Earlier this month, WWE announced their next class at the WWE Performance Center, and it featured indie superstars like Trevor Lee, ACH, Jonah Rock, and Rachael Ellering. But it was former Ring of Honor star Karen Q that hit the NXT Live Event circuit first out of the class, as she made her NXT live debut at an event in Tampa, Florida. She debuted in a tag team match, teaming with Lacey Evans against the new tandem of Aliyah and Vanessa Borne. The new TV heel team got the win and after their loss, Karen turned on Lacey and took her out.
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A member of Team Adams, trained by Damian Adams, she began in 2014 and made her first mark with Victory Pro Wrestling (VPW) in New York. Over the next two years, she expanded her indie resume working with Beyond Wrestling, Women’s Wrestling Revolution, Game Changer Wrestling, and Delaware’s East Coast Wrestling Association (ECWA), winning the VPW and ECWA Women’s titles.
In June of 2017, she debuted in Ring of Honor’s revamped Women of Honor division, winning her television debut in a triple threat against Deonna Purrazzo and former WOH World Champion Kelly Klein. She remained with ROH for a year, as well as competing for SHIMMER, RISE Wrestling, Northeast Wrestling (NEW) and others.
In August of 2018, she competed in the second annual WWE Mae Young Classic, facing Xia Li in an opening round matchup. While Karen lost her WWE debut, she had a dark match during the tournament against Rachael Ellering, who incidentally joined Karen in the February class (Ellering previously used Rachel Evers in her past WWE/NXT appearances, a tribute to her trainer, Lance Storm, as Evers is Storm’s real last name).
Karen Q finished up with Ring of Honor in December of 2018 and signed with the WWE shortly after, competing at ROH Final Battle in a Fatal Four Way for the WOH World Championship, losing to Kelly Klein, in a match that also featured then-champion Sumie Sakai and Madison Rayne (who departed Ring of Honor herself this week).
