If Mia Yim defied expectations by pinning Bianca Belair’s shoulders to the mat last week — ending a streak that lasted more than a year-and-a-half — she left no doubt that her victory wasn’t a fluke this week, repeating her impressive feat against The EST of NXT in a bitter rubber match.
Still fuming over her previous loss, Belair was out to inflict pain on, if not outright injure, her rival. With a wise head on young shoulders, Belair opted for a methodical attack on Yim’s core and back. She tried prying Yim apart with an abominable stretch (which she amplified by clawing Yim’s ribs) and a bow-and-arrow submission hold. Later, she wrapped Yim’s body around the ring post, stretching Yim’s spine in all the wrong directions.
Despite the headwinds, Yim stayed in the game, threatening submissions and uncorking strikes at every turn. When the action spilled to the floor, she reversed Belair’s Glam Slam attempt and sent Belair crashing into the steel ring steps.
Dueling chants of “E-S-T” and “Let’s go, Mia” rained down on both Superstars as the action intensified. Belair regained the advantage with a high-angle German suplex and — learning from her mistake last week, when Yim used Belair’s long hair braid against her — wrapped her hair in a bun before going for the Alley-Oop facebuster, but Yim countered yet again, this time into a guillotine. The fiercely strong Belair broke free of the hold, but she had no answer for what came moments later. The HBIC spun off the turnbuckle with a variation of Protect Ya Neck for the three-count, bringing the grueling battle to an end and building her case for NXT Women's Title contention.