Steffanie Rhiannon Newell (born 15 November 1994) is a Welsh

professional wrestler Professional wrestling is a form of theater that revolves around staged wrestling matches. The mock combat is performed in a ring similar to the kind used in boxing, and the dramatic aspects of pro wrestling may be performed both in the ring or ...

. She is signed to WWE where she performs on the SmackDown

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...

under the

ring name A ring name is a type of stage name used by an athlete such as a professional wrestler, mixed martial artist, or boxer whose real name is considered unattractive, dull, difficult to pronounce or spell, amusing for the wrong reasons, or projecting ...

Tegan Nox. Newell previously wrestled on the British

independent circuit In professional wrestling, the independent circuit or indie circuit is the collective noun, collective name of independent professional wrestling promotions which are smaller than major televised promotions. It is roughly analogous to a minor lea ...

under the ring name Nixon Newell, most notably for promotions such as

Attack! Pro Wrestling Attack Pro Wrestling (stylized as ATTACK! Pro Wrestling) is a British professional wrestling promotion owned and operated by wrestler Mark Andrews Although ATTACK was originally established in 2011 by wrestler Pete Dunne and ring announcer Jim ...

Progress Wrestling Progress Wrestling (stylized as PROGRESS) is a British professional wrestling promotion that was established in 2011 by comedian Jim Smallman, events and comedy promoter Jon Briley, and later, actor Glen Robinson (professionally known as Glen ...

, WhatCulture Pro Wrestling, and Fight Club: Pro.

Early life

Steffanie Newell was born on 15 November 1994 in Bargoed, Wales, 15 miles north of

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

. As a little girl, Newell played

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

for a number of teams in her area and at one point took part in trials for both

Cardiff City Cardiff City Football Club ( cy, Clwb Pêl-droed Dinas Caerdydd) is a professional association football club based in Cardiff, Wales. It competes in the Championship, the second tier of the English football league system. Founded in 1899 as R ...

and the Wales national team. At age 13, she suffered a knee injury which would ultimately cost her a place on the Wales Under-16 team. When she finally turned 16, she gave up football, instead planning on taking a long hiatus from all sports, citing her knee injury and a lack of passion for the sport as her reasons. Shortly after quitting football, she found a professional wrestling school in Port Talbot and began training under Dave Stewart and "Wild Boar" Mike Hitchman. She said that the encouragement of her late grandfather to pursue a career in professional wrestling was her main inspiration. Outside of football, she played

netball Netball is a ball sport played on a court by two teams of seven players. It is among a rare number of sports which have been created exclusively for female competitors. The sport is played on indoor and outdoor netball courts and is specifical ...

and

tag rugby Tag-rugby belt Tag rugby, or flag rugby, is a non-contact team game in which each player wears a belt that has two velcro tags attached to it, or shorts with velcro patches. The mode of play is based on rugby league with many similarities to to ...

. Despite playing football for the majority of her youth, Newell grew up as a fan of professional wrestling after being introduced to it at the age of five and cites

Molly Holly Nora Kristina Benshoof (''née'' Greenwald; born on September 7, 1977) is an American semi-retired professional wrestler signed to WWE as a producer, she is best known for her appearances with the said company from 2000 to 2005 under the ring na ...

as her favourite female wrestler and dream opponent.

Professional wrestling career

Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (2013)

Newell made a one-time appearance on Total Nonstop Action (TNA) Wrestling at their

pay-per-view Pay-per-view (PPV) is a type of pay television or webcast service that enables a viewer to pay to watch individual events via private telecast. Events can be purchased through a multichannel television platform using their electronic program guid ...

event

Slammiversary XI Slammiversary XI was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) promotion, which took place on June 2, 2013 at the Agganis Arena in Boston, Massachusetts. It was the 11th anniversary cel ...

as a fan under her real name. She won an all expenses paid trip via Challenge TV. Newell was interviewed by SoCal Val.

Attack! Pro Wrestling (2013–2017)

Newell debuted for

in July 2014, competing three times on the same show. Firstly, she defeated Lana Austin and later in the evening teamed with Austin to defeat Mark Andrews and Pete Dunne to win the Attack! 24/7 Championship for the second time in her career. Later that night, Newell and Austin lost the championship to

Mike Bird Mike may refer to: Animals * Mike (cat), cat and guardian of the British Museum * Mike the Headless Chicken, chicken that lived for 18 months after his head had been cut off * Mike (chimpanzee), a chimpanzee featured in several books and documen ...

in a handicap match. Newell debuted her Luchadora The Explorer character on 24 January 2015, teaming with Brookes in a loss to The Anti-Fun Police (

Damian Dunne Damian ( la, links=no, Damianus) may refer to: *Damian (given name) *Damian (surname) *Damian Subdistrict, in Longquanyi District, Chengdu, Sichuan, China See also *Damiani, an Italian surname *Damiano (disambiguation) *Damien (disambiguation) *Dam ...

and

Ryan Smile Ryan may refer to: People and fictional characters *Ryan (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) *Ryan (surname), a surname (including a list of people with the name) Places Australia * Division of Ryan, an elector ...

