Indi Hartwell retained her NXT Women’s Championship at Spring Breakin’, but that nearly wasn’t the case.
Hartwell defended her championship in a triple threat match against Roxanne Perez and Tiffany Stratton in the main event of the show. Disaster struck midway through the bout when Stratton executed a moonsault onto both Perez and Hartwell, and the champion’s ankle buckled underneath her.
As Hartwell received medical attention and was helped to the back, Perez and Stratton continued the match, unaware if the champion would be able to continue. In the end, Indi made a triumphant return to the ring and managed to pick up the victory despite being in very obvious pain.
Tiffany Stratton Would Have Won The WWE NXT Women’s Championship If Indi Hartwell Couldn’t Continue
Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Bryan Alvarez revealed that should Hartwell have been deemed unable to continue the match, Tiffany Stratton would have had her first taste of WWE gold.
“It ends up with Roxanne and Indi outside [the ring], and Tiffany goes up to the top rope, and she does a moonsault outside to the both of them. The moonsault is fine. She lands fine, but in catching her, Indi falls sideways on her ankle. She can’t get up, and Tiffany is supposed to do something with her, but Indi can’t move, and Indi starts taking off her boot. They call out the medical guy, and she’s done.
“For like seven minutes, Roxanne and Tiffany basically have to call this match in the ring because they had this whole choreographed match with all three of them, and now one of them is gone….Apparently, the referee got word that Tiffany is going over now to win the title. I guess they were trying to figure out what to do, and then a couple of minutes left in the show before Tiffany could win, Indi managed to get cleared, and she hobbled down to the ring, and they did the final two spots….so in fact, Indi did retain the title.
“I don’t know the status of her ankle, but she’s hurt, and now they got to figure out what to do with that title. I guess we’ll see how she heals over the next week.”
In a recent interview, Tiffany Stratton said that she’d like to stay in NXT a little longer to continue to improve her wrestling, but if she gets a call for the main roster in the WWE Draft, she’ll be ready.
h/t WrestlingNews.co