Tegan Nox: Facts About The Welsh Female Wrestler

Tegan Nox

Tegan Nox whose real name is Steffanie Rhiannon Newell is a Welsh professional wrestler. Stef Rhiannon Newell was the first-ever female wrestler at Wolverhampton-based promotion Fight Club: Pro in 2015. In this event, she battled her way in a 4-way match in the infinity tournament against Chris Brookes, Dan Moloney, and Eddie Dennis. In July 2014, Newell debuted for Attack! Pro Wrestling, competing three times on the same show. Firstly she battled and won fighting against Lana Austin and later in the evening teamed with Austin to join in a victory against Mark Andrews and Pete Dunne to win the Attack! 24/7 Championship for the second time in her career.  

The British wrestler 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). She also fought as Luchadora once again on 14 February, winning a special invitational scramble match. In January 2016, the British wrestler aligned herself with Mark Andrews, forming the extremely popular team known as Bayside High. Tegan Nox has an estimated net worth of $8 million dollars as of 2020 when she was just 25 years of age. 

Tegan Nox: Biography, Early Life, Career and More! 

Tegan Nox’s knee once exploded:

Tegan Nox injured her knee (she had a torn ACL) during her match in the Mae Young Classic after which Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque was very concerned about her. Even though a torn ACL is always a devastating injury for any type of sports player, it is especially tough on the wrestler since she suffered a torn ACL before the 2017 Mae Young Classic and during the 2018 Mae Young Classic.

Nox, who was born and brought up Bargoed in Wales, suffered a dislocated kneecap, several torn ligaments, a torn meniscus, bone contusions and a fracture in her left tibia.

The 23-year-old posted in a statement on Twitter said she “tried to push through the pain and finish the match” but it all got too much and the match was stopped”.

Fighting names:

The WWE wrestler is signed to the company and appears on their NXT brand under the ring name Tegan Nox.

Newell has explained her ring name “Tegan Nox”. According to her, it 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” – which she uses a step-up knee strike, most famously referred to as a shining wizard, one of her finishing moves.

The British wrestler also previously battled it out on the British independent circuit under the ring name Nixon Newell, most notably for promotions such as Attack! Pro Wrestling, Progress Wrestling, and Fight Club: Pro.  

Early life:

Tegan Nox was born as Steffanie Newell on the 15th of November 1994, in Bargoed, Rhymney Valley, Wales, United Kingdom. She’s currently 26 years old. Wales is 15 miles north of Cardiff. 

In her childhood days, Newell played football for a number of teams in her locality and at one point took part in trials for both Cardiff City and the Welsh national team. At the tender age of 13, she suffered a knee injury which would ultimately cost her a place on the Wales Under-16 team. Most interestingly, she suffered a knee injury fighting in the ring in 2018 during her match with Rhea Ripley. 

Coming back to her childhood, in particular her teens, Tegan Nox turned 16 and 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.

Not that long since quitting kicking her football, Tegan 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 go after her career wishes in professional wrestling was her main inspiration. 

Outside of kicking her football from one side to another, Tegan also played netball and tag rugby. In spite of kicking her football for the majority of her youth, Steffanie Newell aka Tegan Nox grew up as a fan of professional wrestling at a young age. As a child, she was introduced to it at the age of five and cites Molly Holly as her ultimate favourite female wrestler and dream opponent.

Personal life, Relationships:

Tegan Nox has largely opted to keep her early personal life away from the public but after joining the WWE, all of that faded away. She was open about being in a relationship with New Zealander professional wrestler Travis Banks. The pair’s relationship is said to have lasted for 8 months from October 2016 to June 2017. The relationship was not publicly announced but was understood through Travis’s tweets.

On July 10, 2020, Newell publicly announced that she is in a relationship with a woman named Sierra St. Pierre.

Confirming her relationships interests on WWE’s online show The Bump, Newell confirmed she is bisexual. 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.”

Career:

Who is Nixon Newell? Who is the Shiniest of Debuts?

