did not battle for the titles. This led to many similar bookings, especially against Shayna Baszler, as most of her opponents had to be built up as babyfaces and underdogs.
This led to Baszler playing the same role over and over again, dominating her opponents, while the rest watched helplessly as the villain broke down her foes with the help of her heelish faction.
With the title going to a babyface now, we can see a change from that, as The Undisputed Era has also been playing a similar villainous role and helping each other defend their Championships.
Ripley could prove to be the perfect babyface leader of the women’s division and lead it the way Becky Lynch leads the RAW division.
#3 To give the heels a chance
Picking up from the previous point, most of Shayna Baszler’s opponents had to be built as underdogs, and that at times watered down the competition. Most of her opponents have come and gone without much story as the brand needed to ensure that Baszler stayed in the ring for some time each month.
Dakota Kai, in particular, is a great recent example of how an underdog babyface was used well by Baszler to build her dominance, however, we saw Baszler work with the same opponents at times to remain on screen.
With Rhea Ripley playing a babyface character, the heels of NXT will now be able to compete for the title and also seem threatening to the new Champion.
Ripley plays a great fearless character, and with the current build Kai, Bianca Belair, and Io Shirai have gotten, we could see some great new competition come up for the Superstar with the roles reversed.
With new competition arising on NXT each passing day, the brand could work on the dynamics of the new Champion and give the heels of the brand a chance to step up. NXT needed to provide the heels an opportunity to push forward and become top contenders, and we could see just that in the coming months.
#2 To build a new leader for the women’s division
The women’s division of NXT has been led by Shayna Baszler since April 2018. Since then, she has enjoyed two long Championship reigns, with the most recent one lasting over 400 days.
With Rhea Ripley now on top of the women’s division, NXT could begin the new year on a high and build some solid rivalries surrounding the new Champion. With the focus on the Aussie, we could watch NXT give Ripley a dominating run where she can work on her opponents and gain more popularity.
As the inaugural NXT United Kingdom Women’s Champion, Ripley will know what she’s doing and will have the experience to carry the brand forward as it has built itself to be on par with the other two brands.
Along with that, The Nightmare’s recent performances on RAW and SmackDown along with Survivor Series will help her and the brand’s women’s division get much more attention.
While women like Candice LeRae and Io Shirai can lead the women’s roster too, Ripley’s recent successes and experience of leading NXT UK could help her become an even bigger star.
#1 To free Shayna Baszler for a rivalry with Becky Lynch
The seeds were planted leading up to Survivor Series, and fans were more interested in watching Shayna Baszler go head-to-head with RAW Women’s Champion Becky Lynch rather than also having SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley in the mix.
The match at the pay-per-view saw all three women give their best, but Baszler walked out victorious after taking down Bayley. However, Lynch did not permit The Queen of Spades an easy exit from the pay-per-view.
Now that we know that WWE is planning a rivalry between Baszler and Lynch, they could start working on it in the new year with Baszler freed up from her NXT Championship duties.
Royal Rumble is on the horizon, and we could watch The Queen of Spades walk into the event as one of the 30 contenders and leave as the #1 contender. This could be a great story, given the fact that Lynch’s rise to the Championship also came after winning the Rumble.
With so many stories waiting to be written on the main roster for Baszler, fans could see her get called up sooner than later and compete with some of the best women in RAW and SmackDown today, while Rhea Ripley further builds NXT.
