{"id":162827,"date":"2026-06-10T02:07:04","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T06:07:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=162827"},"modified":"2026-06-10T02:07:04","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T06:07:04","slug":"zaria-becomes-nxt-womens-north-american-champion-on-6-9-nxt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2026\/06\/10\/zaria-becomes-nxt-womens-north-american-champion-on-6-9-nxt\/","title":{"rendered":"Zaria Becomes NXT Women’s North American Champion on 6\/9 NXT"},"content":{"rendered":"

To get to the NXT Women’s North American Championship match, Zaria had to endure a lot of painful matches. She betrayed her best friend, Sol Ruca<\/a>, costing her Jacy Jayne’s NXT Championship. When she got a title shot, it ended as a no-contest as Ruca attacked her. The triple threat match had Jayne retain. Then she lost to Ruca at Stand & Deliver, but won an amazing Last Woman Standing match on Night 2 of NXT Revenge three weeks later.<\/p>\n

Finally, she defeated Lizzy Rain on the June 2, 2026, episode of NXT to get her title opportunity<\/a> against Tatum Paxley. After getting through weeks of tension with Ruca and a number-one-contender’s match, she now had the opportunity to beat Paxley. But that wouldn’t be easy, as she held the title for 95 days.<\/p>\n

With defenses against Blake Monroe in a casket match and Izzi Dame in a steel cage, there’s no question she is a very tough competitor. Would Zaria have enough strength to beat Paxley for her first NXT title?<\/p>\n

Zaria Defeats Paxley to Claim NXT Women’s North American Championship<\/h2>\n

Both Paxley and Zaria went into the match with a lot to prove. Paxley became the ultimate underdog when she beat Jayne at Halloween Havoc to become NXT Women’s Champion. However, she lost it back to her just four weeks later. After a betrayal by Dame and the Culling, she fought her way back to title contention and captured the NXT Women’s North American Championship from her at Vengeance Day<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Since then, she’s been retaining her championship. Doing so against Zaria would extend her win streak. But Zaria has been ready for this moment for years. She started as a partner to Ruca, something she revealed that she hated. Being done playing the sidekick has led her to many impressive wins as well. Would this attitude lead her to championship gold for the first time?<\/p>\n

\"WWE
An NXT graphic advertising the Women’s North American Title Match between Zaria and Tatum Paxley. (Photo Credit: WWE)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The match<\/a> started with action from the very beginning. Zaria lifted Paxley with the F-5, but she got countered into an inside cradle for the failed pinfall. She responded with a spear and an unsuccessful pinfall for herself as well. Then she threw Paxley to the outside, pushing her into the barricade and ringpost before another failed pin attempt in the ring. They traded bouts of offense until Zaria ran into the ring post. That allowed Paxley to stomp her onto the steel steps with a moonsault right after, sending her to the ground.<\/p>\n

They fought on the outside before going back in the ring. After getting Paxley’s legs locked on her head, she delivered tons of kicks and punches in retaliation. A knee to the face led to another kick out, frustrating her. After more punches, Paxley kicked her in the face, shifting the momentum of the match. More kicks led to Zaria being dazed, leading to a failed pinfall once again.<\/p>\n

Zaria delivered a suplex and headbutt, but a stomp during a spear sent her to the mat. A 450 attempt by Paxley was met with a successful spear, but she couldn’t pin her. A flurry of kicks and punches between them led to Paxley sending Zaria down with a superkick. After tangling her up in the turnbuckle, she jumped across from the other turnbuckle to send her to the ground. But once again, the match continued as Zaria kicked out.<\/p>\n

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

After a failed spear, she delivered an F-5 on the ground to Paxley. Then she speared her in the ring and hit her with another F-5. She covered her, got the three-count, and won the NXT Women’s North American Championship. After over a year and a half, Zaria finally has her first title in NXT. Given her athleticism and will to become champion, she definitely deserved the victory after an extremely hard-fought match.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To get to the NXT Women’s North American Championship match, Zaria had to endure a lot of painful matches. She betrayed her best friend, Sol Ruca, costing her Jacy Jayne’s NXT Championship. When she got a title shot, it ended as a no-contest as Ruca attacked her. The triple threat match had Jayne retain. Then […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5338,"featured_media":162721,"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":[5,12,2192,4,3],"tags":[8760,9036],"class_list":["post-162827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nxt","category-news","category-wrestling","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-tatum-paxley","tag-zaria"],"modified_by":"Michael Joseph Sugue, Manager","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162827","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=162827"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":162834,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162827\/revisions\/162834"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}