NXT Reveals Io Shirai’s Next NXT Championship Challenger

Tonight was the introduction of NXT‘s Women’s Tag Team Championships, and the first-ever holders of the titles ended up being Raquel Gonzalez and Dakota Kai, who made their way through the gauntlet of the Women’s Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic and came out on top. They got their first-ever title challenge during tonight’s NXT, and well, it didn’t go as planned for them. There is a silver lining though for one of them, as NXT Women’s Champion Io Shirai approached Gonzalez in the locker room and made her an offer that she could not refuse, making Gonzalez her next challenger.

As you can imagine, Kai and Gonzalez were pretty dejected about the loss, and during an interview, they appeared agitated. Gonzalez said it didn’t matter if they held the titles for 15 minutes or 5 weeks, they were still the first-ever Women’s Tag Team Champions.

They were interrupted by NXT Women’s Champion Io Shirai, who had defeated her latest challenger Toni Storm in an epic match earlier in the night. Shirai approached Gonzalez and said “I want you next”, and Gonzalez was more than up to the challenge.

Gonzalez has delivered some fantastic matches over the past year or so both in singles and tag team competition. The singles side includes two fantastic matchups against Rhea Ripley, the last of which ended up being Ripley’s final NXT match (if she ever debuts on Raw that is).

A Gonzalez title shot seemed in the cards for a while now, but it seems it’s finally happening, and this could very well end up being the feud where Shirai loses the Championship and kicks off a new era in the NXT Women’s Division. Shirai has taken down every challenger thus far though, so we’ll just have to wait and see.

Here’s the official description for tonight’s NXT.

“Two massive title bouts are set to headline NXT this week! Finn Bálor will finally get his hands on Adam Cole as The Prince puts the NXT Championship on the line, and Toni Storm gets Io Shirai one on one for the NXT Women’s Title. NXT General Manager William Regal has also promised an announcement that will change the landscape of the black-and-gold brand and Kayden Carter will battle the ruthless Xia Li.”

Here’s the full card:

NXT Champion Finn Balor vs Adam Cole

NXT Women’s Champion Io Shirai vs Toni Storm

Kayden Carter vs Xia Li

NXT Women’s Tag Team Champions Raquel Gonzalez and Dakota Kai vs Ember Moon and Shotzi Blackheart

Are you excited for Shirai vs Gonzalez? Let us know in the comments or as always you can talk all things NXT with me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB!