WWE Backstage Reaction To Referee Felix Fernandez After Accidental Title Change

There are more reactions to what happened on WWE NXT when Thea Hail shockingly won her first championship.

The December 16th edition of WWE NXT opened with Blake Monroe defending the NXT Women’s North American Title against Thea Hail. The match was set up because Hail made Monroe tap out during a segment that wasn’t a match.

During their match on NXT, Hail hit her springboard back senton splash (similar to Darby Allin’s Coffin Drop in AEW) and landed hard on Monroe, who might have had the wind knocked out of her for a moment. When the referee counted Hail’s pin attempt, Monroe failed to kick out before the three count, so the referee, Felix Fernandez, counted to three.

That led to some awkwardness because the planned finish was for Blake Monroe to win the match and retain her title. They even played Monroe’s music for a brief moment. That stopped, and Hail was handed the title while her music played as the winner of the match.

WWE Management Supports Referee’s Decision

Regarding the backstage reaction to the unplanned title change, Fightful Select reports that NXT referee Felix Fernandez “got props backstage for counting the Thea Hail vs. Blake Monroe match as a shoot and doing the title change.” It’s up to the wrestlers to kick out when they are in a match, after all.

It was also added by Fightful that some people had to return to the WWE PC to tape some segments after the Monroe/Hail match so that the creative could come up with a new story for the feud.

The December 23 and December 30th episodes of NXT have already been taped. At the tapings, it was announced that Hail will defend her NXT Women’s North American Title against Blake Monroe at the live January 6th episode of NXT called New Year’s Evil.

New Year’s Evil will also feature Jacy Jayne defending the NXT Women’s Title against Iron Survivor winner Kendal Grey and NXT Champion Oba Femi will defend his title against TNA’s Leon Slater as well.