A major title upset has happened on the latest episode of NXT. Mandy Rose was finally dethroned as NXT Women’s Champion after more than a year. It was the unlikely challenger Roxanne Perez to do the unthinkable by winning the championship on the NXT main event.
Perez had won the Women’s Iron Survivor Challenge at NXT Deadline this past Saturday. She won this first time ever challenge by securing two points first at the end.
Booker T is actually emotional as ROXANNE PEREZ wins the women’s #IronSurvivor challenge match. This was literally the only way to go. The prize is number one contender to Mandy Rose’s title and Perez was the ONLY BABYFACE in the match. #NXTDeadline #WWENXT pic.twitter.com/1ImsCB6J5L
— Crucifi❌io (@Crucifixio) December 11, 2022
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The match also involved Kiana James, Cora Jade, Zoey Stark and Indi Hartwell. By winning this challenge, she earned an opportunity to fight for the title at New Year’s Evil on January 10th. However, on this latest NXT episode, the champion Mandy blindsided the young challenger and laid her out earlier in the show. This led Perez to cash in her opportunity on the show itself.
It was the last match of the night and in the match Rose started attacking Perez’s injured shoulder and arm. A lot of back and forth happened that involved Mandy trying all her moves on the challenger and Roxanne countering her. Finally the 21 year old “Prodigy” hit her Pop Rox finishing move on the champ and secured the shocking pinfall.
Roxanne Perez Era Begins 🔥#RoxannePerez #WWENXT #WWE pic.twitter.com/OQUkZ8eUAy
Advertisement— Prabhakar (@itz_Prabhaa) December 14, 2022
Surprisingly, Mandy’s Toxic Attraction team mates did not interfere in this title match. The audience showered her with “Thankyou Mandy” chants as she was leaving.
The two had earlier faced each other on the July 12th episode of NXT after Perez won the NXT Women’s Breakout Tournament. She got a title opportunity on Rose after that win, but lost that match when her best friend Cora Jade betrayed her.
Mandy won the Women’s championship from Raquel Rodriguez last year in a Trick or Street Fight at Halloween Havoc 2021. She last defended the title against Alba Fyre at Halloween Havoc 2022. With this loss, her 413 day reign has come to an end. It’s the third longest title reign in NXT history after Shayna Baszler and Asuka.
UPDATE: Less than 24 hrs after this, Mandy Rose was fired by WWE for posting adult content online. This is why they made her drop the belt to Roxanne Perez.
