She is set for a major comeback after suffering a major setback.
In April of 2017, Nixon Newell signed her WWE contract at the age of 22 years-old. A few short months later prior to the inagural 'Mae Young Classic' tournament which she was scheduled to be a part of, she tore her ACL. The injury would sideline Newell for one year and she recently made her return to in-ring competition and made her in-ring debut for the company at an NXT Live event where she teamed with Dakota Kai on April 13th.
She has now taken up her birth name which is "Steffanie Newell" as her in-ring name and with that comes a fresh start in her wrestling career but first, she reflected on how the ACL tear came about while speaking with WWE.com.
"It happened during training. It was just a fluke accident. I was running a drill. My foot stayed perfectly forward, but my body turned the other way, and I dislocated my knee and tore my ACL at the same time. Luckily, as soon as I hit the mat, my knee popped back in, so it was one less thing I had to deal with. But it happened literally two or three weeks after I arrived at the WWE PC, so the timing was very inappropriate with the Mae Young Classic being so close as well. As soon as I hit the mat, I knew something was wrong and I knew deep down I was out of the Mae Young Classic. When I got injured, I was crying — not because of the pain, but because I knew I was out of the Mae Young."
The former 'British Empire' Women's Champion stated that she was given the green light to return two months ago and it was all leading up to her stepping back into the ring in front of a live crowd after working out and rehabbing her way back to what she loves.
"I want to say it was about two months ago. I was able to get in the ring with one-on-one sessions, doing cardio, and then eventually I was able to do some wrestling. Honestly, I was just so happy to even be in the ring and do rope running. I used to dislike doing cardio, but being able to do that just helped so much, mentally more than anything. It picked my spirits up knowing that I was in the home stretch. It was a very exciting time for me."
Steffanie Newell also went over the chant she received from fans when she returned, shared the support that she given from her family on her road to recovery, and more. To read the remainder of the interview with Steffanie Newell, click here.
