Carroll: Tegan Nox is Your Next NXT Women’s Champ

Kevin Carroll has found his next choice for NXT Women’s champion. Do you agree?

It’s been almost a year since the Queen of Spades Shayna Baszler seized the NXT women’s title at Evolution, besting Kairi Sane and beginning her second championship reign. When you add in the fact that Baszler was champ from March to August of 2018 as well, it adds up to almost two full years of Baszler domination over the NXT women’s division.

All of a sudden, however, the Queen of Spades has plenty of challengers stepping up to the plate and staking their claim to the yellow brand’s top women’s prize.

The likes of Io Shirai, Dakota Kai and Rhea Ripley have laid challenges down to Baszler in recent weeks, and Candice LeRae and Bianca Belair are in the mix as well.

But none of them are going to be the one to dethrone Baszler. There’s only one woman for the task, only one woman that makes sense here.

The Shiniest Wizard. Tegan Nox.

You may remember Nox from the most recent Mae Young Classic, where she was touted as a favorite to win the whole tournament.

That is, of course, until a bad landing on a suicide dive brought Nox’s tournament aspirations, and her career, to a grinding halt.

Nox tore the ACL in her knee after spending a year on the shelf as a result of tearing her OTHER ACL, putting her out of action for an even longer amount of time and putting her wrestling career in serious jeopardy.

But Nox would not be denied her dream. Through rehab and intense physical training, she got back into ring shape and made her in-ring re-debut a few weeks back on NXT UK, before taking on Taynara on last week’s episode of NXT. And she looked good. Damn good, in fact. The selling point of Nox is that she’s so crisp and fluid in the ring, and she looked exactly that in her return match.

After the match, her and best friend Dakota Kai were confronted by Baszler and her Horsewomen friends Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir, as Nox angrily called for a title shot.

A title shot, you say?

With the influx of top, credible contenders to the NXT women’s title, a woman making her return after a year out of action might not be the first challenger you think of.

But just think about that story. It’s built in for you. Nox nearly had her career taken from her, has had to endure two years of physical and mental torment, and now that she’s back, she has the opportunity to dethrone one of the most dominant champions we’ve ever seen in NXT.

It’s perfect!

I’m not saying it has to happen right away. Let Ripley and Dakota Kai take their shots, but neither of them should be the one to knock Baszler from their perch. Ripley has a long, long career ahead of her and plenty of time to become champion. Kai is good, but she’s not Nox’s equal in the ring.

Imagine the pop for Tegan when she hits the Shiniest Wizard, and gets the 1-2-3. There shouldn’t be a dry eye in the house when that happens, and there certainly will be emotions felt in this household.

I’ve been a huge Nox fan since she was Nixon Newell, and I genuinely feel for her and am inspired by her bravery and drive to get back to wrestling. So maybe I’m a little biased here.

But the storyline is there. The talent is there. Pull the trigger, Triple H.

Put the belt on Tegan Nox.