[2013-07-24-WWE-NXT] Emma vs Paige

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Paige vs Emma - NXT 7/24/13 NXT Women's Championship

To crown the inaugural NXT Women's Champion, in a lot of ways this is the start of the Women's Revolution as this championship is what made WWE fans take women seriously and this was the launching pad to get Paige on the main roster after WrestleMania. I thought this was a good match, serviceable, but not very memorable. I really liked their February 2014 NXT Takeover match. I remember it being physical and gritty. I re-read my review and it sounded like a banger of a match. I had forgotten how good Paige was at working the midsection. We see that here at times like right after the DilEmma Paige hits that side kick to the midsection or towards the end of the match. I just didnt feel like there was enough connective tissue. I thought Emma was the on delivering the highspots like Emmaite Sammich and the Superplex. I felt like the match meandered a lot and here's an odd complaint. I thought there were too many pinfalls attempted. Theoretically, I shouldnt really complain because pinning is the point of winning, BUT it came across more like they had run out of things to do so they might as go for a fall to kill time. I thought we saw flickers of Paige's intensity, but it would wax and wane. I could see the potential in both of them, but it didnt really materialize into anything great. *** 

[Jimmy Redman]

A few years ago I watched all the WWE women's matches from 2000-2015 for my Divas Era project. I like to be a completist, so now we're in a new decade I want to finish watching everything through the end of the 10s and be, if nothing else, the world's foremost expert on WWE women's matches of the 21st century.

So my first job is to catch up on NXT through 2015, since I never re-watched NXT the first time. I promised myself I'd post in here when I started finding matches worth posting about. Hopefully I cobble something together at the end of it, but in the meantime it feels better to be shouting my feelings into this ether than to not shout at all.

If I had to guess before I began, this would be the match I'd assume broke the barrier, and I was right. I was huge on this at the time and I have many feelings about how important it ended up being, but I wasn't sure how it would hold up in 2020 eyes with a whole ass revolution coming after it.

It MORE than held up.

This is IT.

In mid-2013 they're still calling the women Divas and making wisecracks about how hot they are and giving them 2-3 minute matches on television. Yes, even on NXT. It wasn't all Horsewomen and workrate folks. In fact, the small act of calling this brand new title the NXT Women's Title and not Divas Title was the literal first step for womankind towards a new and glorious enlightenment.

The second step was having a bunch of 3-4 minute matches in the early rounds of the tournament leading up to this final. No kidding. Divas Era title tournaments were always awful, consisting of pointless 90 second matches. This was actually an improvement. There were a lot of glimpses of the future during this tournament - Emma fully fleshes out her babyface goof character during it, Bayley becomes BAYLEY Bayley, and a young, green Charlotte Flair debuts on TV the week before the final. The main thing, though, is simply the level of respect and seriousness they give it. It's a real tournament, with stakes, and treated seriously by the wrestlers, the announcers, and most importantly the crowd. They're into it, particularly into Paige, who had been one of the most over wrestlers on the roster for a while before this. She is so far above all the other women on the show, even in the company really, that this whole thing felt like an extended coronation.

ANYWAY, I wasn't sure if this match would still rule after all that weight, but it still ruled. I read Marty's note above about the pinfalls, but I really liked that part, it felt like they were going hard out for the win and they didn't feel lazy or perfunctory. The work was nice and snug. I liked the part early where Paige went for a backslide, Emma blocked it and hit the ropes and went hey, presto, Tarantula! It's hard to make a move like the Tarantula feel organically set up. When Paige put her cloverleaf type finish on I COMPLETELY BOUGHT Emma selling the end and I was sure I remembered the finish wrong. I also liked that Emma countered into her own Emma Lock but didn't get a chance to put it on - a nice note for a future match. Paige busted out some new stuff for the occasion, like a Perfect Plex, or going UP TO THE TOP ROPE which she never does, and getting Superplexed. Big moment, and I'd have to check but I believe this must be the first "THIS IS AWESOME" chant in WWE women's wrestling history. Paige kind of hits her finish outta nowhere to win, which she always does, and never in a fun way, but nevertheless this was a banging match. The crowd was going banana the whole time, by the way, duelling chants for the girls and This Is Awesome chants and just being super into everything. The crowd bought into this 100%, and that, more than anything else, is what sold it as a big, real moment.

Afterwards they keep selling hard, Paige cries, the NXT roster comes out to congratulate her (featuring pre-debut Alexa and some tall blonde sheila I seriously have never laid eyes on before in my life?) and then CHMMMM, TIME TO PLAY THE GAME, and we get what also must be the first recorded Papa Haitch Self-indulgent Photo-op With New NXT Champion in history too.

I'm curious to see how much things shift from this point forward. But my feeling watching it, in 2020 just the same as 2013, is that this is the watershed.

Everything I've watched up until this point has felt like an extended prelude to the NXT Women's Revolution. This match is page one.