This NXT Takeover Match Is Bayley's Best Ever, According To Dave Meltzer
Bayley has spent nearly a decade in WWE, but there's one match from her days in "NXT" that stands out as perhaps the best of her entire career. In 2015, Bayley was the lovable and hug-obsessed underdog who almost always had a smile upon her face. That summer, she encountered her greatest challenge yet when she earned an "NXT" Women's Championship match against Sasha Banks. The bout was slated to go down at the biggest "NXT" TakeOver event to date in Brooklyn, just 24 hours before SummerSlam.
In the semi-main event of the evening, Bayley pulled off one of her biggest victories when she overcame the odds and pinned Banks to win her first championship in WWE. Bayley vs. Banks in Brooklyn received 4.5 stars from wrestling journalist Dave Metlzer; the highest-rated match of her career as of this writing.
In the years since, the careers of Bayley and Banks have been intertwined through tag team dominance and occasional no-love-lost rivalries. In the eyes of Meltzer, though, not even their subsequent clashes have topped their battle in Brooklyn.
Bayley And Banks Are Proud Of Their Performances
The TakeOver: Brooklyn match between Bayley and Banks has been praised year after year, as it has been featured in several "best of" lists and has been highlighted in WWE documentaries. The topic regularly comes up in interviews, and neither woman is shy in admitting how proud they are of their performances.
Banks told Brandon Walker of "Wrasslin" in 2021, "That has to be definitely one of my top five matches of all time because of what I wanted to leave on the table at that time. I wanted fans to be like 'that was the greatest women's match of all time.'"
During a 2020 episode of "WWE Untold", Bayley discussed the doubts she had about pulling off one of the biggest moves of the match — a reverse rana off the top rope. "Yes, I had doubts doing the reverse rana! I didn't know if I could do it," Bayley said. "I'm like, 'I have to do a backflip while sitting on you.' I wanted to give her the match of her life. So, I didn't want to say, like, 'I don't want to do that. I'm too scared.'"