Reviewing Mandy Rose's Return to NXT

A week removed from a memorable Great American Bash special, NXT featured three women's matches; one of them being Sarray facing off against Gigi Dolin. Sarray was originally supposed to face Toni Storm, but the announcement of Toni's promotion to SmackDown threw a proverbial monkey wrench into things. Gigi Dolin decided to step on and challenge Sarray, leading to the match taking place, but during their bout, everyone was surprised by sudden appearance of Mandy Rose, who was making her first appearance on NXT since late 2016.

Mandy Rose's career began on the latest edition of Tough Enough, which saw her finish in second place among female contestants. She was signed to a five-year contract later on, and made appearances on NXT in 2016, but on the day after Survivor Series in 2017, Mandy debuted as one-third of the villainous faction known as Absolution, which was led by Paige and also consisted of Sonya Deville. After Paige's injury-related retirement in January 2018, Mandy and Sonya were left to operate as a duo, later known as Fire and Desire. Mandy and Sonya gelled due to their real life friendship, as well as their personae; Mandy playing the seductive villainess while Sonya was the heavy hitter.

Fire and Desire lasted an additional two years until their split in early 2020, which saw Mandy and Sonya at odds due to the former's relationship with Otis. The split ended up turning Mandy babyface, and led to a singles match which saw Mandy victorious, with Sonya leaving SmackDown as part of the stipulation (Sonya would be repackaged in her current authority role in January 2021). Mandy was later moved to the Raw brand and had been teaming with Dana Brooke for the last year, which saw them come up short in their pursuits of the Women's Tag Team Championship.

Mandy Rose's return has many (myself included) asking a lot of questions. I myself wonder if Mandy turned heel in her return; she definitely gave a bit of a heel persona as she watched Gigi and Sarray's match. From what we've seen and read, this isn't a one-time appearance; Mandy's back for a long run in NXT, and from the looks of it, her first pursuit in her quest appears to be Sarray, who actually did give a shoutout to Mandy in her post-match interview. I do hope Mandy is a heel again, she's been a great villainess in the past, plus Mandy's never really had a proper heel turn in WWE. This might be the beginning of that.

Another question is, where does that leave Dana Brooke? With Mandy in NXT for a good bit, where does Dana go from here? Hopefully, Dana gets into a singles title picture (she's long overdue); that is, if she isn't following Mandy back to NXT. Other than observe Gigi and Sarray's match (which the latter won), Mandy appeared briefly in a backstage segment with Franky Monet, Jessi Kamea, and Robert Stone, after Aliyah attacked Stone and quit the brand in anger over their loss to Kacy Catanzaro and Kayden Carter. Upon seeing the three of them, Mandy commented that the brand was "under new management."

Mandy's return to NXT could see her get the elevation that she truly deserves. Big matches on the NXT program and at Takeover, and maybe, we could see Mandy become NXT Women's Champion. The next few weeks will be very interesting.

UPDATE: It turns out that Mandy's return to NXT was part of a trade between her and Aliyah, which will send Aliyah to the Raw roster after seven years on NXT. Very interesting development; not only could Mandy shine on NXT, but we could see big things from Aliyah on Raw as well!

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