Tegan Nox premiered her in-ring debut for Welsh Wrestling in 2013. Joining forces with Big Dog, Tegan (then known as Miss Ruby) defeated the team of Gordon Bennett and Pollyanna. The British wrestler’s first appearance outside of her training facility came for Britannia Wrestling Promotions. Tegan’s debut match was a three-way in Prestatyn, North Wales, where she and Porsche battled and lost to Lana Austin. BWP owner Steve Saxon spoke of Tegan’s early days of her career with the promotion saying: 

“I believe that Nixon’s first in-ring debut outside of her training facility was with Britannia Wrestling Promotions. She was part of a triple threat match with Lana Austin and Porsche in Prestatyn. Steph [Tegan] was an absolute delight to work with to have around the locker room. A literal ray of sunshine and happiness! She was a hard-working and forward-thinking talent from the moment we met in 2013, hence why she became a mainstay with Britannia for several years.” – Steve Saxon, Owner of BWP

Shortly after perfecting her craft in BWP, Tegan debuted for Birmingham-based promotion, ATTACK! Pro Wrestling in July of 2014. She went with the name Nixon Newell – by which she would become noticed with and also quickly establish herself as a favorite in the promotion.  

Tegan also befriended the likes of Pete Dunne, Chris Brookes and fellow Welshman, NXT UK’s Mark Andrews. The British pro-wrestler would go on to capture the ATTACK! 24:7 Championship three times (with Lana Austin on one occasion) and the ATTACK! Tag Team Trophy Championships with Mark Andrews – who was a group called the Bayside High.

When did Tegan Nox sign with the WWE?

From her ATTACK debut in 2014 to her signing for WWE in 2017, Tegan Nox was on the scene for numerous promotions. Tegan Nox fought in Fight Club: Pro and What Culture Pro Wrestling, where she was the inaugural WCPW Women’s Champion. The fighter even went east, having an excellent match with Kairi Hojo (WWE’s Kairi Sane) for the Wonder of Stardom Championship. Though she wouldn’t win the battle, she would be signed by WWE just three months later.  

In a time when wrestling in the UK was enduring something of a “boom” period, Nox was one of the standout women performers. In April 2017, the future wrestling star was clearly impressed, put pen-to-paper, and officially signed with World Wrestling Entertainment.

Mae Young Classic:

Upon signing for the WWE, she was quickly featured in the inaugural Mae Young Classic.  The tournament would be won by one-time foe, Kairi Sane. Suffering the most cruel of WWE stars, Tegan’s debut in the tournament was halted by a torn ACL in her right leg. Such an injury would mean that she would only return to the ring in 2018, where she would finally make her NXT debut.  Teaming with future rival to be, Dakota Kai, the Welsh wrestler would win in her debut match at an NXT live event.

Tegan would then enter the 2018 Mae Young Classic. It was here, of course, where heartbreak would strike once more. Battling against rival Rhea Ripley in the quarter-finals, Nox suffered another load of knee injuries – this time in her left leg. Both of her knees had sustained serious damage in the form of a torn MCL, ACL, lateral collateral ligament, meniscus, and patella dislocation. 

Suffering successive injuries in such a short space of time, Tegan has demonstrated that she is not only a great talent loaded with in-ring ability, but that she has a seriously strong mentality.

Tegan Nox and Dakota Kai:

With the determination to not let injuries get in the way of her goal, Tegan Nox would return almost a year later. This time, the female wrestler would be featured for NXT UK.  A failed attempt at the NXT UK Women’s Champion, Kay Lee Ray, would see her return to her rightful home – NXT.  She would quickly reunite with tag team partner, Dakota Kai, and would have a fierce go at the Kabuki Warriors‘ (Asuka and Kairi Sane’s) WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships.  Long-time foe and NXT Women’s Champion, Rhea Ripley, would pick Tegan to join her WarGames team at NXT TakeOver: WarGames.  This was to be Tegan’s biggest match to date.  Unfortunately, long-time partner, Dakota Kai, would turn on Tegan – beating her down and taking her out of the battle. 

January 2020 was Tegan’s last return where she was again attacked by Kai. The battle would grow nastier as the former best friends attempted to beat up each other week-after-week. Though Nox would be victorious over Kai on an episode of NXT, Kai would get the upper-hand at NXT TakeOver: Portland, with the help of a returning Raquel Gonzalez. Up until then and beyond, Nox has looked to the aid of Shotzi Blackheart in the war against Kai and Gonzalez. As the year goes on, this feud continues to excite with the girls gaining revenge over a former best friend.  

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *