The #1 contender to the NXT Women’s Title looks back on her return.
This past Tuesday on NXT 2.0, a Battle Royal was held to determine the next challenger to Mandy Rose’s NXT Women’s Championship. Returning for the match was Zoey Stark, who won the Battle Royal and secured a title opportunity.
Stark had been sidelined since the fall of 2021 after undergoing surgery for an ACL and meniscus tear. Stark went live on Instagram with WWE Espanol and talked about the moment that was her return and what was going through her mind before walking through the curtain.
You know, I’m still on a high right now from Tuesday [her NXT 2.0 return]. It’s such a surreal moment. That’s a moment I’ll never forget for the rest of my life. I was not expecting the WWE universe to react in that way so when they did, that meant the world to me. I mean it was amazing. My physical therapist actually, she just sent me a video of how the crowd reacted and it’s so crazy to see the fans reacted that way to me. So mind-blowing. So it was amazing.
Just, I was sitting in Gorilla right before I went out and I’m just sitting there tapping my foot, so nervous and then as soon as the music hit and they went crazy, I couldn’t hold it anymore so I just rushed out there. I was like, oh! This feels so good to be back.
Stark continued and said she did not think the crowd would react to her in the manner that they did. Seeing as how she has not been featured on NXT 2.0 since the earlier days of the program, she was unsure if the crowd would remember her or not.
It is [a mix of emotions]. I’ve been gone for eight months and I only had two matches in NXT 2.0. Black and gold, I have had several but 2.0 since the change, I’ve only had two. So it’s a whole different vibe, whole new crowd, whole new feeling to everything so for me, I wasn’t sure if they would remember me or not to be completely honest so, as I’m sitting back there, so I’m like, all right, this is gonna go one of two ways. One way is they’re gonna be like, ‘Oh, okay’ or, they’re going to remember me from eight months ago which was amazing really. It’s everything that I’d ever hoped for so, I was nervous about that. That’s why I got so excited and rushed out there as soon as I heard them going. So I just feed off of the fans.
Later in the conversation, Stark was asked about the possibility of joining either Raw or SmackDown. If she had her pick, she would want to land on the Raw roster and explained why:
Mhm, that’s a tough one [would she rather land on SmackDown or Raw]. So I just wanna work with everybody on both brands. As of right now, I would say Raw. I wanna go up against Becky Lynch, you know? But I want all of ‘em. I want Becky Lynch, I want Bianca Belair, I want Charlotte Flair. So probably all of ‘em realistically. I can hang with all of ‘em, I know I can.
Mandy Rose versus Zoey Stark does not have an official date attached to it as of this writing. To hear a review of this week’s show, check out the upNXT folder here on POST Wrestling.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit El Brunch de WWE with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
