Tag: tegan knox

Kai replaces Yim at NXT TakeOver: WarGames, turns heel

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Changes to the NXT TakeOver: WarGames card prior to the show’s start foreshadowed a turn during the broadcast.

Mia Yim was shown laid out backstage during the TakeOver preshow. As she was being put in an ambulance, NXT GM William Regal asked team captain Rhea Ripley what she would do. Ripley turned to Dakota Kai, who was ready to leave in the ambulance with Yim, and told her she was in. Originally, Kai was passed over by Ripley for inclusion in the team in favor of Yim. 

Kai later turned on her team when it was time for her to enter the match. Kai instead destroyed Tegan Knox, laying her out and ramming the door of the cage they were kept in into one of her previously injured knees. Knox has spent the last couple of years on the shelf following a number of ligament tears in both knees. 

This left Shayna Bazler’s team with a 4 on 2 advantage. Despite this, Rhea Ripley and Candice LeRae were able to score the victory after Ripley landed the riptide on Baszler through a number of chairs that were already set up.

Four more participants confirmed for WWE Mae Young Classic

Posted on by Joseph Currier

WWE has confirmed four more participants for the 2018 Mae Young Classic.

After reporting to the Performance Center this week, Deonna Purrazzo has been officially announced for the tournament. Tegan Nox (the former Nixon Newell), Jessie Elaban, and Reina Gonzalez were also confirmed for the Mae Young Classic today.

Purrazzo was one of the alternates for the first Mae Young Classic and was included in a dark match at last year’s tapings. She wrestled for Ring of Honor, Stardom, and independent promotions both in the United States and internationally before signing with WWE. She was originally scheduled to wrestle at All In this September, but her going to WWE means that she won’t be able to be on the show.

Nox is from Wales and wrestled on the UK indies and internationally before signing with WWE in 2017. She was supposed to be in the first Mae Young Classic, but a torn ACL prevented her from being in the tournament. She returned to the ring at an NXT house show this April and recently got her new WWE name.

Elaban and Gonzalez are both signed to WWE and regularly wrestle on NXT house shows. Gonzalez lost to Nicole Savoy in the first round of last year’s tournament.

Kaitlyn, Rhea Ripley, Io Shirai, Nicole Matthews, Jinny, Kacy Catanzaro, Purrazzo, Nox, Elaban, and Gonzalez have now been confirmed for this year’s tournament. It will feature 32 participants and will be taped at Full Sail University on August 8 and 9.