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#1 Raquel Gonzalez vs. Dakota Kai for the NXT Women's Championship (NXT TakeOver 36)
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Raquel Gonzalez's dominant reign as NXT Women's Champion faces its most formidable challenge yet against Dakota Kai at NXT TakeOver 36. This story dates back to TakeOver: Portland in February 2020, when Gonzalez made her re-debut. There, she helped Kai defeat her former best friend Tegan Nox in a Street Fight.
The two women developed a partnership that paid dividends for both. For Kai, she had backup for her battles with the likes of Nox, Mia Yim and Io Shirai. For Gonzalez, this alliance gave her the spotlight that she wasn't able to achieve during her previous run on the NXT brand.
The two women won the first Women's Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic at TakeOver: Vengeance Day, which allowed them to become the first NXT Women's Tag Team Champions. Although they lost the straps in their first defense, Raquel and Dakota's names would always be placed in history together.
At TakeOver: Stand and Deliver, everything changed for their relationship when Gonzalez defeated Io Shirai to win the NXT Women's Championship. (In the build toward NXT TakeOver 36, Kai has said that this opportunity should have been hers in the first place.) From there, Gonzalez focused on her title, so she wasn't as active in regaining the NXT Women's Tag Team Championships with Kai.
Kai was in the champion's corner for every big title defense, and she regularly got involved when she had to. The roles were reversed in a lot of ways, from Gonzalez being in Kai's corner to Dakota becoming Raquel's sidekick. This shift started to wear on Kai's ego, and it was easy to see that the writing was on the wall for this eventual NXT TakeOver 36 match.
On the July 27th, 2021 episode of NXT, she betrayed Gonzalez with a kick to the face out of nowhere to effectively end their partnership. This betrayal also set the stage for the NXT Women's Championship showdown at NXT TakeOver 36. Gonzalez has been unable to get her hands on her former friend, making this show her first opportunity to do so.
The length of their relationship, combined with the way they teased the eventual breakup, were subtle yet well done. The two ladies told their story excellently, and the promo work from both women since the breakup has been great.
The tension heading into this bout couldn't be high, so Raquel Gonzalez vs. Dakota Kai has had the best buildup of any match on the card for NXT TakeOver 36.
