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What is Tian Sha? New Faction Debuts on WWE NXT

Published 04/01/2021, 8:00 AM EDT

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With NXT Takeover: Stand and Deliver one week away, a brand new faction made their presence felt. The Boa and Xia Li duo added a new member to create a faction known as Tian Sha. While we all thought Tian Sha was the name of the spooky character Boa and Xia Li teased, it’s actually the name of the faction.

Tian Sha debuts on NXT

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On NXT, Xia Li and Mei Ying, the spooky character who the duo has been teasing for a while, faced Kayden Carter and Kacy Catanzaro. Instead of a genuine tag team match, this match resembled a two-on-one handicap match, as Mei Ying did not even ascend from her throne.

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Xia Li put on an impressive display, but the numbers game caught up to her and the babyfaces gained control. However, Kayden Carter made the stupid mistake of taunting Mei Ying, who knocked her out in the most eerie way.

Ying grabbed Carter by the throat and blew some sort of smoke/mist in Kayden’s face, rendering her unconscious. With her partner lying at the feet of Mei Ying, Kacy fell prey to the hungry Xia Li, who flattened her with a knee strike and a spinning kick to the face.

This was a terrifying introduction to the WWE Universe for Mei Ying and the Tian Sha faction. Let’s see if this gold gimmick earns this group some championship gold as well.

Who are the members of Tian Sha?

Tian Sha comprises three Chinese wrestlers who arrived at the WWE Performance Center at different points in time. Boa, the manager of Xia Li, is a wrestler who arrived in NXT in 2017. Former British wrestling legend Robbie Brookside trained Boa in the Performance Center.

He debuted in the NXT Breakout Star tournament where he lost in the opening round to eventual winner Jordan Myles [ACH]. He’s only competed in squash matches after that against Damian Priest, Killian Dain, and Cameron Grimes.

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Xia Li joined the Performance Center and debuted in the Mae Young Classic. In the tournament, she defeated Karen Q (more on her later) in the first round but lost to former NXT talent Deonna Purrazzo in the second round.

Li has also entered the Royal Rumble match, but her current NXT run promises big things for her.

Finally, we come to the mysterious Mei Ying, and we aren’t talking about the girl from Karate Kid. Chinese wrestler Karen Q portrays Mei Ying.

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She’s previously wrestled in ROH and IMPACT before arriving in the Performance Center in 2018. She competed in the 2018 Mae Young Classic and has made several live event appearances before becoming Mei Ying.

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Written by:

Nathan Fulgado

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Nathan Fulgado is a WWE and AEW author at EssentiallySports. Having published close to 1000 professional wrestling articles, Nathan is currently pursuing his Journalism degree from Xavier's College. He has previously worked at Free Press Journal as a local journalist.
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