.jpg) Newell in November 2016 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | Steffanie Newell (1994-11-15)15 November 1994 (age 31) Bargoed, Wales |
| Professional wrestling career | |
| Ring name(s) | Luchadora the Explorer Nixon Newell Steffanie Newell Tegan Nox |
| Billed height | 5 ft 6 in (168 cm)[1] |
| Billed from | Welsh Valleys[1] |
| Trained by | Dave Stewart Wild Boar WWE Performance Center |
| Debut | 2013 |
Steffanie Newell (born 15 November 1994) is a Welshprofessional wrestler. She makes appearances on theindependent circuit under thering nameNixon Newell.[2] She is best known for her time inWWE, where she performed under the ring nameTegan Nox. She has also appeared for promotions such asAll Elite Wrestling,Attack! Pro Wrestling, andProgress Wrestling.
Steffanie Newell[3] was born inBargoed on 15 November 1994. Despite playing football for the majority of her youth, she grew up as a fan of professional wrestling after being introduced to it at the age of five, and has citedMolly Holly as her favourite female wrestler and dream opponent.[4][unreliable source?] As a youth, she playedfootball for a number of teams in her area. At one point, she took part in trials for bothCardiff City FC and theWelsh women's national football team. She also played netball andtag rugby. At age 13, she suffered a knee injury which would ultimately cost her a place on the Welsh Under-16 team. When she finally turned 16, she gave up football and planned to take a long hiatus from all sports, citing her knee injury and a lack of passion for the sport. Shortly after, she found a professional wrestling school inPort Talbot and began training under Dave Stewart andWild Boar. She has said that the encouragement of her late grandfather become a professional wrestler was her main inspiration.
Newell made a one-time appearance withTotal Nonstop Action Wrestling at itspay-per-view eventSlammiversary XI as a fan under her real name. She won an all expenses paid trip viaChallenge TV. Newell was interviewed bySoCal Val.
Newell debuted forAttack! Pro Wrestling in July 2014, competing three times on the same show. Firstly, she defeated Lana Austin and later in the evening teamed with Austin to defeatMark Andrews andPete 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 in a handicap match.[5] She debuted her Luchadora the Explorer character on 24 January 2015, teaming with Brookes in a loss to The Anti-Fun Police (Damian Dunne and Ryan Smile).[6] She competed as Luchadora once again on 14 February, winning a special invitational scramble match.[7] 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 (Chris Brookes andKid Lykos).[8] Two days later on 3 April, Bayside High became the new Attack: Pro! Tag Team Champions, defeating #CCK.[9] The duo retained the titles until August, when they lost them back to #CCK in aTLC match.[10] In late-2016, Newell turned into avillainess, abandoning Bayside High and aligning herself with Pete Dunne. In their first match together, Dunne and Newell (dressed as theSuicide Squad iterations ofThe Joker andHarley Quinn, respectively) defeated Martin Kirby andEl Ligero (dressed asKevin OwensandEl Generico, respectively).[11]
Newell debuted for the American all-female promotionShimmer Women Athletes at Volume 81 in June 2016, first losing toVeda Scott[12] and then losing toNicole Matthews the following day at Volume 82.[13] At Volume 84, Newell picked up her first win in Shimmer, defeating Scott.[14]
Newell debuted forProgress Wrestling on 28 August 2016, defeatingAlex Windsor.[15] On 27 November, she entered the Natural Progression Series IV Tournament (a single elimination tournament to crown the first everProgress Women's Champion), defeating Katey Harvey in the first round.[16]
In January 2017, Newell embarked on her first tour of Japan, competing with the all-female promotionWorld Wonder Ring Stardom. In her first match on the tour, she andKay Lee Ray defeated Oedo Tai (Kris Wolf andViper).[17] On 29 January, Newell challengedKairi Hojo for theWonder of Stardom Championship, losing after a diving elbow from Hojo.[18]
In April 2017, it was reported that Newell had signed a contract withWWE.[19] It was reported that Newell was replaced in the WWEMae Young Classic, because of suffering atorn anterior cruciate ligament before the tournament had even began.
