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Savelina Fanene (born May 29, 1984) is an Australian American professional wrestler. She is signed to WWE where she performs on the SmackDown brand under the ring name Nia Jax ( ).
Fanene signed to WWE in early 2014 and was first assigned to the developmental brand NXT. She debuted in May 2015 under the ring name Zada, which was changed to Nia Jax in August that year. As part of the 2016 WWE Draft, she was promoted to the main roster. Fanene was released from her WWE contract in November 2021, but after a brief appearance at the Royal Rumble in January 2023, she re-signed with the company, making her return in September.
After a series of introductory vignettes throughout September, Jax made her debut on October 14 episode of NXT defeating Dakota Kai in a singles match. Following her debut, she was shown slowly turning heel while going on a winning streak, defeating various enhancement talents and WWE Diva Carmella. In November, Jax formed an alliance with Eva Marie and started her first feud with Bayley over the NXT Women's Championship, cementing her heel status. Jax earned a title match on December 16 at , yet she was unsuccessful in winning the title.
On the January 27, 2016, episode of NXT, Jax returned to the ring after a month of inactivity due to a Kayfabe injury with a win over Liv Morgan. On the February 10 episode of NXT, Jax assisted Marie in an attack on Bayley and Carmella after their championship match until Asuka made the save that led to a tag team match on the February 24 episode of NXT where Jax and Marie scored the victory. On the May 25 episode of NXT, Jax won a triple threat match over Alexa Bliss and Carmella to become the number one contender to Asuka's NXT Women's Championship. On June 8, Jax lost her title match at . On July 20 episode of NXT, Jax was defeated by Bayley. On December 28 episode of NXT, Jax lost to Asuka for the NXT Women's Championship in her last match in NXT.
In December, Jax started a feud with her mentor Sasha Banks, whom she injured as part of the storyline. This led to two matches between the two, where Jax was first victorious at the Royal Rumble pre-show on January 29, 2017, but lost on March 5 at Fastlane. On April 3 at WrestleMania 33, Jax competed in a fatal four-way elimination match against Banks, Bayley and Charlotte Flair for the Raw Women's Championship, but she was eliminated first. On the June 26 episode of Raw, Jax competed in a gauntlet match to determine a number one contender for Alexa Bliss's Raw Women's Championship, eliminating Bayley, Mickie James, Dana Brooke and Emma consecutively before being defeated by Banks. On September 24 at No Mercy, Jax took part of a fatal five-way match for the Raw Women's Championship, but she failed to win the title. On November 19 at Survivor Series, Jax once again was a part of Team Raw in a five-on-five elimination tag team match from which she was eliminated by countout.
Starting from December 4 episode of Raw, Jax was placed in an on-screen relationship with then WWE Cruiserweight Champion Enzo Amore, which was dropped when Amore was released from the WWE in January 2018. On January 28 at the Royal Rumble, Jax participated in the first women's royal rumble match where she entered at number 22 and eliminated Jacqueline Moore, Kelly Kelly, Ruby Riott and Naomi before being eliminated by six women. Throughout January and February, Jax started a feud with the undefeated Asuka, whom she failed to defeat on February 25 at Elimination Chamber and a week later on Raw.
After a short hiatus due to a minor injury, Jax returned on the September 17 episode of Raw as the mystery tag team partner of Ember Moon, with the two going on to defeat Alicia Fox and Mickie James. One month later, on October 28, at the WWE Evolution pay-per-view, Jax eliminated Moon as she won a battle royal to earn a future women's championship match. On the November 5 episode of Raw, shortly after defeating Moon in a singles match, Jax once again turned heel as she aligned herself with Tamina (with whom she had multiple confrontations the past few weeks, forming the Samoan Slaughterhouse) and attacked Moon. On November 18, at Survivor Series, Jax was the sole survivor for Team Raw against Team SmackDown in an interbrand women's traditional five-on-five tag team elimination match. The following month, on December 16, at the event, Jax failed to regain the Raw Women's Championship from Rousey.
On January 27, 2019, at the Royal Rumble event, Jax competed in the women's Royal Rumble match, entering at number 29 and lasting for over 11 minutes before she herself was eliminated by the eventual winner Becky Lynch. Later that night, Jax made history as she became the first person to ever compete in two Royal Rumble matches on the same night and the fourth woman to ever compete in a men's Royal Rumble match, after she attacked R-Truth and took his number 30 spot. Despite eliminating Mustafa Ali, Jax was ganged up by Dolph Ziggler, Rey Mysterio and Randy Orton with their finishers, before being eliminated by Mysterio. On February 17, 2019, Jax and Tamina competed in a six-team Elimination Chamber match at the namesake pay-per-view to determine the inaugural holders of the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship, where they eliminated two teams before they themselves were eliminated. In April, at WrestleMania 35, Jax and Tamina took part of a fatal four-way match for the Women's Tag Team Championship, however, the match was won by The IIconics (Billie Kay and Peyton Royce). Shortly after, Jax underwent surgery to repair tears on the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in both of her knees, which was expected to sideline her from in-ring competition for at least nine months.
In August, she was paired with Shayna Baszler, defeating the WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Bayley and Sasha Banks at Payback to win the title. They lost the title at against the team of Asuka and Charlotte Flair. At Royal Rumble on January 31, 2021, Baszler and Jax defeated Asuka and Flair to become record-tying two-time WWE Women's Tag Team Champions. During their second reign as tag team champions, they had simultaneous feuds with the teams of Naomi and Lana, Mandy Rose and Dana Brooke, and Natalya and Tamina. They defended the title against all of them on different occasions but were victorious in every bout.
At WrestleMania 37, Jax and Baszler retained the tag team championship against Natalya and Tamina. On the May 14 episode of SmackDown, they lost the title to Natalya and Tamina, ending their second reign at 103 days. On the September 20 episode of Raw, Jax's alliance with Shayna Baszler ended when her partner attacked her. After the team disbanded, she asked WWE for time off to take care of her mental health, but on November 4, Jax was released from her WWE contract.
Over the next few months, Jax went on a winning streak, defeating Baszler, Rodriguez, and Stark in several matches. Jax reignited her feud with Becky Lynch, culminating in a match at Day 1 where Jax was victorious. At the Royal Rumble on January 27, Jax entered the women's Royal Rumble match at #19, scoring a record-tying eight eliminations before being eliminated by the debuting Jade Cargill. After the Royal Rumble, Jax continued feuding with Ripley, culminating in a title match in the main event of , but Jax failed to win the title from Ripley.
Jax received increasing criticism over the years for reports of her being an "unsafe worker". In November 2018, she accidentally punched Becky Lynch in the face during an episode of Raw and gave Lynch a broken nose, lacerated face, and concussion. In May 2020, Kairi Sane suffered a cut on her head during a match against Jax after Jax threw her onto the ringside steel steps. Wrestling promoter and manager Jim Cornette attributed incidents involving Jax to her size, often mockingly referring to her as "Refrigerator Jax", and suggested that she "can hurt people whether she knows it or not", while fellow professional wrestler Deonna Purrazzo stated that she had "never walked away hurt" after wrestling Jax.
In July 2017, Jax joined the cast of the reality television series Total Divas beginning in its seventh season.
In August 2017, rapper Magneto Dayo released a song dedicated to her titled "Nia Jax".
| +Television !Year !Title !Role !Notes | |||
| 2017-2019 | Total Divas | Herself | Main cast: 32 episodes |
| 2020 | Fight Like a Girl | Herself | Episode: “Nia Jax and Adriana” |
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