When Chelsea Green and Piper Niven were strutting around NXT last week, their confidence and cockiness led to a confrontation with Sol Ruca and Zaria, setting up a tag team match for this week which opened the show.
Unfortunately for the Women's United States champion, Green is leaving NXT this week worse off than before, and it may lead to some repercussions for her title reign in the near future, too.
That is because on this episode, Green and Niven lost their tag team match when Ruca hit her patented Sol Snatcher. In the process, Green also had her nose busted open, causing the distinct visual in the header of a shocked and bloody Green following her loss—magnified even more so because it was Green who took the pinfall, not her head of security detail and tag team partner, Piper Niven.
Normally, main roster talent is relatively protected on the NXT brand. That is especially true when they are a champion, as more often than not, someone from Raw or SmackDown losing on NXT is to put over a younger talent because they're someone who can take a loss (like Apollo Crews, Natalya, etc) as they aren't currently a prominently featured Superstar. For Green to take the loss could very well lead to a title match being announced down the line, as any time a challenger pins a champion, it's as good of a reason as any to award them an opportunity at the belt.
Next week's NXT will be the WWE Roadblock special, and it already has a packed card, and in two weeks, there will be an NXT Underground match with Eddy Thorpe against Trick Williams. If WWE is able to stretch this feud out for another six weeks (which may be asking too much), WWE Stand & Deliver will take place on April 19th and could also be a place to book that match.
At the moment, though, not only has nothing of the sort been announced, but Green was shown in a digital exclusive talking to Robert Stone about getting the match stricken from the record.
As a bonus news story worth mentioning, Lilian Garcia was on duty for the ring announcer spot on tonight's episode, filling in for NXT's usual mic man Mike Rome. It appears to be a one-off, as there wasn't any indication this would be an ongoing thing. This was Garcia's first time working the NXT brand at the WWE Performance Center. She's expected to return to SmackDown duties as per usual this Friday night.
For the rest of the results from tonight's NXT episode, click here.
Would you like to see Sol Ruca against Chelsea Green for the Women's United States Championship? Who would you root for? Drop your thoughts in the comments below!