WWE's Lyra Valkyria Will Face SmackDown Superstar for NXT Women's Title

WWE's Lyra Valkyria will face SmackDown's Shotzi for the NXT Women's Championship

By Matthew Aguilar

Lyra Valkyria was able to avoid a cash-in from Lola Vice at NXT Vengeance Day while also fending off Roxanne Perez, and in the end, would retain her NXT Women's Championship (with some key help from Tatum Paxley). It didn't take long for Valkyria to get her next challenger though, as her next Title defense was confirmed during tonight's episode of NXT. After some exchanges between Valkyria and Shotzi on social media, the two finally confronted each other backstage during tonight's episode, and Valkyria didn't shy away from Shotzi's challenge at all. Now the match is official, and the battle will go down next week.

Shotzi made it clear that she was interested in challenging Valkyria for the Title relatively quickly after Valkyria's victory at Vengeance Day, and the two have been going back and forth on social media ever since.

Tonight was their first head-to-head meeting though, which happened after Valkyria checked on Paxley after her match against Vice. Valkyria was concerned for her health, but during her check-in, Shotzi came backstage and the two got down to business. Valkyria said they could just stop talking on social and get to the issue at hand, and she accepted Shotzi's challenge for the Title. That will happen on next week's episode, and will no about involve Paxley in some way.

Paxley has been by Valkyria's side in one way or another over the past two months, and despite Valkyria asking her to stop helping, she's managed to do just that several times along the way. The latest example was Paxley getting involved in the match at Vengeance Day, where she broke up a pin attempt by Perez. That allowed Valkyria to focus on Vice and get the pin and the win, which led to an angered Perez.

Perez feels like she was robbed of her one-on-one match, while Vice is angry that Paxley interfered in the match and cost her the opportunity she was hoping to get when she cashed in that breakout women's tournament contract. Valkyria is still Champion and neither Perez nor Vice are happy, so it wouldn't be surprising to see either or both get involved with Valkyria's match against Shotzi.

Valkyria is looking to continue her successful Title reign by taking down a SmackDown superstar, while Shotzi is looking to get a run at a Title she never had a chance to hold during her time in NXT. Shotzi came close several times, but she was never able to become NXT Women's Champion during her previous run in NXT. If she were to pull it off here, she'd be doing what Becky Lynch was able to do last year, and that's certainly not bad company to be in.

Are you excited for Valkyria vs Shotzi? Let us know in the comments and as always you can talk all things wrestling with me on Threads @mattaguilarcb!

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