Sol Ruca and Zaria.
They were the best of friends, they were the worst of friends. As their in-ring promo segment crashed and burned on NXT TV this week, it became abundantly clear that nobody in NXT creative and WWE actually knows what a real friend is.
Let me explain … er, rant.
Ruca and Zaria began their tag team together in December of 2024. I’ll give you a second to pick your jaw up off the floor and yes, their story has been going on for over a year.
They were the traditional oddball tag team pairing. On one side you had Zaria — the muscled up monster with a hard exterior, but a heart of gold. On the other? It was Ruca, the laid-back surfer girl with high-flying moves determined to break through the hard exterior of her partner.
From The Takedown on SI
As partners, they got to know each other and became friends. The NXT audience was treated to matches, special vignettes, and many backstage skits that existed to tell the tale of Zaria and Ruca, or what became known as ZaRuca. They were the NXT tag team of the year in 2025.
The wheels came off in 2026.
Along the way, Zaria cost Ruca singles gold in NXT. Disdain grew between them because of opportunities that Ruca received, but Zaria didn’t. Tension simmered. Zaria felt slighted. Ruca didn’t understand why Zaria felt the way she did. Communication was poor and finally, Zaria had enough, turned on Ruca, cost her more gold in NXT, and left her laying in a heap in the ring.
Long-term storytelling
It’s WWE storytelling at it’s finest, right? Thins continued, Zaria and Ruca were on the outs, but involved in title contention in NXT. They then ruined one another’s chances at that title and then hammered out their differences and their story in the middle of the ring for the world to see. It was a segment over a year in the making. Content gold.
Hardly. This was a layup — or, should have been a layup if anyone in the company had experience being a real friend to another human being on the planet. Zaria beat up her friend. Her best friend. Because she was a jealous. There’s your heel. In theory. Ruca was there for her friend, supported her friend, cared about her friend’s feelings, and was viciously betrayed because of it. The babyface. Simple.
So yeah, a layup, but none of that actually happened. Instead of oozing heel heat from the audience during their promo summit on Tuesday night, Zaria was cheered. Ruca? Booed. It’s a pretty hard story to mess up, but as I said, NXT got it wrong because all signs point to them not knowing what real friendship means.
Sol Ruca started the segment off this week and was obnoxious in tone. Annoyed. Ruca talked about being betrayed, but throughout their history together, nothing Zaria really did seemed to phase her all that much. Zaria was upset? Ruca told her to get over it. “What am I supposed to do?” “Do you not want me to run with the opportunities that I have?” “I’m taking advantage of MY opportunity.”
It’s a paraphrase, but that sentiment came out of Ruca’s mouth many times throughout the last year. Ruca was dismissive of Zaria’s feelings. Because Ruca’s future was stake, anything could and should be sacrificed in order for her to get it. Even if that sacrifice was your best friend.
No wonder Zaria was cheered. Good-hearted pro wrestling fans may want to watch two people bash each other in the back with barbed wire, but they don’t want to see someone’s best friend tossed up for grabs. Zaria is the good guy in the story. She’s the one that truly was overlooked. She was passed over. By her own friend. And when it came time to speak up about it, Zaria was dismissed because Ruca needed her chance at glory.
Friends care
That isn’t what a friend is. Does Shawn Michaels not know that? Triple H? A friend cares. That’s the crux of friendship. Two people that care about the other. At no point in the Sol Ruca and Zaria storyline did it feel like Ruca gave two shits about Zaria. Ruca talked about her friendship game, but didn’t live it, and the NXT audience saw it all the way.
NXT framed friendship inside the Ruca and Zaria feud as a … “yeah, but.” Yeah, I’m your friend, Zaria, but if I have a shot at my goals, that friendship be damned. Yeah we’re friends, Zaria, but don’t whine at me when I get opportunities and drop you to run with them. Yeah, Zaria, you’re my best friend, but I can’t be bothered to soak in anything you’re saying to me about our relationship. Yeah …. but.
That’s Ruca. And now she’s basically a heel. The WWE Performance Center crowd was ruthless on Tuesday night. Ruca is a babyface at heart. A pure babyface. She’s got a fancy move set. A cool look. And hey, a likable personality when it’s opposite a narcissistic character like Jacy Jayne. It’s easy to see dollar signs with her on the main roster as an exciting star protagonist. Until Tuesday night happened.
Zaria and Ruca are going to square off in a much anticipated battle of former best friends at NXT Stand and Deliver on April 4. It’s the biggest show of the year, but they have a problem and no clear solution to it. The storyline calls for Ruca to be the highly over babyface. It calls for the audience to be salivating at the chance to see Ruca get retribution on her friend for betraying her. The story calls for the audience to be booing Zaria and cheering Ruca — their hero. None of that is going to happen either.
There aren’t clear solutions to fix this specific problem, but I have a general tip for NXT, WWE, and whoever might write for NXT or WWE at some point in the future. Remember what a friend is. Let’s take it a step further. Remember what a good person is.
What is heroic?
WWE is and has been run by ruthless business people and uber-competitive pro wrestlers for decades and decades. Do they even know what a real hero is? They used to be able to fake being nice people on television, but they can’t even be bothered with that anymore. In the WWE narrative land, the world is out to get every babyface and the idea is to overcome at all costs. No matter what. That’s success for ya. If that means cheating? So what. You did what you needed to do in order to win. If that means betraying a friend to get ahead, so be it. That friend should understand and you shouldn’t care about anyone else’s feelings beside yours anyway.
This is what WWE thinks good guys are. Nobody wants to cheer that, invest in that, or pay to see that. It’s a dark and kinda sad way to operate life. If you aren’t stepping on people to get to where you need to go, you aren’t doing enough? And worse? If you’re the person getting stepped on, like Zaria, just deal with it? Be better? Find your own ways to step on folks and take advantage of opportunities? If you don’t, HA! That’s on you?
It’s backwards. What is heroic? I guess that’s a complicated question for some reason.
What did you think of the Sol Ruca and Zaria segment on this week’s episode of NXT? Let us know in the comments!
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