Blake Monroe beat Zaria at Halloween Havoc on Saturday to win the NXT Women’s North American Championship.
Monroe was originally supposed to challenge Sol Ruca for the title, but things changed on the go-home episode of NXT before Halloween Havoc when Ruca revealed she would not be able to defend the title due to a knee injury.
Sol was prepared to vacate the title and Monroe lobbied for it to be handed directly to her, but Zaria stepped in and proposed a different idea.
Zaria volunteered to defend the women’s North American title on Sol’s behalf, and when Ruca agreed to allow it, Zaria laid out Blake and stood tall over her while holding the championship belt in the air.
The initial interaction between Monroe and Ruca occurred backstage a few weeks ago. Monroe called Ruca greedy for trying to win a third title and announced her intention to take the Women’s North American Championship away from her.
That led to a one-on-one match between Monroe and Zaria. Sol attempted to prevent Blake from using a steel chair, but when the referee was distracted by the intervention, Monroe hit Zaria with a hair pick in the throat en route to victory.
The next week on NXT, Zaria competed in a battle royal to determine the No. 1 contender for the NXT Women’s Championship. Ruca was ringside to support Zaria, but she got attacked by Monroe.
A conflicted Zaria eliminated herself from the match to run off Monroe and save Sol, costing herself a shot at the NXT women’s title in the process.
Zaria got her chance at redemption at Halloween Havoc, though, as she fought in place of her injured friend.
However, Monroe proved too crafty to overcome, and she earned her first taste of championship gold in WWE by beating Zaria on Saturday night.
