WWE used a new NXT teaser on NXT on CW this past Tuesday to introduce Chantel Monroe, and the short clip was enough to set off an immediate debate. Fans were quick to point to the name, the look and the presentation, which arrived with a mirror shot, close-up makeup shots and Monroe telling viewers to pay attention to her.
That reaction matters because Chantel Monroe is not a fresh name pulled from nowhere. She is the 26-year-old performer once known as Derrian Gobourne, who signed with WWE in 2022, began training after graduating from Auburn in 2023 and worked her first matches at NXT House Shows under her real name in 2024 before being renamed Chantel Monroe in 2025.
The comparison with Blake Monroe was hard to miss. Blake Monroe made her SmackDown debut in London back in June, while her first WWE match did not come until October after false starts against Giulia. Fans saw more than a passing resemblance between the two acts and took to social media to call it out, especially because Chantel Monroe did not shut down the idea that Blake Monroe had been an influence. The line she offered was simple: “Maybe Blake can ask Chantel.”
That leaves WWE with a familiar kind of rollout problem. Blake Monroe left NXT less than a full year ago, and the company has been moving talent from NXT to the main roster at a faster pace lately, while many of the details that defined Monroe’s NXT presentation were stripped away for her WWE run. If Chantel Monroe is headed for her own NXT debut soon, the question is whether the character can stand on its own once the teaser gives way to a full introduction, or whether the resemblance will define her before she ever wrestles a televised match.