). She competed as Luchadora once again on 14 February, winning a special invitational scramble match. In January 2016, Newell aligned herself with Mark Andrews, forming the extremely popular team known as Bayside High. In their first match as a team, Newell and Andrews defeated #CCK (Brookes and

Kid Lykos Kid, Kids, KIDS, and K.I.D.S. may refer to: Common meanings * Colloquial term for a child or other young person ** Also for a parent's offspring regardless of age * Engage in joking * Young goats * The goat meat of young goats * Kidskin, leath ...

). Two days later on 3 April, Bayside High became the new Attack: Pro! Tag Team Champions, defeating #CCK. The duo retained the titles until August, when they lost them back to #CCK in a TLC match. In late 2016, Newell turned into a villainess, abandoning Bayside High and aligning herself with Pete Dunne. In their first match together, Dunne and Newell (dressed as the Suicide Squad iterations of The Joker and Harley Quinn, respectively) defeated

Martin Kirby Carpathian were an Australian hardcore band formed in Melbourne in 2003. The band disbanded in 2011, with its final line-up comprising vocalist Martin Kirby, guitarists Josh Manitta and Lloyd Carroll, bass guitarist Ed Redclift and drummer Dav ...

and

El Ligero Simon Musk (born 7 January 1985) is an English professional wrestler better known under his in-ring persona of masked Mexican luchador, El Ligero (or simply Ligero). He is most known for his time in WWE, on their NXT UK brand. Professional wre ...

(dressed as Kevin Owens and El Generico, respectively).

Fight Club: Pro (2015–2017)

Nixon Newell was the first woman to wrestle at Wolverhampton based promotion, Fight Club: Pro in 2015 where she competed in a 4-way match in the infinity tournament against Chris Brookes, Dan Moloney and

Eddie Dennis Edward Dennis (born 22 March 1986) is a Welsh professional wrestler, and former head teacher. He is most recently signed to WWE, where he performed in NXT UK under the name Eddie Dennis. Originally a mathematics teacher, Dennis retired from teac ...

. Due to Newell's departure to WWE, Fight Club: Pro honored her with a show named after her “First Female of Fight Club” where Nixon requested to face

Candice LeRae Candice LeRae Gargano (''née'' Dawson; born September 29, 1985) is an American professional wrestler currently signed to WWE, where she performs on the Raw brand. She is a former NXT Women's Tag Team Champion and was a member of The Way. LeRa ...

. This match ended after Newell hit LeRae with the Shiniest Wizard. Newell's final FCP match took place at Dream Tag Team Invitational (Night 1) where she was a surprise entrant in a 6-way match.

Progress Wrestling (2016)

Newell debuted for

on 28 August 2016, defeating

Alex Windsor Alice Olivia Walker better known by her ring name Alex Windsor is an English professional wrestler currently working as a freelancer and is best known for her time in Revolution Pro Wrestling, Pro-Wrestling: EVE and for her work in various prom ...

. On 27 November, she entered the Natural Progression Series IV Tournament (a single elimination tournament to crown the first ever Progress Women's Champion), defeating

Katey Harvey Katey is a given name, a variant spelling of Katie and Katy. Notable people with the name include: *Katey Martin (born 1985), New Zealand cricketer *Katey Sagal (born 1954), American actress *Katey Stone (born 1966), American college ice hockey c ...

in the first round.

Shimmer Women Athletes (2016)

Newell debuted for the American all-female promotion Shimmer Women Athletes at Volume 81, first losing to Veda Scott and then losing to

Nicole Matthews Lindsay Miller (born January 15, 1987) is a Canadian professional wrestler better known by her ring name Nicole Matthews. Matthews regularly wrestles for Shimmer Women Athletes and Elite Canadian Championship Wrestling among other independent p ...

the following day at Volume 82. At Volume 84, Newell picked up her first win in Shimmer, defeating Scott.

