This week’s episode of NXT was eventful to say the least as Thea Hail defeated Blake Monroe to win the NXT Women’s Championship. The match featured an awkward finish and it was reported after the show that the title change was not originally planned.
Fightful Select reports that one NXT staff member said that the title change happened at the worst possible time as the brand was finishing up filming for the year so talent could take a break for Christmas. It was noted that weeks of creative had already been finalized and filmed. After the title changed hands there was said to have been a frantic rush to correct things that had already been filmed so they made sense.
The belief internally was that Blake Monroe got the wind knocked out of her just before what was supposed to be the attempted kickout, but that hasn’t been confirmed.
The decision was made to lean into the title change. The backstage segment with Blake Monroe confronting Thea Hail was not planned, and was added to the show on short notice.
One higher up in NXT noted that the situation is going to cause some policy changes such as wrestlers who are booked for tapings being required to stay until the end. NXT often does pretapes on Mondays, and talent who do that will likely be required to stay through the show on the following day.
A rematch for the title is already being discussed and some expect the match to take place at New Year’s Evil. However, that hasn’t been confirmed.