Tegan Nox returned to NXT at Great American Bash, costing Indi Hartwell and Candice LeRae the Tag Team Titles in the process.
NXT held its second annual Great American Bash on Tuesday night. Four matches, three of which had titles on the line. However, only one of them featured a title change. Candice LeRae and Indi Hartwell's run with the belts came to an end after just 63 days, although the titles have jumped around so often that the nine-week reign is currently the longest in the championships' history.
New Tag Team Champions
Hartwell and LeRae put the titles on the line against the makeshift team of Io Shirai and Zoey Stark. Shirai and Stark won a triple threat match last week to earn the shot. Despite not teaming together for very long, Shirai and Stark were holding their own against the now-former champions. They needed a little something to push them over the finish line, though.
That something came in the form of a pretty major return. NXT fans will have noticed a charging battery appearing on the screen intermittently for the past few weeks. That battery reappeared mid-match as it hit 100%. When the light came back up, Tegan Nox was standing at the top of the ramp. That tipped the match in the challengers' favor, allowing Stark to cover Hartwell and win tag team gold.
Almost A Year On The Sidelines
Nox has been out of action for almost an entire year wrestling her last match in NXT on July 29, 2020. Two months after that, LeRae stopped her from entering the ring for a battle royal, running a crate into her knee. It appears that angle was so Nox could have time off to get her knee repaired. It's the second time Nox has had to spend an extended period on the sidelines in order to undergo and subsequently recover from serious knee surgery.
Now Nox is ready to return, she also has a built-in angle to come back to. Not only is LeRae the one who injured her, at least in storyline, but she was also tied up in an angle with her and Hartwell before that. Nox did also wrestle in a dark match on Raw this week, which could mean she is also called up to the main roster very soon. A number of NXT stars have been wrestling trial matches at Raw and SmackDown in recent weeks.