{"id":162470,"date":"2026-06-04T06:00:45","date_gmt":"2026-06-04T10:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=162470"},"modified":"2026-06-04T00:47:37","modified_gmt":"2026-06-04T04:47:37","slug":"will-zaria-become-nxt-womens-north-american-champion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2026\/06\/04\/will-zaria-become-nxt-womens-north-american-champion\/","title":{"rendered":"Is it Time for Zaria to Become NXT Women’s North American Champion?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The team of Sol Ruca and Zaria were great friends, winning matches and having\u00a0a good time\u00a0as partners. But over time, Zaria had\u00a0growing\u00a0resentment over Ruca\u2019s success. She was stuck on the sidelines, watching her friend become NXT North American Champion and\u00a0WWE\u00a0Women\u2019s Speed Champion.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The breaking point was when Ruca\u00a0faced Jacy Jayne for the NXT Women\u2019s Championship. Before the match, she attacked Ruca<\/a>, allowing Jayne to\u00a0retain\u00a0easily. That kicked off an intense rivalry, which culminated in her winning a\u00a0Last Woman Standing<\/a> match during Night 2 of NXT Revenge. <\/span><\/p>\n

Ruca left for Monday Night Raw, where she is the WWE Women\u2019s Intercontinental Champion. Meanwhile, Zaria is still on NXT, looking for that first title. On the June 2, 2026 episode of NXT, she beat Lizzy Rain to become the number one contender for Tatum Paxley\u2019s NXT North American Championship. Will she capture her first-ever championship in WWE, or would Paxley\u2019s innovative offense help her retain her title?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Zaria Will Use Ruca\u2019s Recent Success as Motivation<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Many fans desperately wanted Ruca and Zaria to stop\u00a0their fighting\u00a0and make up like loving friends. However, that\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0happen for\u00a0a very good\u00a0reason. Just like Saquon Shugars to Dion Lennox in\u00a0DarkState, she was jealous of her partner\u2019s success, and that contributed to their breakup.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s\u00a0no coincidence that she gets this title opportunity just days after Ruca won her first title<\/a> on the main roster.\u00a0She\u2019s\u00a0probably still\u00a0mad that\u00a0she\u2019s\u00a0stuck in NXT, while Ruca has immediate success on Raw. <\/span><\/p>\n

That anger inside of her will motivate her to become the new NXT North American Champion. Even though\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0on\u00a0different brands,\u00a0there\u2019s\u00a0no question that Zaria still\u00a0checks up\u00a0on Ruca now and then\u00a0to see what\u00a0she\u2019s\u00a0up to. She wants to win for herself to show everyone, including Ruca, that she has what it takes to become a champion in WWE. Now that she\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0a sidekick anymore,\u00a0she\u2019s\u00a0more than ready to win her first WWE title.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rain Could Stop Her to Allow Paxley to Retain<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Rain has only\u00a0participated\u00a0in four\u00a0televised\u00a0matches\u00a0so far in NXT, and three of them have involved Paxley and Zaria. Two weeks ago, she lost to Paxley in a great fight for the NXT North American Championship.\u00a0She\u00a0didn\u2019t\u00a0get the chance at a rematch, as Zaria won<\/a> that opportunity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, that\u00a0doesn\u2019t\u00a0mean that she\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0interfere. If she has hard feelings against Zaria for winning that match, she can easily cost her the title. That way, they both have justification for a triple threat match.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"WWE
An NXT graphic of Tatum Paxley and Lizzy Rain. (Photo Credit: WWE)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Rain can say that Zaria took her second chance at the NXT North American Championship. Zaria can say that Rain cost her the match if she was really close to beating Paxley. With NXT Great American Bash in less than a month, that\u2019s an easy way to book the first match of the PLE. If Rain is that desperate for a title opportunity, she can easily cost Zaria the win to make the PLE match a triple threat.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

What Will Happen Next Tuesday?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

The two women both have extensive histories with Paxley, who holds the championship they both want. Zaria won the number one contender\u2019s match, so she\u2019ll face her for the title for the very first time. Rain had already lost to Paxley, but clearly wanted another chance to win. <\/span><\/p>\n

Zaria is clearly focused on the match next week, as she\u2019ll get her very first WWE title if she wins. Her determination and the fact that Ruca\u2019s having immediate success on the main roster could be enough to guide her to victory.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"WWE
An NXT graphic of Zaria. (Photo Credit: WWE)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, Rain can easily derail the match, causing her to lose and\u00a0wait even longer for her first title. NXT Great American Bash is only three weeks away, with matches\u00a0probably becoming\u00a0official in the next two weeks. Having Rain cost\u00a0Zaria\u00a0the\u00a0win could be\u00a0an easy way\u00a0to make a triple threat match. No matter what happens, Zaria will\u00a0definitely give\u00a0it her all in\u00a0pursuit of the NXT North American Championship.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The team of Sol Ruca and Zaria were great friends, winning matches and having\u00a0a good time\u00a0as partners. But over time, Zaria had\u00a0growing\u00a0resentment over Ruca\u2019s success. She was stuck on the sidelines, watching her friend become NXT North American Champion and\u00a0WWE\u00a0Women\u2019s Speed Champion.\u00a0 The breaking point was when Ruca\u00a0faced Jacy Jayne for the NXT Women\u2019s Championship. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5338,"featured_media":162512,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2192,4,3,320],"tags":[8760,9036],"class_list":["post-162470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nxt","category-wrestling","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","category-wwe-women","tag-tatum-paxley","tag-zaria"],"modified_by":"Michael Joseph Sugue, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5338"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162470"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162514,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162470\/revisions\/162514"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162512"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}