Kiana James' Road to Becoming #1 Contender

The latest edition of NXT was main evented by a Fatal Four Way to determine the #1 Contender for the NXT Women's Championship, and the combatants were Gigi Dolin, Kiana James, Blair Davenport, and former champion Roxanne Perez, with the bout being just a week in the making after all four women confronted the reigning champion, Tiffany Stratton. The bout was hotly contested and actually combined two feuds in NXT's Women's Division, as Kiana was feuding with Gigi, while Roxanne and Blair had a heated feud after the latter was revealed as the mysterious villainess behind a series of attacks on NXT's Women's Division, including Roxanne.

Roxanne won her grudge match against Blair, and with her new tougher exterior, I figured that she would emerge victorious in this main event. However, to my surprise, the winner of the Fatal Four Way was none other than Kiana James, which had to be the biggest win in her budding WWE career. Let's take a look at Kiana's road to this point, shall we?

Kiana James' WWE career began as one of the many women who participated in the NXT Women's Breakout Tournament, which would see Kiana take on the role of an evil businesswoman, with all sorts of degrees and a ruthless nature. We would see Kiana antagonize several women with her gimmick, but her main nemesis was Fallon Henley, and the reason was simple, Kiana had her sights set on buying Fallon's bar. Fallon wasn't selling, and their feud would have an interesting wrinkle involved: Brooks Jensen, one half of Briggs and Jensen (who Fallon was managing), had a thing for Kiana.

The "Battle for the Bar" didn't last too long, as Fallon won an important match against Kiana to keep her bar, but later on, the two rivals ended up being tag team partners. Even crazier, the pair became NXT Women's Tag Team Champions, defeating Katana Chance and Kayden Carter for the titles, with Kiana using villainous methods to win. Also, things between Kiana and Jensen were getting much more romantic, much to Fallon's dismay, as she couldn't trust her Tag Team Championship partner as far as she could throw her. There was even suspicion, and later some evidence, that Kiana was cheating on Jensen, though Kiana, being the sly businesswoman she is, talked her way out of that situation.

The pair ended up losing the tag titles to Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn at NXT Stand and Deliver, and this bout saw Kiana attempt to convince Jensen to help her cheat, but he refused to do so. So Kiana and Fallon were no longer champions, and when we would see Kiana again, she had done the unthinkable, yet expected: she had corrupted Jensen. For months, Kiana had Jensen nose so wide open that Sidney Crosby could score a hat trick in it, and after the tag titles were lost, Kiana blamed Jensen for the loss, and that led to Jensen becoming everything that Kiana molded him to be. My goodness. So we actually had Briggs and Jensen as opponents in a mixed tag bout, and Kiana & Jensen lost that bout to Briggs & Fallon. After the match, an exasperated Kiana told us what we already knew: she was using Jensen and cheating on him. Shocker.

I really did love that whole angle; it was Kiana's first big storyline and it led to her becoming champion for the first time. Of course, after that ended, Kiana's aforementioned feud with Gigi Dolin occurred, and it's followed by Kiana big win on the latest edition of NXT. The interesting thing about this is that it's heel vs heel, as we are seeing evil businesswoman Kiana against spoiled princess Tiffany Stratton. The title contest will take place on the next episode of NXT, and chances are, Tiffany will retain. However, it would really be something if Kiana took the title, because we could see her and Gigi's feud have something at stake. Or, should Kiana win, she could resurrect her past rivalry with Fallon Henley. As a big fan of Kiana James, I'm elated that she's getting a big time title opportunity, and here's hoping this leads to a higher elevation down the line.