{"id":86533,"date":"2021-03-11T09:17:53","date_gmt":"2021-03-11T14:17:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=86533"},"modified":"2021-03-11T09:17:53","modified_gmt":"2021-03-11T14:17:53","slug":"io-shirai-retains-nxt-womens-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2021\/03\/11\/io-shirai-retains-nxt-womens-championship\/","title":{"rendered":"Io Shirai Retains NXT Women\u2019s Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>WWE NXT<\/em>\u2019s reigning Women\u2019s Champion <strong>Io Shirai<\/strong> may want to consider changing her theme to Queen\u2019s \u201cAnother One Bites the Dust\u201d. Since Shirai\u2019s reign as champion begun, she has conquered every challenge to her title, defeating luminaries of the division such as <strong>Rhea Ripley<\/strong>, whose move to <em>RAW <\/em>is being heavily teased. However, her challenger on March 10\u2019s NXT, <strong>Toni Storm<\/strong>, walked into the ring as the one woman that Shirai had never gotten the better of. With Ripley\u2019s move to the red brand imminent, Storm has a vacuum to step out of her former <strong>NXT UK<\/strong> rival\u2019s shadow-she hoped to do so by heading into <em>NXT Takeover: Stand and Deliver <\/em>as women\u2019s champion.<\/p>\n<h2>Io Shirai Retains Against Toni Storm<\/h2>\n<p>The tension between the ambitious challenger and the formidable champion was palpable as the two entered the ring. Storm and Shirai locked up, grappled, both athletes reading each other and looking for an opening. Storm made the first offensive mood, striking Shirai. Shirai responded by tackling her and unleashing a hail of punches on Storm. Storm struck back, and both Shirai and Storm got on their feet and traded strikes and kicks. Storm cannonballed into Shirai, knocking the champion out of ring.<\/p>\n<p>Storm prepared a flying assault, but Shirai struck, aiming kicks and a knee strike at Storm. They once again traded blows, each trying to weaken the other. Shirai rolled Storm through in a shoulders down cover, which Storm escaped. Not deterred, Shirai quickly changed tactics, dropkicking Storm with both feet, and locking her in submission. Storm escaped Shirai\u2019s grasp of her neck, but Shirai hit Storm with a drop that sent her outside the ring. Storm rallied, and pushed Shirai into the steel steps. Storm slapped Shirai, and the two brawled by the plexiglass barricade that separated them from the crowd.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Io Shirai vs. Toni Storm \u2013 NXT Women\u2019s Championship: WWE NXT, March 10, 2021\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/X3QsNvNwHuY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Storm rolled Shirai back into the ring, got a cover, but Shirai kicked out at the critical moment. Storm, fired up, tossed Shirai, kicked her, and tried to submit the champion, trapping her with her thighs as she targeted her neck. Shirai got free, but Storm didn\u2019t let up, dropping Shirai\u2019s upper back over her knee, \u00a0and attempting a flying elbow strike. Shirai rallied with a clothesline, wrapped around the ropes and delivered a kick with both feet to Storm, delivered a flying slam to Storm, and covered. Storm kicked out, but Shirai managed to roll her through shoulders down. When Storm evaded this cover, too, Shira delivered a ruthless stomp, both feet landing on Storm\u2019s stomach. It was clear that both competitors were leaving it all in the ring, holding nothing back in the battle for the NXT Women\u2019s title.<\/p>\n<p>Shirai, the \u201cGenius of the Sky\u201d, took to the ropes, but Storm was having none of it and pursued, climbing the ropes and headbutting Shirai. Storm tossed Shirai, followed it up with forearm strikes, and a bridge cover. Shirai escaped, and as the Storm and Shirai got back on their feet, Storm targeted Shirai\u2019s neck with a series of strikes.<\/p>\n<p>Storm tried her signature Storm drop, but Shirai got hold of her first and hit a back drop. Shirai climbed and executed a moonsault, both women landing sprawled outside the ring, making it back in the ring within the count of seven. Shirai took to the post again, but Storm halted her air assault and slammed her into a sit down power bomb. Shirai kicked out of Storm\u2019s hold; she tried the maneuver again, with the same result.<\/p>\n<p>[pickup_prop id=&#8221;3365&#8243;]<\/p>\n<p>Shirai punched Storm, and tried to put her in submission. Storm quickly scrambled to touch the ropes, breaking Shirai\u2019s hold. Shirai was accelerating her assault, hitting Storm with flying knee strikes. She took to the ropes, clearly looking to finish Storm, but Storm evaded Shirai on her landing and instead managed to deliver another sit down power bomb to the champion. Storm climbed the ropes, but Shirai evaded her and got hold of her, finally managing to painfully submit Toni Storm. Though she\u2019d given her all to the challenge, Toni Storm tapped out, and Io Shirai retained the WWE NXT Women\u2019s Championship. Another one had indeed bit the dust, and once again Shirai had come out on top over one of the best that the NXT women\u2019s division had to offer. However, with Ripley moving on, Toni has more leg room to show off her considerable talents, and 2021 may yet be her time to storm.<\/p>\n<p>[pickup_prop id=&#8221;5617&#8243;]<\/p>\n<p><em>Stay tuned to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/\" target=\"_self\">Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/a>\u00a0for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world.\u00a0WWE fan? You can check out an almost unlimited array of WWE content on the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/watch.wwe.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">WWE<\/a>\u00a0Network.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Looking to talk wrestling, pro football, or any number of sports? Head on over to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/boards\/index.php\" target=\"_self\">LWOS Boards<\/a>\u00a0to engage in conversation with fellow fans!<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WWE NXT\u2019s reigning Women\u2019s Champion Io Shirai may want to consider changing her theme to Queen\u2019s \u201cAnother One Bites the Dust\u201d. Since Shirai\u2019s reign as champion begun, she has conquered every challenge to her title, defeating luminaries of the division such as Rhea Ripley, whose move to RAW is being heavily teased. However, her challenger [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3715,"featured_media":86539,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[12,4,5,3],"tags":[304,598],"class_list":["post-86533","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-wwe","category-nxt","category-wwe-universe","tag-io-shirai","tag-toni-storm"],"modified_by":"Alex Richards, LWOF Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86533","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3715"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86533\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}