Very few wrestlers have had such a blossoming career ruined by injuries than Tegan Nox.
The hype around the Welsh star was huge when she signed for the WWE in 2017. She was one of the biggest names on the UK indies, which was experiencing a renaissance at the time.
However, while she was once touted as a future world champion, Tegan Nox has had her career blighted by knee injuries. She is rarely seen on Raw nowadays, and hopes of becoming a huge star seem to be drifting away.
Tegan Nox’s First Knee Injury Had Nothing To Do With Wrestling
Wrestling is not the only sport Tegan Nox excelled at, nor the first one that was hampered by knee injuries.
The girl from Bargoed played football, netball and rugby as a child and into her teens. She excelled especially at football, and had trials with both Cardiff City and the Wales national team.
There is a chance she could have gone pro. But, as would become a feature in her career, a serious knee injury put an end to her footballing dreams. She was just 13-years-old when injury first struck, and by 16 she had left the sport entirely.
“I had quite a bad knee injury when I was 13 after being hit by a really dirty tackle” Tegan Nox said. “So that threw me out for a bit and cost me a place on the Welsh U16’s Squad, but when I turned 16 I finally decided to give up football partly due to the injury and I fell out of love with the sport completely.” Tegan Nox said in a 2013 interview.
Women in sports, especially in football, are much more likely to suffer from ACL injuries than their male counterparts. The exact reasons are unknown. However, scientists do know that women are “six times more likely to have a non-contact ACL injury than their male counterparts”.
They also added that only six percent of studies in this field are done on women. A lot of work needs to go on why women like Tegan Nox suffer these challenges at a much higher rate than men.
Her Second Knee Injury Came After Signing With The WWE
With her football dream in tatters, she moved on to professional wrestling. Tegan Nox had always been a fan of wrestling, staying up with her Grandad to watch the Royal Rumble every year.
She trained in a school in Port Talbot. The Welsh superstar took on the name Nixon Newell after training under the watchful eye of Dave Stewart and “Wild Boar” Mike Hitchman.
After working in the UK and Japan, she earned a spot in the first ever Mae Young Classic in 2017. This was a tournament set up by the WWE to showcase women’s wrestling around the world. It also helped in signing new stars to NXT In the process.
Tegan Nox was one of these. She signed a contract with the WWE, although at this point she was still known as her indie name of Nixon Newell. In doing so, she was the first Welsh woman to join the company. Her star was so bright that she was one of the favourites to win the entire competition.
However, disaster struck just before the tournament began. Despite being announced to take part in the initial reveal, Tegan Nox was nowhere to be found. It was later reported that she suffered a torn ACL just prior to the first matches.
Toni Storm ended up winning the competition, in place of Tegan Nox. Refusing to let it get her down, she trained relentlessly, and after nearly a year out of action. The Welsh star managed to return for the next year’s edition off the May Young Classic.
She Suffered The Same Injury In The Following Year’s Tournament
After her injury, Tegan Nox returned to the ring at an NXT house show in April 2018. She began teaming with Dakota Kai, and was soon announced as part of the second Mae Young Classic tournament.
She actually made it into the competition this time, although this was time it was under the name we know her now – Tegan Nox.
The Welsh wrestler impressed in the tournament, and showed fantastic ability and fire in the ring. She easily knocked off Zatara and Nicole Matthews in the opening rounds, setting up a quarter-final match against Rhea Ripley.
Sadly, disaster would rear its ugly head again in this match. In what was turning out to be a good match, Tegan Nox hurt her knee on a suicide dive. Trying to fight through the pain, she continued the match, and look great doing it.
However, after bumping to one of Ripley’s dropkicks, a primal scream came from her lungs. She immediately made an “x” shape with her hands – something the referee usually does to show a wrestler is injured for real – and began loudly crying out in pain.
Even while being treated, she was outwardly sobbing due to how much agony her knee was in. To top it off, it wasn’t the knee she injured the year prior. Tegan Nox injured her other knee (the left one this time), in a cruel twist of fate.
She suffered numerous injuries in the match, including;
- A torn ACL
- A torn MCL
- A torn lateral collateral ligament
- A torn meniscus
- Patellar dislocation (dislocated knee)
That match took place in August 2018. She wouldn’t set foot in a ring again until June 2019, after almost another full year on the sidelines for Tegan Nox.
Tegan Nox’s Third Wrestling ACL Injury Came In 2020
Tegan Nox has had no luck at all with her knee. She returned to action in June 2019, but only lasted a year before being struck down once again with an ACL injury.
This didn’t happen during a match, as far as we can tell. Tegan Nox was simply taken off TV after an attack by Candace LaRae, before it was announced she was having another surgery for another ACL tear,
Obviously, that wasn’t the full story of her knee issues. In fact, the Welshwoman revealed in a 2021 Twitter post that she wrestled for two years without an ACL in her knee at all.
The ligament slipped out of place and was stuck between her knee, so there was really nothing holding her knee together at all.
Injuries Have Ruined Her WWE Career
It’s so sad to see how badly Tegan Nox’s WWE career has been ruined by her constant knee injuries. She signed a contract with the company in April 2017, but was immediately injured, not wrestling her first match until one year later.
This was followed by only three televised matches in August 2018, before another year out for another ACL tear. If we count house shows, then she wrestled for two months between April and June 2018, under her real name of Steffani Newell.
After the third injury, which came after she had a year-long run in NXT, she faced another 10 months on the sidelines. This gives her, in her first four years with the WWE, just 16 months being fit and available to wrestle. That shows how badly injury has affected Tegan Nox’s career.
Her run has been up and down since then. WWE released her in November 2021, but brought her back in December the following year. She has been featured sparingly since then, and a ill-fated tag team with Natalya being the highlight so far.
While it seems like her career is over (Tegan Nox even considered retiring due to her injuries), it is far from it. She has been ACL injury fee since 2021, and despite her lengthy spell in the WWE, is only 29 years old.
As the sole Welsh wrestler left in the company, the hopes of a nation are on her shoulders. I have no doubt that with the talent she has, Tegan Nox can become a WWE Champion in the future and overcome her vast injury setbacks.
