Last night, the Women's World Championship changed hands on Monday Night Raw with Iyo Sky shockingly dethroning Rhea Ripley, and it seems like the title hunt and landscape around WrestleMania season continues to be in flux as we've crowned a new champion on tonight's episode of WWE NXT, too!
The TL;DR is that Shawn Spears defeated Tony D'Angelo to win the NXT North American Championship. But how did we get to this point and what does it mean for the future? Let's explore the situation.
Over the past several weeks, Shawn Spears has been at odds with The Family, but mostly lurking in the background. While it seemed as though he was just being creepy, he was actually setting up a plan to have Izzi Dame befriend The Family (by interfering in some matches and screwing over Ridge Holland at the benefit of Tony D'Angelo), only to turn on them after D'Angelo's and Holland's steel cage match.
Something else noteworthy to mention that played out here is that Stacks has been disagreeing with D'Angelo for a while about having backup for certain matches. D'Angelo has spent less time being there for Stacks, and has been mostly distancing himself, which hasn't sat well with the underboss.
Tonight, Stacks made a point to try to help out The Don of NXT, only for it to backfire. Spears pushed Stacks into D'Angelo, causing D'Angelo to fall backward off the ring apron and land back-first onto a steel chair. This would prove to be too much for D'Angelo, as his back went out when he attempted to give Spears a spinebuster.
The veteran capitalized on that moment of weakness, immediately going for a pinfall and winning the title in the process.
This is not only the first North American title reign for Spears, but the first championship he's won in World Wrestling Entertainment OR All Elite Wrestling. Despite being a veteran that has had several stints in WWE dating back to 2006, along with his 2019-2023 run in AEW, Spears never won a title in either company under any of the names he performed as (Gavin Spears, Tye Dillinger...Stan...) unless you count his time in Ohio Valley Wrestling, where he won the OVW Heavyweight Championship once, the OVW Television Championship three times, and the OVW Southern Tag Team Championship thrice (two times with Cody Rhodes and once with Colt Cabana), and his one Florida Tag Team Championship reign in FCW alongside Nic Nemeth.
Finally, The Perfect 10 has championship gold in his history books. But what do you think is next for our new NXT North American champion? Who do you think he'll eventually drop the title to? Keep the discussion going by leaving a comment below!