Newell returned to the ring on 13 April 2018, at anNXTlive event, where she teamed up withDakota Kai in a tag team match to defeatReina González andVanessa Borne.[20][unreliable source?] After being announced as a competitor in the2018 Mae Young Classic, Newell entered the tournament on 8 August, under the ring name "Tegan Nox",[21] defeating Zatara. Nox returned the following day, defeatingNicole Matthews in the second round before suffering another knee injury in her quarter-final match againstRhea Ripley. After the match premiered on theWWE Network, Nox posted on Twitter that she had suffered numerous injuries during the match, including: a torn ACL,medial collateral ligament,lateral collateral ligament,meniscus, andpatellar dislocation.[22]
On 25 June 2019, Nox made her in-ring return at an NXT live event inOrlando, Florida.[23] On 11 September, Nox made herNXT UK debut when she defeated Shax.[24] Afterwards, Nox began a feud withNXT UK Women's ChampionKay Lee Ray, resulting in a non-title match between the two on 3 October episode ofNXT UK, where Nox was unsuccessful.[25] On 16 October, Nox returned to NXT, defeatingTaynara.[26] Thereafter, Nox began teaming with long-time friend Dakota Kai, with the two defeatingJessamyn Duke andMarina Shafir to become number one contenders to theWWE Women's Tag Team Championship on 23 October episode ofNXT.[27] Nox and Kai would go on to lose their title match against The Kabuki Warriors (Asuka andKairi Sane) on 30 October episode ofNXT.[28] Two days later onSmackDown, Nox and Ripley were one of the manyNXT wrestlers to invade the show, challengingMandy Rose andSonya Deville to a tag-team match, which Nox and Ripley emerged victorious. Later that night, Nox joinedTriple H and the rest of the NXT roster as they declared war on bothRaw andSmackDown, and vowed to win theSurvivor Series brand warfare.[29][30] Nox was chosen by Ripley to join her team as part of a women'sWarGames match atNXT 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 defeatedShayna Baszler's team, however Nox would not take part in the match after Kai turned on Team Ripley and attacked her. Nox had a title match for theNXT Women's Championship on 15 July episode ofNXT, but was defeated byIo Shirai. 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.[31]
After a near ten-month absence, Nox returned on 6 July 2021 atThe Great American Bash, causing LeRae andIndi Hartwell to lose theNXT Women's Tag Team Championship.[32]
On 9 July 2021 episode ofSmackDown, Nox made her main roster debut teaming with Shotzi as Shotzi & Nox to defeat theWWE Women's Tag Team Champions,Natalya andTamina in a non-title match.[33] 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 the2021 Draft, Nox was drafted to theRawbrand while Shotzi remained on theSmackDown brand, thus ending the team.[34][35] On 18 November, she was released from her WWE contract without ever appearing onRaw.[36]
After a year, Nox returned to WWE on 2 December 2022 episode ofSmackDown, rescuingLiv Morgan from an attack byDamage CTRL (Bayley, Dakota Kai andIyo Sky).[37][38] On 16 December episode ofSmackDown, Nox and Morgan lost to Damage CTRL for the Women's Tag Team Championship.[38][39] As part of the2023 WWE Draft, Nox was drafted to theRaw brand.[40] On 25 September episode ofRaw, Nox picked up a victory over Natalya to receive aNXT Women's Championship match againstBecky Lynch. Two weeks later onRaw, Nox unsuccessfully challenged Lynch for the title.[41] In the weeks to follow, Nox would form an alliance with Natalya. This alliance would result in Nox defeating both Women's Tag Team ChampionsChelsea Green andPiper Niven in singles matches. On 20 November episode ofRaw, Nox and Natalya won a fatal 4-way tag team match to receive a Women's Tag Team Championship opportunity.[42] The following week onRaw, Nox and Natalya would challenge for the titles in a losing effort.[43]On 27 January 2024 at the2024 Royal Rumble, Nox entered in her third women'sRoyal Rumble match at number 12, eliminating Natalya before being eliminated by Bayley. During the2024 WWE Draft, Nox was drafted back to the SmackDown brand.[citation needed] On 1 November, Nox was released from WWE for a second time.
On 6 November 2024, it was announced that Newell would make her return to Attack! Pro Wrestling on 14 and 15 December, but her appearance was cancelled.[44][45] She made her official independent return for Attack! Pro Wrestling on 1 March for their 'Press Start 8' event.
Newell, alongside Miranda Alize, made herAll Elite Wrestling (AEW) debut, during the 25 October 2025 episode ofCollision, interrupting TayJay (Anna Jay andTay Melo) during their backstage interview.[46] Their in-ring debut took place on 1 November edition of the show, where they were defeated byMegan Bayne andMarina Shafir in a match lasting under three minutes.
On 8 November, it was reported by Mike Johnson ofPWInsider that Newell and Alize refused to perform in a scheduled match on that day's taping ofCollision and walked out. According to the report, the duo were booked to lose to TayJay, but Newell and Alize allegedly objected to the booking, stating they did not want to take another loss after losing their debut match the prior week and left the venue an hour before the match was scheduled to start.[47] On a livestream on 9 November, Newell and Alize denied that they refused to lose to TayJay and that their frustration was that the match was only going to be three minutes.[48]
Newell has stated her former ring name "Tegan Nox" is a tribute to both her Welsh heritage and being a fan of theHarry 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 ashining wizard, as her finishing move.[49] 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 hischokeslam finisher.[50][51]
Newell (as Tegan Nox) is a playable character inWWE 2K22,WWE 2K24, andWWE 2K25.[52]
Newell isbisexual and has citedCaptain Marvel as her inspiration forcoming out.[53] She is in a relationship with American fellow wrestler Miranda Alize, with whom she performs in a tag team.[54]
,Cagematch,Wrestlingdata,Internet Wrestling Database