Photo: TNA's Jordynne Grace Shows Off Nasty Injury From WWE NXT Battleground

As many sports movies over the years have stated, there is no glory without a little bit of pain involved. As TNA Knockouts Champion, Jordynne Grace is already well aware of that cliche, but in case she needed a reminder, she got a strong one last night at NXT Battleground when challenging Roxanne Perez for the NXT Women's Championship.

Taking to X shortly after her match with Perez wrapped up, Grace posted a graphic photo of her right ear, revealing a piece of her earlobe was missing following her ear piercing being torn off during the match. Grace made the sad announcement that, following the incident, she would be retiring from wearing ear piercings during her matches, despite having safely done so during her career before last night's bout.

Very sad to announce that after many years of unproblematic, diligent work, my ear piercings will now retire from in-ring action. pic.twitter.com/QjeoUUfsaH

— Jordynne Grace (@JordynneGrace) June 10, 2024

Fans who were watching Battleground believe that Grace suffered the minor injury by fluke, when her ear got caught on Perez's gear. Even still, Grace powered through the pain and continued wrestling, ultimately coming up short after Perez hit Grace with the Pop Rox to retain the championship. Grace's loss came even despite an assist from co-worker Ash By Elegance, aka former WWE star Dana Brooke, who interfered during the match to prevent Tatum Paxley from stealing the NXT Women's Championship belt.

Despite the loss, it was still a positive night for TNA, who had a presence offscreen separate from Grace and Ash's appearances. TNA Hall of Famer, Knockouts legend, and former WWE star Gail Kim was spotted backstage watching Grace's match, alongside TNA President Anthony Cicione and Executive Producer Ariel Schnerer. Meanwhile, Grace's husband and TNA star Jonathan Gresham was also on hand, even taking a moment to pose with members of the roster.

With Battleground now in the rear view mirror, the question has become what's next for the budding partnership between WWE and TNA, which had its roots back at this year's Royal Rumble, where Grace was an entrant in the women's Rumble match. Those backstage in "NXT" have expressed interest in Grace and other TNA talents continuing to appear on WWE's third brand, while Perez noted that she would be interested in wrestling Grace on TNA's "Impact" programming. At this time, however, there is nothing set in stone regarding the next step in the promotion's working relationship.

While Grace vs. Perez was one of the biggest talking points surrounding Battleground, the show had plenty of happenings outside of that, opening with a ladder match to crown the first ever NXT Women's North American Champion. Kelani Jordan was the one to make history, outlasting Fallon Henley, Jaida Parker, Michin, Lash Legend, and Sol Ruca to capture the gold. Becoming inaugural Women's North American Champion is the first milestone in Jordan's career, which only began in October 2022, and occurred with Jordan still 37 matches away from wrestling the 100th match of her career.

Elsewhere, Nathan Frazer and Axiom continued their run as NXT Tag Team Champions, successfully defending against Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows, while Shayna Baszler fell to Lola Vice in an NXT Underground match. In the other two big championship matches of the evening, Oba Femi continued his dominant run as NXT North American Champion, retaining against Wes Lee and Joe Coffey in a three way match, while Ethan Page was unable to capture the NXT Championship his first night in, falling to defending champion Trick Williams. The win was Williams' first successful title defense since winning the championship back in April, finally overcoming rival Ilja Dragunov to do so.