More on Botched Finish to NXT Women’s North American Title Match at 12/16 WWE NXT Show

As noted before, Tuesday’s WWE NXT show at the Performance Center in Orlando, Florida featured Thea Hail defeating Blake Monroe to become the new NXT Women’s North American Champion. This match was notable for the finish to the match appearing to have been botched and the referee making the three count despite Monroe trying to kick out. This was later confirmed to have been a botched finish and Hail was not originally planned to win the title.

Fightful Select reported that their sources provided additional details regarding the botched finish and unplanned title change. One NXT source spoken to reportedly stated that the situation happened at “the worst possible time” due to NXT was wrapping up filming for 2025 so that the NXT roster could return home for the Christmas break.

It was reported that the NXT creative team had finalized weeks of programming that had already been filmed. It was also reported that after the unexpected title change, there was a “pretty frantic rush” backstage to correct elements that had been already filmed that would no longer make sense due to the title change. WWE reportedly also had to correct a brief error on their website which initially listed that Monroe had won and retained her title.

It was also reported that PWInsider’s Mike Johnson’s report about the reason for the unexpected change was due to Monroe had the wind knocked out of her is something that they have yet to confirm from their sources. This reason reportedly was the belief going around internally in NXT.

It was also reported that the backstage interview segment with Hail involving Jordynne Grace and Blake Monroe was something that was not originally planned for the show but done in reaction to the unexpected title change.

One NXT higher-up reportedly stated that this incident will likely now cause a heavy shift in policy among the wrestlers and wrestlers will likely now be required to stay until the end of the television tapings moving forward. It was reported that NXT pre-tapes are usually done on Mondays and talents who take part in them are usually required to stay through the TV taping the following day.

It was reported that a title rematch between Hail and Monroe is already being discussed by NXT officials internally. Those spoken to reportedly stated that they currently expect this rematch to take place at next month’s NXT New Year’s Evil 2026 show.