NXT Takeover Dallas: Bayley VS Asuka

Hello everyone and welcome back to Talk Wrestling World, I hope you are all well and good! On Friday the first of April NXT will Takeover Dallas just two days before the biggest Wrestling event of the year, Wrestlemania. With the card looking as strong as ever with the likes of Bayley, Finn Balor, Sami Zayn, Samoa Joe, Austin Aries, Shinsuke Nakamura and many more set to perform on Friday the event will kick start Wrestlemania weekend and possible result in being the best Takeover to date. Throughout March I will be uploading my predictions posts for every single match set on the card. Usually this would be featured in a prediction week but with Wrestlemania also taking place and Review and Reaction posts to upload there would have been no time so we are changing things up a little this time round. Talking of Reviews I have decided that I will not be uploading a Wrestlemania review the night after just because I want to be able to enjoy the show and its going to be a long weekend for us British fans. If you would still like to read a Review on Mania later on in the week then let me know and I will write one for the Saturday of that week. I'm currently not sure if I'm going to be writing a Review for NXT Takeover Dallas.  As always I will link bellow any recent blog posts including this weeks RAW Review and Reactions post. Finally, you can let me know what your predictions are for NXT Takeover Dallas and Wrestlemania are by leaving a comment bellow or by tweeting me at @TezangiVictoria.

On April first two of the most popular, talented, and promising women in all of NXT step into the ring to go one on one for the first time as Bayley defends her NXT Women's Championship against one of the most dominate women to ever step foot into the WWE, Asuka at NXT Takeover Dallas. This will be the first time these two women have ever faced off against one another and with the expectations so extremely high for this bout could this match go down as one of the greatest NXT matches we have ever seen? In today's post we are going to be taking a look back at what both of these women have been up to since the last Takeover event in London and what both women's odds looks like heading into Dallas next month.

Bayley. Hands down the most popular women to ever step foot in NXT and possibly one of the most popular women to ever step foot in WWE as a whole. She has had an interesting career but over the past twelve months we have seen Bayley go from strength to strength as she solidified herself as the top dog in the women's division in NXT. Her rivalry with Sasha Banks last year was hands down the highlight of her career to date as the two women gave us the match of the year at Brooklyn and one of the greatest rivalries in women's wrestling history. Today she remains in the history books as the longest reigning NXT Women's Champion in history and as she looks to head into what is set to be a huge match against Asuka it looks as though all hugging champion may just be proving the NXT Universe with another history making match up. As we have already addressed today, these two women have never have faced off against one another one on one but their championship match is something that has been inevitable since the day Asuka singed her contract with WWE NXT. From day one a match between these two has been highly anticipated and every single NXT fan has been waiting for the announcement and now the time has come. We have a date; Friday the first of April and the excitement could not be more real.

Throughout her career Bayley has faced the best of the best and tackled some of the most dominate women NXT has to offer including the likes of Sasha Banks, Charlotte, and of course it was only several months back in December that Bayley went toe to toe with arguably the most dominate women to ever step foot in NXT, Nia Jax. At Takeover London Bayley proved once and for all that she can face and knock off any women regardless of size, experience, and style but never has Bayley met someone like Asuka in the ring. In her NXT career she Bayley has not once stepped into the ring with someone as dangerous, skill full, experienced, and feared as much as Japanese sensation Asuka and so it's possible that she could be stepping into her most challenging match to date and with her title on the line will she be able to walk out of Dallas still champion?  I'm certain this will be one of if not Bayley's best performance we have seen so far in her career. She is bound to be pushed to limits that she has never been pushed to before and she will be forced to explore a new side to her move set that she hasn't used or found yet and seeing a new side to Bayley is going to be very interesting. We have seen her adapt her move set to give her the advantage over her opponents. Take Sasha Banks for example; we saw Bayley find a rougher, meaner side to her character. When facing off against Nia Jax she focused more on wearing her down with her speed and using submission holds to gain the advantage. Stepping in the ring with Asuka, Bayley is going to have to the same thing, adapt. How in witch she does so is going to be very interesting and I cannot wait to see what she has to show us and how she fairs against an opponent like Asuka.