What Culture Pro Wrestling (2016–2017)

Newell debuted for What Culture Pro Wrestling (WCPW) on 27 July at Loaded #5, defeating Bea Priestley, but was defeated by Priestley the following day. On 24 August, Newell and Priestley faced off once again, this time in a last woman standing match to crown the first ever WCPW Women's Champion, won by Newell. On 13 February 2017, Newell lost the WCPW Women's Championship to Bea Priestley in a no disqualification match, ending her reign at 173 days.

World Wonder Ring Stardom (2017)

In January 2017, Newell embarked on her first tour of Japan, competing with the all-female promotion

Stardom ''Stardom'' is a 2000 Canadian comedy-drama film directed by Denys Arcand and written by J.Jacob Potashnik and Arcand. It stars Jessica Paré and Dan Aykroyd. It tells the story of a young girl who tries to cope with her rise to stardom after bei ...

. In her first match on the tour, she and Kay Lee Ray defeated Oedo Tai (

Kris Wolf Kris Hernandez (born August 12, 1984) is an American retired professional wrestler, best known by the ring name Kris Wolf. She wrestled for World Wonder Ring Stardom in Japan, where she is a former High Speed Champion, as well as a founding member ...

and Viper). On 29 January, Newell challenged

Kairi Hojo is a Japanese professional wrestler and actress currently working for New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and World Wonder Ring Stardom under the ring name Kairi (stylized in all caps). Housako is also known for her work with WWE as . She is the curr ...

for the Wonder of Stardom Championship, losing after a diving elbow from Hojo.

WWE

Mae Young Classic (2017–2018)

In April 2017, it was reported that Newell had signed a contract with

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vario ...

. It was reported that Newell was replaced in the WWE Mae Young Classic, because of tearing to her ACL before the tournament had even began. Newell returned to the ring on 13 April 2018, at an

NXT NXT may refer to: Professional wrestling * '' WWE NXT'', a professional wrestling television program produced by WWE that began in 2010 ** NXT (WWE brand), WWE's Florida-based brand and former developmental territory * '' NXT UK'', the British spi ...

live event, where she teamed up with Dakota Kai in a tag team match to defeat Reina González and

Vanessa Borne Danielle Sierra Kamela (born March 18, 1988) is an American professional wrestler and actress. She previously worked for WWE under the name Vanessa Borne. Early life Kamela was born to parents of Samoan, Polish, Chinese, German, and Irish descen ...

. After being announced as a competitor in the

2018 Mae Young Classic The 2018 Mae Young Classic was a multi-night special event and tournament promoted by the American professional wrestling promotion, WWE. It was the second Mae Young Classic tournament produced and was constituted by a 32-competitor tournament exc ...

, Newell entered the tournament on 8 August, under the ring name Tegan Nox, defeating Zatara. Nox returned the following day, defeating

in the second round before suffering another knee injury in her quarter-final match against Rhea Ripley. After the match premiered on the WWE Network, Nox posted on Twitter that she had suffered numerous injuries during the match, including: a torn ACL,

MCL The litre (international spelling) or liter (American English spelling) (SI symbols L and l, other symbol used: ℓ) is a metric unit of volume. It is equal to 1 cubic decimetre (dm3), 1000 cubic centimetres (cm3) or 0.001 cubic metre (m3) ...

, lateral collateral ligament,

meniscus Meniscus may refer to: *Meniscus (anatomy), crescent-shaped fibrocartilaginous structure that partly divides a joint cavity *Meniscus (liquid) The meniscus (plural: ''menisci'', from the Greek for "crescent") is the curve in the upper surface ...

, and

patellar dislocation A patellar dislocation is a knee injury in which the patella (kneecap) slips out of its normal position. Often the knee is partly bent, painful and swollen. The patella is also often felt and seen out of place. Complications may include a patella ...

NXT (2019–2021)

On 25 June 2019, Nox made her in-ring return at an NXT live event in Orlando, Florida. On 11 September, Nox made her '' NXT UK'' debut when she defeated Shax. Afterwards, Nox began a feud with

NXT UK Women's Champion The NXT UK Women's Championship was a women's professional wrestling championship that was created and promoted by the American promotion WWE. It was defended on the NXT UK brand division, a sister brand of WWE's developmental territory NXT base ...

