Major Update On The Status Of WWE NXT's Roxanne Perez

The current NXT Women's Champion's Stand & Deliver status has been uncertain.

Mar 21, 2023 March 21st, 2023

With it recently reported that Roxanne Perez has been dealing with a medical issue lately, there now comes an update on the current status of the NXT Women's Champion.

For those who missed it, the 7 March Roadblock episode of NXT saw Perez collapse after defeating Meiko Satomura in a fantastic match. From there, she would be put in an ambulance as paramedics and NXT personnel came to her assistance.

While all of this was scripted to happen, it was soon reported that this was done because Roxanne was dealing with a very real medical issue.

This issue threw up genuine doubt over the former Rok-C's status for the Stand & Deliver special event that's taking place during WrestleMania Weekend, which is why last week's NXT broadcast saw it stated how Perez may be stripped of the NXT Women's Title. As such, a four-person ladder match was announced for Stand & Deliver, with the Women's Championship on the line in that bout should Roxanne not be cleared to compete.

In an update on this, the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio (via WrestlingNews.co) had Dave Meltzer detail that whatever issue Perez was dealing with has now been dealt with. As such, Meltzer added that he expects the Prodigy to be reintroduced to NXT programming possibly as early as tonight.

Per Dave Meltzer:

"So, she is oaky, cleared, and will be worked back into storylines as soon as... I mean, probably starting on [tonight's] show. Somehow they're gonna get her back in the mix. Whatever the issue was, they got a good thing, a good report. It's not an injury, but it's just a situation that could have kept her out, and that's why they did the thing as kind of like a backup thing."

With Roxanne Perez seemingly now set to return to NXT TV, and with her now seemingly not to be stripped of the NXT Women's Championship, one has to wonder what this means for Stand & Deliver and the previously announced ladder match.

Of course, one possible direction for NXT could be to simply add Perez to that ladder contest as the defending NXT Women's Champion.

As of last week, Zoey Stark and Gigi Dolin have already qualified for this ladder match, with the final two spots to go to the winners of the Indi Hartwell vs. Tiffany Stratton and Lyra Valkyria vs. Ivy Nile bouts that will take place on tonight's NXT.

Andrew Pollard

Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.

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