Women's Dusty Classic Winners Crowned, But Their Focus Changes

Shortly after Diamond Mine won the Men's Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, the second-ever Women's version took place, with eight teams vying for a shot at the NXT Women's Tag Team Championship, held by Toxic Attraction's Gigi Dolin and Jacy Jayne. The latest edition of NXT featured the finals of the tournament, which pitted Io Shirai and Kay Lee Ray against the makeshift team of Dakota Kai and Wendy Choo. The match served as the main event, and it would end with the dream team of Io and KLR emerging victorious and winning the Dusty Cup.

The pair of the two former Women's Champions was made due to Io's regular partner (who also won the tag titles with Io), Zoey Stark, becoming sidelined due to injury. After several weeks, Zoey picked Kay Lee Ray to team with Io, and the pair ended up running the table. Io and KLR defeated Lash Legend and Amari Miller in the quarterfinals, Kayden Carter and Kacy Catanzaro in the semifinals (much to the dismay of many, myself included), and Dakota Kai (who won the first tournament with Raquel Gonzalez) and Wendy Choo in the finals. All the while, all three members of Toxic Attraction were watching from above, and even took out Raquel Gonzalez during her and partner Cora Jade's match against Dakota and Wendy.

The trio interrupted Io and KLR's celebration, with leader and NXT Women's Champion Mandy Rose saying that they had no chance at winning the tag titles. However, Io and KLR stated that their ultimate goal was to destroy Toxic Attraction, and the best way to do it is to take out the leader. As the saying goes, "take off the head of the snake, and the rest will fall," and with that, the victorious team announced that they plan to use their victory to challenge for the NXT Women's Championship instead of the tag titles. With Mandy already set to defend against the aforementioned Cora Jade, Io and KLR being added makes the match a Fatal Four Way! Wow!

WWE made it official after NXT ended: at NXT Stand & Deliver, Mandy Rose will defend the NXT Women's Championship against Cora Jade, Io Shirai, and Kay Lee Ray in a Fatal Four Way match on April 2 in Dallas. I'll be honest, I was surprised when this was done, I figured Io and KLR would go for the tag titles while Cora had a sole shot at the main title, and would most likely win it. With two former Women's Champions added, I think Cora's chances of winning the title have decreased. I don't see Mandy retaining at all; it may not seem like it, but Mandy's been champion for five months. That's a pretty average length, so odds are, she's losing the title. However, I thought for sure that Cora would walk out of Dallas as champion. Now I see either Io or KLR winning.

Quite honestly, Cora winning makes the most sense, because if she does, it could make the dynamic between her and Raquel Gonzalez interesting. The pair had been joined together since WarGames, and they both vied for the title at New Year's Evil in January. We saw an angle where Cora's pleas for Raquel to team with her for the Dusty Cup were turned down, and it took a one-on-one match for Raquel to agree, only for Toxic Attraction to screw them over. Raquel's absence allowed Cora to rise up, and if Cora does win the title, we could see Raquel continue to help Cora out for a few weeks, until Raquel turns heel on Cora and starts a feud with her. The title feud could portray Raquel as a maniacal villainess obsessed with her belief that Cora used her and that she owed all of her success to Raquel; leading to a title bout at an NXT special episode.

I've read some comments criticizing this whole change to the title match. A lot of them voiced their anger over the KCs (Kayden Carter and Kacy Catanzaro) not winning the tournament, as they had been together for a long time and hadn't had anything close to elevation. There were hopes that Wendy Choo and Dakota Kai would win, and I was one of the people actually pulling for that. Wendy Choo is immensely over as a character in so little time, and Dakota's new gimmick is absolutely amazing. Other comments said that Io and KLR using their victory to challenge for the singles title was a slight to the tag titles. Honestly, I have to agree, because it sets a bad precedent. It's a tag team tournament. Having the winners of said tournament decide to challenge for the singles titles lowers the value of the tag titles, and it could open the door for repeat occurrences.

In spite of the negatives, I am immensely looking forward to this match, and NXT Stand & Deliver as a whole. The event will kick off what should be an epic WrestleMania weekend, with Stand & Deliver taking place early in the afternoon (or the late morning for those of us in the West Coast) on April 2, before the first half of the big event occurs.

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