Thea Hail became NXT North American Champion, but was not meant to be.
On the December 16 episode of NXT, Thea Hail pinned Blake Monroe to become the NXT North American Champion. Confusion ensued, as Blake Monroe got a hand but not a shoulder up before the three. There was a heavy delay before Thea Hail's music ended up hitting.
Fightful Select confirmed with NXT sources that this was not intentional, and that Blake Monroe was set to retain her title. There was said to have been a scramble backstage when the botch happened, and immediately following it. We're told that it specifically caused issues because there was creative specifically in place with Thea Hail not being the champion. We're told that was immediately being changed to adjust. This ended up affecting multiple people's creative that was set for the next couple of weeks. We'll work to find out what else has changed.
It was communicated to Fightful Select that there would be steps taken as early as tonight to make those creative adjustments. We weren't told immediately who got the blame for the situation, as most involved were just working to quickly make changes to what needed to be changed.
Thea Hail winning the WWE NXT North American Women's Championship was not the originally planned finish against Blake Monroe on last night's WWE NXT, PWInsider.com can confirm.
Based on those we have spoken with, Monroe had the wind knocked out of her when Hail came off the ropes and tried to recover to try and get her shoulder up, but wasn't able to do it in time. Since Hail is so young, we are told she likely didn't realize she needed to give Blake a moment to catch her wind and went for the pin.
Since referees are instructed to call pinfalls as if they are legitimate, the referee had no choice but to count the three count.
Monroe did tried to get her shoulder up, which WWE later used as a storyline point.
The plan going in was for Monroe to retain. WWE played Monroe's music at the finish, since she was planned to win, then stopped it and played Hail's music.
WWE will be taping two episodes of NXT tomorrow at the WWE Performance Center, so we'll see if they maneuver the championship back to Monroe at that taping.
While unusual, it's not the first time such a thing has happened in WWE. There was an April 2007 house show in France where Mickie James won the WWE Women's Championship pinning Victoria during a Triple Threat match when Victoria was late kicking out, changing the planned finish, which was Melina retaining the title. In that instance, WWE booked a rematch where Melina regained the belt the same evening from James.
