All 12 WWE NXT Women's Champions Ranked Worst To Best
7. Raquel Gonzalez
Raquel Gonzalez needs an incredible amount of credit for the vast improvements she made during her time in NXT. Now on SmackDown as Raquel Rodriguez, she arrived as Dakota Kai's heavy after first appearing in both editions of the Mae Young Classic. After almost a year backing up the Captain of Team Kick, Raquel made a name for herself as she got the deciding pin inside WarGames, pinning champion Io Shirai. Big Mommy Cool would parlay this into a match at Takeover: Stand & Deliver, where she would win the NXT Women's Championship.
In her over five months as champion on NXT, Raquel would run through the women's division, defeating Mercedes Martinez, a returning Ember Moon, Xia Li, Franky Monet, and even survived being turned on by former partner Kai to retain her title. Leading the black and gold brand through the latter parts of the pandemic era of NXT is no small accomplishment, especially for someone like Raquel, who was experiencing her first taste of success in professional wrestling.
Her time on top would come to a crashing halt, as Mandy Rose would return to NXT and challenge for the title at Halloween Havoc. With the match seemingly in hand, Dakota Kai would re-emerge, whaling Raquel with a shovel, allowing Mandy to win the NXT Women's Championship and ending Raquel's reign at 201 days.