History was made at NXT Battleground on Sunday night when TNA Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace competed for the NXT Women’s Championship. Unfortunately for Grace, she didn’t shake the foundations of the wrestling industry any more than she has done as she didn’t manage to beat Roxanne Perez and take the title back to TNA with her. However, Grace doesn’t only have herself to blame as the Women’s Title match ended in chaos.
Dana Brooke Returns To NXT
Grace arguably had the upper hand before others started getting involved. Tatum Paxley, who has made it very clear she’s on the hunt for gold, began what became a frenetic few moments, hopping the barricade and eyeing up the titles at ringside. Walking past the NXT Women’s Title, Paxley opted to pick up Grace’s Knockouts Title instead. That understandably led to Grace shifting her attention as Paxley attempted to leave the arena with the belt.
Jordynne Grace lost part of her ear while wrestling. Mick Foley had a similar experience and reached out to her to lend advice.
Despite that, Grace wasn’t the first person to intercept Paxley and prevent her from leaving with the Knockouts Championship. As she backed away up the ramp, a returning Dana Brooke, who now goes by Ash By Elegance in TNA, stopped Paxley, giving Grace the chance to run up the ramp and take her title back. Despite what was arguably a helping hand from Ash, Grace opted to knock down both her and Paxley before returning to the ring to resume her match with Perez.
Perez Retains
The distraction provided enough time for Perez to recover and even though Grace still had the upper hand when she got back in the ring, the NXT Women’s Champion reversed her finisher and hit Grace with Pop Rox, immediately covering her for the win. That meant the historic moment that was Grace competing for an NXT Title while holding a championship in TNA wasn’t made even more historic by her winning and leaving WWE with one of its belts.
The ending of the match does strongly suggest there is going to be more crossover between WWE and TNA. Grace will hold an open challenge for the Knockouts Title this Friday at Against All Odds, and who I’m expecting to answer that challenge has now changed. I previously thought it might be Natalya, but now I’m assuming Paxley and Brooke may try to answer the challenge at the same time and either one prevents the other from making it to the ring, or it leads to an impromptu triple threat for the Knockouts Title.
