5 reasons why Rhea Ripley defeated Shayna Baszler for the NXT Women's Championship

#3 To give the heels a chance

Will the new Dakota Kai stand a better chance now?

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.