wrestling / TV Reports

411’s The Comeback: Tegan Nox Report – Nox on Dealing With Her Knee Injuries, How Captain Marvel Saved Her

April 8, 2020 | Posted by Robert Leighty Jr.
Tegan Nox: The Comeback Image Credit: WWE

411’s The Comeback: Tegan Nox Report

-Original air date: 04/08/20
-Run time: 25:45

-Thanks for all the feedback for the Dark Side of the Ring recaps. Today we are checking in on another WWE Network Special as they dropped in a piece on Tegan Nox and her return from injury. Let’s get to it!

-Tegan tells us she has had a very interesting journey in getting to the WWE. We get footage of her in Fight Club Pro, and Progress Pro Wrestling.
Next we meet NXT UK producer, Glen Robinson and he mentions Tegan was an big part of the UK wrestling scene. She was the only female wrestler in Wales and had to work with the men.

-She had a tryout with the WWE in Glasgow and was asked what she would do if they offered her a contract right now. They wanted to know if she was ok leaving her family and moving to Orlando. She was all in and her friends in the business talk about how much they were sad to see her go, but knew this was an amazing chance for her.

-Every time she walks into the PC she asks herself if this is real. She was coming to live her dream, but blew out her right knee only 2 weeks into training at the PC. Robbie Brookside wasn’t there went it happened as he was on international duty and it gutted him to hear the news. The freak injury happened during a lock-up of all things with Dakota Kai. Tegan could hear three pops and Dakota tells us that she beat herself up about it. It sounds just like a freak thing as her leg didn’t turn when she turned her body. Still, had to suck though for all involved.

-They have footage of her post surgery at the PC talking to HHH about the injury. He tells her it’s never good timing, but it doesn’t change anything. She tells him she will come back stronger and he likes that attitude.

-Tegan had to miss the first Mae Young classic and it devastated her. We hear from her family about how this was her dream and her mom cries thinking about it. “She’s my baby.” Moms are the best!

-Tegan put in the work with her rehab and she made her debut for NXT in 2018. It was a tag match with Dakota and they gelled well together. It blew her mind that people knew who she was and all that hard work was for that moment. She will cherish that moment forever.

-The second Mae Young Tournament roles around and they weren’t sure if she was going to be cleared in time. Dakota didn’t want to see her miss it for a second time. She was cleared a few days before the tournament and she believes he was 100% physically, but not sure if she was mentally. All the NXT women are excited for her and hearing them talk about this being like getting her to a WrestleMania is sweet. Tegan tells us that 2018 will be her year!

-Her quarterfinal match is with Rhea Ripley and the girls were pretty stoked for the match. Rhea was looking forward to it as she had never worked Tegan. Candice and Piper are just beaming talking about Tegan getting this chance. Rhea: “everything was fine for I want to say the first 30 seconds.” Tegan hits a suicide dive on the floor and her knee gets pinned. Rhea says Tegan was running too fast and she landed she could hear her scream. You can hear the gasps from the crowd when they realized what’s happening. There is audio of Tegan pleading to the doctor that she is fine and the doctor says he let her go because she could walk and insisted. They told her they would stop the match if needed.

-Rhea didn’t want to take the moment away from her so they continued the match. Tegan somehow continued for a bit more and then her knee blew up taking a dropkick. The match was immediately stopped and Rhea tells us that she felt guilty. The crowd is crying as Tegan is on the mat in tears from the pain. Everyone is crushed just talking about this. Cole, Renee, and Beth were on commentary and you can see they feel sick for her as well.

-HHH consoles her in the back while they check her out. Tegan says she wanted to show people how much everything in this business meant to her. The doctor tells us that everything that could be wrong with the knee was wrong. Her knee basically exploded as someone put it! Robinson tells us that was the day he thought her career was done.

-The long road backs starts again as she meets with a doctor and they recommend surgery. She tore the ACL, MCL, LCL, and meniscus. Damn! I can’t even imagine as the worst I ever did was partially tearing my ACL, and MCL while chipping a bone in my knee while playing basketball. Luckily, I only needed rehab and avoided surgery and even that sucked.

-We get some surgery footage and it’s always nasty to look at. She had to be on crutches and in a brace for a lot longer. Her timetable was 9-12 months and the NXT women all say at this point they wish it would have happened to them. They don’t know how she could get through a second knee injury, and Shayna mentions that Tegan took time to go back home and the girls weren’t sure if she was going to return.

-The time at home was to help her heal, but she got into some dark times. She needed something to help her and called up Dakota and they saw Captain Marvel. She feels that movie saved her emotionally and mentally and credits that movie for potentially saving her career. They actually include still shots from the movie which is cool to see. She is now ready to attack the rehab and get back again.

-She had to retrain her knee to bend, and it looks intensely painful. She had to go under another surgery to remove the scar tissue so her knee could start bending again. Just insane and my knees are tingling just watching this.

-She gets the okay on July 1, 2019 to rejoin the class and work towards getting back. All the NXT women talk about the story of her journey and her mom talks about how she can set her mind on something and she will do it. Logan calls her one of the strongest people she knows. You can tell all these girls lover her!

-Sept 2019: Cardiff, Wales and Tegan sits in the seat that she saw her first WWE show. She is amazed that she is returning in this building where she watched her heroes like Molly Holly and Kane. Logan thinks it’s fate that she is returning in her home where the WWE runs a show every 10 years or so. There is no better comeback story and Robinson says he didn’t believe in fairy tale stories in wrestling until now. Tegan is ready to prove to everyone what she can do. Mark Andrews thinks it will be the biggest comeback story you’ll ever see.

-The match happens and Robinson thinks this will kick start her becoming what everyone thinks she can be. The women talk about how she looked so happy and Candice says that ring is where she is meant to be. The comeback took 12 months and she is just ecstatic to get through it. She wants to be on Takeover and WrestleMania now because she is back.

-Another strong and uplifting documentary piece from the WWE. I was not familiar with Tegan and remember reading the story of her getting hurt when it happened, but I just knew the bare minimum. This piece does a great job of telling her story and showing what she had to endure mentally and physically to fight her way back to her dream. I love stories like this and hers is a great one that I hope everyone takes the 30 minutes out to watch. As always thanks for reading!