A big surprise on the December 10, 2024 edition of WWE NXT was the random return of Shotzi Blackheart, who had been out of action since suffering an injury mid-match against Lyra Valkyria for the NXT Women's Championship in February. That match was forced to be called off after Shotzi tore her ACL.
Despite not being part of this feud, Shotzi would make her triumphant return to help out Gigi Dolin and Tatum Paxley, who had wrestled a match against Fatal Influence's Jacy Jayne and Jazmyn Nyx.
Earlier in the night, there appeared to be tension between Fallon Henley and Jacy Jayne, as the latter suggested Gigi Dolin had returned and helped Tatum Paxley because Dolin is obsessed with Jayne. Henley disagreed, thinking Dolin has her eyes on Fallon's NXT Women's North American Championship. This appeared to upset Jayne, but the two were pulled aside by Nyx before anything else could transpire.
They were on the same page with their match, though, as Henley interfered, opening up a chance for Jayne to capitalize and pin Paxley. After the match, Fatal Influence ganged up on Dolin and Paxley, which is when Shotzi ran in to help them fight off Henley, Jayne, and Nyx.
Interestingly, Paxley was shown earlier in the night holding a doll that resembles Shotzi, which is the same foreshadowing that happened with Dolin, as a few weeks back, as Paxley was playing with a doll with orange hair and fashioned to look like Dolin. This implies Paxley may be either mind-controlling those two into becoming her friends, or having some kind of prophetic influence that is working in her favor, seemingly unintentionally—though it would be interesting if WWE decides to go the route of Paxley being like Marvel villain of the Fantastic 4, Puppet Master, who can control others via voodoo dolls, essentially.
Regardless of the reasoning quite yet, Shotzi appears to be aligned with Paxley and Dolin, likely setting up a six-woman tag team match for the future against Fatal Influence, as well as possibly any of those three against Fallon Henley for the NXT Women's North American Championship, which could very well take place during NXT New Year's Evil on January 7, 2025.
What do you think of Shotzi's return? Should it not have been on NXT, but on the main roster? Or is she in exactly the right spot for her to thrive? Drop your thoughts in the comments below!