Reason For Botched WWE NXT Title Change Between Thea Hail & Blake Monroe Revealed

An unplanned title change opened the Tuesday, December 16 edition of WWE NXT as Thea Hail pinned Blake Monroe to win the WWE NXT Women's North American Championship.

Hail picked up the win just seven minutes into the match after she hit Monroe with a springboard senton and instantly made the cover, with the referee counting the 1-2-3 as Blake Monroe only got her right hand up, as opposed to her shoulder. Confusion instantly reigned following the match, with both competitors looking shocked, while Blake Monroe's music was initially played before WWE switched to air Thea Hail's theme.

Fightful Select and PWInsider have both reported that the title change from Blake Monroe to Thea Hail was not intentional, and Monroe was originally booked to retain the NXT Women's North American Title. Fightful noted the botched title switch caused a scramble backstage, and it caused issues as creative with Blake Monroe as champion had already been worked out, with the botch affecting multiple wrestlers' creative for the next couple of weeks.

PWInsider has reported the botch was caused after Blake Monroe had the wind knocked out of her following the springboard senton from Thea Hail. Due to Hail being so young, it was noted she likely didn't realise she needed to give the former Mariah May time to recover, and instead she went right for the pin. As WWE referees are instructed to call matches like a shoot, the referee counted the three as Monroe didn't get her shoulder up in time.

Botched title changes have taken place in WWE before, notably in January 2019 when R-Truth defeated Shinsuke Nakamura for the United States Championship.