It Finally Happened, Now What's Next for Evil Zaria (and Sol Ruca)?

Well, folks, the journey was a long one, but we finally got there. The tandem of Zaria and Sol Ruca, known as ZaRuca, finally split up in vicious fashion after many months of teased tension. The tandem started pairing up early last year, and they were so popular that many thought that they would be tag champs together, but that wouldn't happen. What did happen was Sol getting gold, and quite a bit of it, as she actually co-held the NXT Women's North American Championship and the Women's Speed Championship as well. Injuries forced Sol to surrender the latter, but the former was lost to Blake Monroe, who defeated Zaria (in Sol's place).

But if you ask Zaria, at least Sol had titles to lose.

Sol not only held two titles at once at one point, she was getting a lot of opportunities that Zaria wasn't getting. That was the source of the tension, and it rose following Sol's SNME appearance. Sol did go to bat for Zaria and boosted her up to challenge for the TNA Knockouts Championship, only to come up short. From that point on, the tensions increased big time, and Zaria stopped mincing words and voiced her desire to have something for herself. Their tag matches saw more in-fighting between them, and it included a tag team match against Wren Sinclair and Kendal Grey. The match had an odd stipulation: Whoever picks up the win for their team gets an NXT Women's Championship shot, and while the team known as "WrenQCC" remained in sync, ZaRuca definitely wasn't, especially since Zaria refused to tag out many times.

Sol picked up the win for the team, and that did it. We knew for months that Zaria wold turn on Sol. We stopped asking "When?" and "How?" and just expected it at any turn. During Sol's confrontation with Fatal Influence, Zaria entered with fire in her eyes and acted like she was going to go after Sol, but took out Lainey Reid instead. It still looked like all was well, but we knew better:

We all knew that the following week, February 24, would see it finally happen. ZaRuca came out together as Sol was set to challenge Jacy Jayne. The intros happened and then... Zaria attacked Sol! Now, let's get something straight; we all knew this would be the night, but I thought that we'd see the match take place in full, and then as Sol is closing in, then Zaria makes the attack. But while we fans were patient, Zaria wasn't, and Zaria decided to make her villainous turn right before the match officially started. This resulted in Jacy winning in mere seconds, and Zaria finished her attack afterwards, and was later shown demanding a title opportunity.

I have a theory, and it's one that every fan pretty much agrees with: this is a send-off for Sol, or at least the beginning of one. It's no secret that Sol will be off to the main roster at some point this year. So having Zaria deliver this beatdown will kick that off, and it will be followed by what should be a series of matches between these two. I think Zaria's opportunity will happen on the next NXT, but after that, there's Vengeance Day on March 7, a special Roadblock episode of NXT on March 31, and then Stand and Deliver on April 4. A fan created poster has Jacy, Zaria, and Sol in a Triple Threat for Vengeance Day, but that day should see the first of a trilogy of matches between the former partners. It wouldn't be best-of-three, but it would feel like it, and the logical route for this should end with the evil Zaria victorious in two of the three, with one of them being Stand and Deliver.

But I'm not done there. Zaria needs to be champion, that's been her villainous motive. An idea I had is that if Tatum Paxley dethrones Izzi Dame as Women's NA Champion, Zaria could go after Tatum and take that title for herself at some point in this calendar year. So there's the plan for Zaria, but I'm still not done, because I have a wild idea for Sol, and the more I think about it, the more I hope it happens:

I've read stories that Sol will get a character change. It could mean that Sol will be a more intense babyface, but that had others believing that Sol would get the heel turn against Zaria, which I would have loved, because both of them look like they'd be amazing villainesses. I think we'll see Sol being more intense, but I think we should see Sol turn heel by the end of the year, because I would love to see an evil Sol Ruca at one point. And if we do get evil Sol, I think that at some point, maybe by WrestleMania 43, Sol should deliver a sinister surprise... in the form of Zaria. ZaRuca being back together as villainesses at some point would be epic, they definitely have the look (as the photo of the pair in shades shows) and they have the attitude as well!

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The sky is definitely the limit not only for Zaria as an NXT villainess, but for Sol Ruca as well when she makes her inevitable leap to the main roster. I truly think the next month or so on NXT will be amazing for both women, and I'm definitely excited to see the mayhem that Zaria and Sol will dish out towards each other!