Asuka vs. Ember Moon should be NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn’s main event

At the inaugural NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn event, the main event should have been Bayley vs. Sasha Banks for the NXT Women’s Championship. That was true before the match happened, and it has only seemed more true since it all went down. Now, don’t take that preamble to mean that I’m here to argue that Ember Moon vs. Asuka should main event TakeOver: Brooklyn III just because fans or women are owed one by WWE: it’s more just a reminder that it’s three years later, and we’re in a similar situation where that’s clearly the top title feud on the card, and it should be treated as such.

Asuka and Ember Moon have been feuding for months now. They clashed at TakeOver: Orlando during WrestleMania weekend, in a match Asuka had to cheat to win. Asuka has seemingly been dodging Ember a bit since then, even attacking her following a battle royal in May, which knocked Moon out of action with a shoulder injury. Now, Asuka can’t run from Moon, who even managed to surprise and put down the champ with her finisher during a segment on this week’s NXT, and it sure feels like Brooklyn is going to be Ember’s big moment and the end of Asuka’s now-record win streak.

Conversely, for the NXT Championship, you’ve got Bobby Roode, who has been entertaining on television as a total jerk heel, in a brand new feud with Drew McIntyre, who just returned to WWE so recently that his TakeOver debut is going to be at Brooklyn. This could very well end up being the main event of Brooklyn III, but it would be a mistake: it’s not that this feud won’t be entertaining, or that the match will be bad, or anything like that. But the end of Bobby Roode’s title run, if that’s what this is, pales in comparison as an event to the end of Asuka’s, who has held an NXT title longer than anyone else has in the history of the promotion in addition to her Goldberg-surpassing win streak.

Asuka vs. Ember Moon is the title feud right now at NXT, just like Bayley and Sasha were back in 2015. With any luck, WWE will recognize this, and give them the stage they deserve in Brooklyn.

• Sean Rueter has you covered on everything that went down on this week’s solid episode of NXT, one that featured a heavy dose of Aleister Black doing Aleister Black things.
• SAnitY vs. Authors of Pain is now official for TakeOver: Brooklyn III, so get thinking about which heel team you want to cheer. (Me? I’m rooting for the one with Nikki Cross.)
• NXT has another new performer, as Kyle O’Reilly debuted this week. You might remember him from Ring of Honor, or you might not know him at all! Don’t be ashamed of the second part, there’s a lot of wrestling out there and only so many hours in a day.
• Karen Jarrett explained her public run-in with Braun Strowman, and Thursday’s Rumor Roundup has a follow-up on the matter.
• Tyson Kidd! Backstage!
• Shinsuke Nakamura will wrestle Jinder Mahal at SummerSlam for the WWE Championship, and it’s been 15 years since someone making their SummerSlam debut wrestled for that belt.
• You would think Nakamura’s first WWE Championship match would feel bigger than this, buuuuuut you could also kind of say that about his entire WWE run so far.
• Speaking of SummerSlam and titles, reports of Brock Lesnar’s UFC reunion are all over the place.
• Everyone in WWE is sad about Bayley’s injury. Okay maybe not Alexa Bliss, but otherwise.
• This week’s Global Force Wrestling preview wonders what’s going on with the future of the Grand Championship.
• Lucha Underground featured a couple of returns as well as post-main shenanigans involving a certain Worldwide stable.
• Booker T spoke with ESPN about his career and his political future.
• It sounds like Io Shirai might not be coming to WWE after all.