Kay Lee Ray, resulting in a non-title match between the two on 3 October episode of ''NXT UK'', where Nox was unsuccessful. On 16 October, Nox returned to NXT, defeating Taynara. Thereafter, Nox began teaming with long-time friend Dakota Kai, with the two defeating

Jessamyn Duke Jessamyn Laurel Duke (born June 24, 1986) is an American professional wrestler and former mixed martial artist. As a wrestler, she worked with WWE as part of their NXT brand. She formerly competed for Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and Inv ...

and

Marina Shafir Marina Shafir (Moldovan Cyrillic: Марина Шафир; born 14 April 1988) is a Moldovan professional wrestler and former mixed martial artist currently signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). She formerly competed for Invicta Fighting Championsh ...

to become number one contenders to the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship on 23 October episode of ''NXT''. Nox and Kai would go on to lose their title match against The Kabuki Warriors (

Asuka Asuka may refer to: People * Asuka (name), a list of people * Asuka (wrestler), professional wrestler * Asuka (wrestler, born 1998), professional wrestler also known as Veny outside of Japan Places In Japan * , an area in Yamato Province (now N ...

and Kairi Sane) on 30 October episode of ''NXT''. Two days later on ''SmackDown'', Nox and Ripley were one of the many ''NXT'' wrestlers to invade the show, challenging Mandy Rose and

Sonya Deville Daria Rae Berenato (born September 24, 1993) is an American professional wrestler and mixed martial artist. She is currently signed to WWE where she performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring name Sonya Deville. She is also a former on-scree ...

to a tag-team match, which Nox and Ripley emerged victorious. Later that night, Nox joined

Triple H Paul Michael Levesque (born July 27, 1969), better known by the ring name Triple H, is an American business executive, actor, and retired professional wrestler currently serving as the chief content officer for WWE. He is widely regarded as on ...

and the rest of the NXT roster as they declared war on both

Raw Raw is an adjective usually describing: * Raw materials, basic materials from which products are manufactured or made * Raw food, uncooked food Raw or RAW may also refer to: Computing and electronics * .RAW, a proprietary mass spectrometry dat ...

and SmackDown, and vowed to win the Survivor Series brand warfare. Nox was chosen by Ripley to join her team as part of a women's WarGames match at NXT TakeOver: WarGames. At the event on 23 November, just before the match took place, Mia Yim was attacked backstage and unable to compete in the women's WarGames match, before her teammate Dakota Kai replaced Yim on Team Ripley. Ripley's team defeated Shayna Baszler's team, however Nox would not take part in the match after Kai turned on Team Ripley and attacked her. After a short hiatus due to a storyline injury, Nox returned on 15 January 2020 episode of ''NXT'', competing in a number one contendership battle royal for the NXT Women's Championship, where she was unsuccessful after Kai interfered and eliminated her. On 29 January episode of ''NXT'', Nox defeated Kai after using a knee brace following interference by

. On 16 February at NXT TakeOver: Portland, Nox lost to Kai in a street fight match after interference by the debuting Raquel González, formerly known as Reina González. On 4 March episode of ''NXT'', Nox lost to Kai again in a steel cage match, after González interfered. On 7 June at TakeOver: In Your House, Nox teamed up with Mia Yim and Shotzi Blackheart to defeat Kai, González and

in a six-woman tag team match. On 1 July episode of '' NXT The Great American Bash'', Nox defeated Kai, LeRae and Yim in a fatal four-way elimination match to become the number one contender for the NXT Women's Championship. On 15 July episode of ''NXT'', Nox was unsuccessful in her title match against defending champion Io Shirai. On 23 September episode of ''NXT'', LeRae viciously attacked her with a

steel pipe A pipe is a tubular section or hollow cylinder, usually but not necessarily of circular cross-section, used mainly to convey substances which can flow — liquids and gases (fluids), slurries, powders and masses of small solids. It ...

and LeRae ran a crate into her surgically repaired left knee, diasbling her to compete in a NXT Women's Championship #1 Contender's Battle Royal match. On 30 September, WWE announced that Nox had once again suffered a torn ACL and would be out of action for an indefinite amount of time. After a near ten-month absence, Nox returned on 6 July 2021 at

The Great American Bash The Great American Bash is a professional wrestling event currently produced by WWE, a professional wrestling promotion based in Connecticut. Created by Dusty Rhodes, the event was established in 1985 and was originally produced by the National Wr ...

, causing LeRae and Indi Hartwell to lose the NXT Women's Tag Team Championship to Io Shirai and Zoey Stark. After the match, Nox attacked LeRae.

