WWE NXT Enforcing Major Backstage Rule After Thea Hail’s Accidental Title Win

Thea Hail’s unplanned title victory didn’t just wreck creative plans — it’s now triggering a serious internal shake-up for WWE NXT talent.

According to Fightful Select, the botched finish that saw Hail win the NXT Women’s North American Title from Blake Monroe has forced WWE officials to reconsider how talent operates during taping days. One NXT higher-up revealed that new rules are already being discussed to prevent this kind of chaos from happening again.

“One NXT higher up said that this was going to cause some heavy shifting in policy among talent, with wrestlers booked being required to stay until the end of tapings moving forward. Pretapes are often done on Mondays in NXT, and even talent that do that are likely to be required to stay through the following day’s show.”

The policy change is a direct response to the scramble that took place after Hail’s accidental win — an outcome that was never part of the original script. WWE had already pre-taped several NXT segments ahead of the holidays, all of which assumed Blake Monroe was still champion.

As previously reported, the confusion backstage was instant. Monroe was supposed to retain, but after she got the wind knocked out of her, Hail went for the pin too quickly and Monroe couldn’t lift her shoulder in time. Referees are trained to call real-time finishes, so the three-count was made — botched or not.

“There was a pretty frantic rush to try to correct things that had already been filmed in order to make sense of them.”

The mistake was so unexpected that WWE even played Monroe’s theme song before abruptly switching to Hail’s once officials realized what had actually happened. WWE.com also briefly listed Monroe as the winner before fixing the error.

Now, with more NXT episodes set to tape at the Performance Center, officials are expected to implement tighter control over talent schedules — meaning no one gets to leave early, even if their matches or pretapes are done.