TakeOver: WarGames 2018 gets a puzzling women’s match

That Kairi Sane will use her rematch clause to attempt to regain the NXT Women’s title and get revenge on Shayna Baszler is no surprise.

But seeing as Shayna just won the belt back at Evolution a week and a half ago, and that Kairi only beat the Queen of Spades for it at the last TakeOver on SummerSlam weekend, and that those were their third and fourth high profile matches in the past year... some of us were hoping another women’s match might get a spot on the card at Nov. 18’s TakeOver: WarGames 2018 (cough * Bianca Belair vs. Nikki Cross * cough).

But, okay. Live specials should have the championship represented, their match at WWE’s first all-women’s pay-per-view (PPV) might have been their best one yet, so promotionally speaking, you want to strike while the iron is hot. And the introduction of Baszler’s fellow Horsewomen Marina Shafir & Jessamyn Duke changes the calculus.

So, surely NXT’s babyface General Manager William Regal would ban Shayna’s allies from ringside or book the match with a stipulation that accounts for them, right?

Nope. In fact, Mr. Regal made the match two-out-of-three falls. Which would seem to give the MMA submission specialist heel with two enforcers a pretty significant advantage.

We’ll see. Sane is a great underdog, and this definitely stacks the odds against her, so it should be a thrilling story. NXT can also use this to have some friends of the Pirate Princess, like Mae Young Classic finalist Io Shirai, run in to chase off the Horsewomen. It’s a good addition to an already ridiculously tantalizing card.

But still a bit of a headscratcher.

Here’s the updated card for TakeOver: WarGames 2018:

• Tommaso Ciampa (c) vs. Velveteen Dream for the NXT title
• Kairi Sane vs. Shayna Baszler (c) in a two-out-of-three falls match for the NXT Women’s championship
• Johnny Gargano vs. Aleister Black
• Undisputed ERA vs. War Raiders, Ricochet & Pete Dunne in WarGames