250 Days and Counting: Mandy Rose’s 'Toxic' Reign as NXT Women’s Champion Continues

The collective “gulp” the WWE Universe experiences when a dominant champion continues their reign after each passing successful title defense is a rite of passage as a fan. 

Wow, she’s unbeatable.

But when days and weeks turn into months and that champion keeps winning… and winning… and winning for more than 250 days?

The gulp becomes a gasp.

Oh no. There’s nobody who can take that title away from her. 

Mandy Rose has used many tools in her arsenal to amass several successful title defenses over the past 250 days. Whether it's her commanding in-ring presence, polished into a bravado that only could have been accomplished by spending many years on Monday Night Raw against the best Superstars in the world, or her remarkable moveset, highlighted by her devastating running knee finishing maneuver that could arguably knock out anyone on the WWE roster, she has all the tools required to be a dominant champion.

Oh, and being the leader of the infamous group known as "Toxic Attraction" doesn’t hurt your championship resume, either. After all, it’s always nice to have friends with bad attitudes watching your back.

But something strange happened on Tuesday night. 

In what was a momentous back-and-forth main event, Mandy Rose pinned Roxanne Perez after hitting her with that aforementioned running knee strike of hers. It was another successful NXT Women’s title defense for Rose, but interestingly, she didn’t have to reach into her bag of tricks this time around to notch the win.

The WWE Universe was stunned when, during the late stages of the match, Perez’s tag team partner Cora Jade – the same partner she holds the NXT Women’s Tag Team Championships with – blasted Perez in the back of the head with the championship belt, turning her back on all the hard work that went into capturing those titles just a week earlier.

There’s a lot to unpack here. 

Why did Jade do what she did? What will happen to the NXT Tag Team Championships? 

But perhaps most importantly — Now that Mandy Rose doesn’t even have to dig deep to win her championship matches with other Superstars besides Toxic Attraction leading her to victories… Who could possibly dethrone the reigning champion? 

She’s successfully defended her title against Superstars like Indi Hartwell, Cora Jade, Wendy Choo, Alba Fyre, Io Shirai, and, now, Roxanne Perez. That’s an impressive list by anybody’s account.

It’s been 250 long days of the most Toxic title reign in NXT history, and there’s no end in sight.

Or is there?

Like every good story, there are twists and turns, and late Wednesday night the NXT Universe just got handed its latest twist. It looks like Mandy Rose will be tested again sooner than we all thought. 

Next week on NXT 2.0, the WWE Universe is going to be treated to a 20-Woman Battle Royal to determine the top contender to Mandy Rose’s championship.

Talk about a can’t-miss episode of NXT 2.0. While the competitors in the Battle Royal are yet to be determined, one can only imagine the talent that will be competing inside of the ring, each Superstar vying for the opportunity to be next in line for the chance to knock Mandy Rose off her pedestal. 

Will we see a previous challenger emerge victorious, or will a Superstar who has been absent from the championship title scene step up? Does Mandy Rose’s lengthy title reign have an end date? Only time will tell.

But we can’t wait to tune in and find out what happens next.