Main roster (2021, 2022–present)

On 9 July episode of ''SmackDown'', Nox made her main roster debut teaming with Shotzi as Shotzi & Nox to defeat the WWE Women's Tag Team Champions, Natalya and

Tamina Sarona Moana Marie Reiher Snuka-Polamalu (born January 10, 1978) is an American professional wrestler. She is currently signed to WWE, where she performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Tamina. She is a one-time WWE Women's Tag Team Champ ...

in a non-title match. The two would then go on to defeat Natalya and Tamina in numerous tag team matches, but would never receive a championship match. As part of the 2021 Draft, Nox was drafted to the Raw brand while Shotzi remained on the

SmackDown brand SmackDown is a WWE brand extension, brand of the American professional wrestling promotion WWE that was established on March 25, 2002. Brands are divisions of WWE's roster where wrestlers are assigned to perform on a weekly basis when a brand ex ...

, thus ending the team. On 18 November, she was released from her WWE contract without ever appearing on ''Raw''. After a year, Newell returned to the WWE on 2 December 2022 episode of ''SmackDown,'' reprising her Tegan Nox character after rescuing Liv Morgan from an attack by

Damage CTRL Damage Control (stylized as Damage CTRL) is a villainous professional wrestling stable composed of leader Bayley, Dakota Kai, & Iyo Sky currently performing in WWE on the Raw brand. Kai and Sky are the current WWE Women's Tag Team Champions ...

( Bayley and the WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Dakota Kai and Iyo Sky). The following week on 9 December 2022 episode of ''SmackDown,'' Tegan Nox and Liv Morgan defeated Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler in a tag team match, earning them a shot at the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship. On 16 December 2022 episode of ''SmackDown,'' Nox and Morgan lost to Damage CTRL due to the interference of a masked stagehand later revealed on WWE's social media channels as

Xia Li Zhao Xia (; born July 28, 1988) is a Chinese-American Professional wrestling, professional wrestler. She is currently signed to WWE, where she performs on the SmackDown (WWE brand), SmackDown WWE brand extension, brand under the ring name Xia Li ...

Professional wrestling style and persona

Newell has stated her ring name "Tegan Nox" is a tribute to both her Welsh heritage and being a fan of the Harry Potter franchise. This also relates to her nickname: "The Girl with the Shiniest Wizard" – as she uses a step-up knee strike, commonly referred to as a shining wizard, as her finishing move. She has dubbed herself NXT's resident "Lady Kane"; a moniker that she gave herself in honor of her favorite WWE Superstar, Kane, as well as adopting his chokeslam finisher.

Other media

Newell made her

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

debut as a playable character in ''

WWE 2K22 ''WWE 2K22'' is a 2022 professional wrestling sports video games, sports video game developed by Visual Concepts and published by 2K Sports. It is the twenty-second overall installment of the video game series based on WWE, the ninth game under ...

''.

Personal life

Talking on WWE's online show ''The Bump'', Newell confirmed she is

bisexual Bisexuality is a romantic or sexual attraction or behavior toward both males and females, or to more than one gender. It may also be defined to include romantic or sexual attraction to people regardless of their sex or gender identity, whi ...

. Newell said, "For me, it's always been, like, not about gender. If someone makes me laugh and they make me feel good and they're nice people, I'm all for that. It doesn't matter if they're man, woman, it doesn't matter to me."

Championships and accomplishments

** Attack! 24/7 Championship (3 times) − by herself (2 times), with Lana Austin (1 time) ** Attack! Tag Team Championship (1 time) – with Mark Andrews * British Empire Wrestling ** British Empire Women's Championship (1 time) * DDT Pro-Wrestling ** Ironman Heavymetalweight Championship (

2 times "2 Times" is a song co-written and recorded by British Italian-based singer Ann Lee. It was released in 1999 as the lead single from her debut album, ''Dreams'' (1999). The single entered and peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart. Outside ...

) * '' Pro Wrestling Illustrated'' ** Ranked No. 26 of the top 100 female wrestlers in the ''

PWI Women's 100 ''Pro Wrestling Illustrated'' (''PWI'') is an American internationally sold professional wrestling magazine that was founded in 1979 by publisher Stanley Weston. ''PWI'' is headquartered in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania, and published by Kappa Publishi ...

'' in 2020 * Southside Wrestling Entertainment ** SWE Tag Team Championship (1 time) − with PJ Black ** Queen of Southside Championship (1 time) * What Culture Pro Wrestling ** WCPW Women's Championship (1 time)

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nox, Tegan 1994 births Bisexual sportspeople Bisexual women Expatriate professional wrestlers LGBT professional wrestlers LGBT sportspeople from Wales Living people People from Bargoed Welsh female professional wrestlers 21st-century professional wrestlers Ironman Heavymetalweight Champions