Prior to her coming to the WWE I knew a fair amount about Asuka. I had seen previous matches of hers and seen some of her work from the Japanese scene and so of course just like everyone else I was super excited to see what she was going to bring to NXT. Asuka to this day is the biggest female signing in not only NXT history but WWE history and has sparked huge hype since arriving on the scene. On her first night she picked up a huge reaction from the Full Sail crowd and ever since has become one of the most must see, interesting and entertaining talents in all of the WWE. Already being given her own merchandise Asuka has become one of the most popular female talents in NXT picking up a huge reaction wherever she goes. Now, I was so happy to see how the WWE booked Asuka. The moment she signed with NXT I knew that she was going to get a championship opportunity soon and it was only a matter of time before she would be the one to knock off Bayley for the NXT Women's Championship. However, the WWE went about the right way with booking Asuka in her debut months. Instead of rushing her straight into the championship picture we had the time to learn more about her as a character and as an in ring performer. She had a solid feud with Emma and Dana Brooke that broke her out into the division really well. We quickly learnt that she doesn't have to say a lot to captivate an audience and have everyone on her side and her wrestling ability and striking character was always going to be enough. Since arriving on the scene she has taken out every single women that has stood in her way proving to be one of the most dominate females to ever step foot into the company. With the amount of momentum on her side that she has and her win/loss record looking the way it does she is heading into her first Championship match looking very very good. Of course I was very happy yo see Asuka given a great amount of time to grow before being given a title match. There is nothing I hate more than a hot talent coming straight onto the roster and straight into the championship picture and I'm so glad they didn't do this with Asuka. Giving her the time to grow and connect with the fan not only did Asuka a world of good but it also meant that Bayley could continue to do more as champion during her reign and build her own amount of momentum before finally clashing.

Asuka's matches have been something that have gotten better with time. The longer she has been in NXT the longer her matches have been and to this day her best televised match has of course been her one on one against Emma at NXT Takeover London. It was in that match that we got to see in more detail how well Asuka can do in longer matches and how she fairs against someone who is very very talented in the ring. Now, what is interesting and important to note in this blog post is that Asuka has not yet been in the ring with someone like Bayley since coming to the main roster. The current reigning champion has given us some of the greatest matches we have ever seen from women in the WWE and some of the best matches we have seen in NXT history. This match is bound to be her toughest yet and her longest to date. Bayley is a very experienced champion who is going to take a lot of beating before dropping that title easily. Asuka has become one of the most dominate women in all of the WWE generating just as much if not more fear than many main roster superstars.The world knows she is one dangerous lady and stepping her in the ring with a technical, skill full competitor like Bayley provides us with something very very special.

I honestly cannot wait for this match. This is sure to be one for the ages and a match that will go down in history. No one will ever forget where they were when they saw Asuka VS Bayley for the first time. I'm not expecting this storyline to be as hot as Sasha VS Bayley was but this will definitely give it a run for its money and will be right up there with those matches. Now, two thousand and sixteen has been all about Asuka coming after the NXT Women's championship. She has spent the past couple of months focusing on becoming champion, gaining momentum and working closer

towards getting into the championship picture and finally her opportunity is here. After general manager William Regal made the match official during an NXT taping the two women now look ahead as they prepare for their championship match. The standard and expectations of this match are extremely high. Everybody is expecting nothing but the very best from these two.What is so great about NXT is we can honestly allow ourselves to get our hopes up for something special and something phenomenal from the women's division. These two are bound to be given a lengthy amount of time and in that time they will without a doubt put on a match that will have everyone talking and could possibly steal the show. Personally, I will be backing Bayley just because I'm a bigger fan of hers but I do think the chances of her dropping the championship to Asuka on April first are very very high. There is no doubt in my mind that Asuka will be the women Bayley drops the championship to and with this being the stage that it is on the week that it is this does seem like the best timing for the championship to change hands. I predict that this will be a long, gruelling match that sees both of these women put through their paces and pushed to their limits. The crowd is sure to be split and both women will certainly receive a huge reaction from the live crowd. This could easily be the match of the night and the wrestling in this match will sure be nothing but phenomenal.

As always you can let me know what your predictions are for this match and every other match on the NXT Takeover Dallas and Wrestlemania card by leaving a comment bellow or by dropping me a tweet at @TezangiVictoria. Don't forget, I will be live tweeting throughout both Takeover and Wrestlemania.