Kevin Nash Criticizes IYO SKY for Being “Too Small” And Lacking Believable Striking

IYO SKY has been the Women’s World Champion for well over a month now and she is set to defend the title against Rhea Ripley and Bianca Belair at WrestleMania 41. While many fans feel SKY is one of the best in-ring performers right now, it appears Kevin Nash feels differently.

While speaking on the Kliq This podcast, Kevin Nash believes the booking for the Women’s World Title match is terrible and voiced strong criticism of IYO SKY. Nash said he didn’t want to watch a match between IYO SKY and Bianca Belair, he wanted to see Bianca face Rhea Ripley instead. To him, Rhea Ripley is a huge star and needs to be on a big show like WrestleMania. He believes you can tell how special she is just by the way she moves in the ring.

“F****** horrible in my estimation. I just—I don’t want to see f****** IYO Sky and Bianca. I want to see Bianca and Rhea. Rhea, man… I want to see Rhea, and I don’t give a s*** who it’s against. I just want to see her. I mean, I’m just saying—she’s a f****** star, man. Yeah, for sure. They know it by the way she moves.“

Nash also said the general manager, Adam Pearce, made a bad choice by making Bianca the referee instead of putting her in a no disqualification match and Nash would fire Pearce. If Bianca Belair didn’t want to wrestle Rhea, of course she was going to get involved, and putting her in that spot made no sense.

“Number one—I would fire the general manager for putting Bianca in as the referee and not making it a no DQ match. That should’ve been the stipulation right there. If Bianca doesn’t want to wrestle Rhea, of course she’s going to do something. And putting your top babyface in that situation? I don’t think that’s a smart move.”

Nash went on to say that IYO SKY is too small, lacks smoothness in her movements, and that her striking doesn’t come across as believable. While he gave her some credit for being good with her feet and reversing moves, he called out the style of spots she performs, like when she jumps from the top rope and it looks like Rhea is going to crush her, but then Rhea Ripley does the big sell.

Watching it back, the WWE Hall of Famer said it becomes obvious it was mostly about positioning, comparing it to the Canadian Destroyer where the impact can look exaggerated or unclear.

“She’s diminutive. She doesn’t have the fluidity. Her striking—I don’t think it’s believable. She’s okay with her feet. She does well reversing moves, but it’s all that high-spot stuff where they go off the top rope, and it looks like Rhea’s going to kill her—and then Rhea does this big sell job. And when you watch it back in slow motion for the ninth time, you realize, oh, she got her legs under her. It’s like a Canadian Destroyer move. Every time you see that, you’re like, ‘So, who got hurt? They both didn’t get hurt?’ Like, right? You know? ‘Oh yeah, but she didn’t have her seatbelt on.’ Oh, okay. I get it.”

Kevin Nash’s strong opinion has added more talk around the big title match. Many fans like IYO SKY for her high-flying moves and talent, but Nash’s comments have made others feel that star power is what matters. Regardless, we’ll have to see how SKY will fare against Bianca Belair and Rhea Ripley at WrestleMania 41.

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