Friday Night Smackdown saw the return of Welsh Wrestling superstar Tegan Nox. The former WCPW Women’s Champion made a shock return last night, helping Liv Morgan fight off Damage CTRL and set her sights firmly on Bayley and co.
She had been released by WWE a year, despite being called up to the main roster just weeks prior. She never got to wrestle on Raw or Smackdown, so her short run was incredibly disappointing, as he had the chance to be the first Welsh wrestler to appear regularly since Mason Ryan a decade ago.
She spoke with Chris Denker of Into the Danger Zone podcast about her firing from WWE and how she never even got to experience an episode of WWE Monday Night Raw.
“I didn’t even make it to a Raw taping. I switched brands, technically went to a Raw taping in Texas, got COVID, was told I tested positive, and had to drive sixteen hours on my own, straight home, and after that never went to a Raw taping, ever.”
“Just had to sit at home. As soon as I got cleared from COVID, I got released pretty soon after. ‘Oh, you’re cleared from COVID, your blood tests came back fine.’ ‘Great, I can finally see if this actually goes somewhere,’ and then wasn’t taken on the road. Next call, wasn’t need. Next time, wasn’t need. Three or four weeks out, ‘you’re not needed anymore, budget cuts.’ ‘Okay, no worries’.”
Tegan Nox was one of the most promising young stars in NXT when she was signed in 2017, but injuries soon curtailed her career and almost caused her to leave the company altogether. She tore her ACL twice during her run, with the second instance keeping her out of action for 10 months. This made Vince McMahon lose faith in her, but Triple H clearly never gave up hope and brought her back into the WWE as soon as he took charge of the company.
With her second debut on Friday, she has the whole country of Wales behind. After a disappointing show in the 2022 World Cup in Qatar (crashing out of the group stages after losses to Iran and England), the nation needs something to lift their spirits and seeing a Welsh wrestler on TV for the first time in years is a huge deal.
Wrestling has been growing recently in the UK. WWE ran a stadiums how in Cardiff’s Principality Stadium, which saw over 60,000 fans turn up to see huge matches like Drew McIntyre vs Roman Reigns. Unfortunately, no Superstars from Wales were present, as WWE released the likes of Mark Andrews, Flash Morgan Webster and Tegan Nox just prior to the event.
Now she is back in the WWE and the 28 year old from Bargoed has the chance to make history. Never has someone from Wales, be that male or female, won a championship on the main roster. Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster managed it in NXT UK, but this is the chance to really put the country on the map and show the talent that the Rhymney Valley’s can really produce.
Nox (who previously went by the name Nixon Newell) has been a wrestling fan all her life. She has revealed multiple times just how huge a fan she was of former WWE Champion Kane during her youth. She has dressed as the demonic star multiple times for Halloween (including for an NXT battle royal) and even adopted his famous Chokeslam From Hell as her finisher in NXT, although it is unknown if she will continue to use it on the main roster. She also took the nickname “Lady Kane” as her name on UpUpDownDown, due to her fandom.
She met him on an episode of the Bump and almost burst into tears, especially when he complimented the chokeslam which she was inspired by him to do. She also managed to blurt out “I love you so much”, “thank you for everything” and “I love you so much”.
She also revealed to Digital Spy that she met him a few times before, but ran away each time after meeting him each time, afraid and too star struck to say anything.
“I just remember being so terrified of him, but I was also so intrigued that I just instantly became such a big fan of his. I just became obsessed as a child with Kane,” said Nox. “I’ve met him once or twice and I’ve run away both times after shaking his hand. But getting to talk to him on The Bump a few months ago was pretty cool, and having him say that my chokeslam was great was a big deal to me. So, Lady Kane is here to stay.”
Tegan Nox is likely to team up with Liv Morgan to take up Damage CTRL some time in the near future. This will involve facing off with former best friend and heated rival Dakota Kai, whom she had some excellent matches with in NXT during their legendary feud.