NXT – May 27, 2025

Then, Now, Forever….Together. Bret, Hogan, Savage, and Piper are on one of these slides together and it makes me feel woozy from all the…stories.

A Battleground highlights package starts the show, and includes the promo that set up tonight’s men’s North American championship match and the newly-announced women’s championship tilt. Let’s get at it.

Let’s have some arena walk-ups. Here are tonight’s challenger for the women’s title Jacy Jayne and her grumpy colleague Fallon Henley, and they run into the back-from-outta-nowhere Jazmyn Nyx. Up next is women’s champion Stephanie Vaquer who will defend against Jayne. We are in the Performance Center in Orlando, FL for tonight’s festivities and there are added Security folks surrounding the barriers as we open.

Men’s North American championship – Ricky Saints (C) vs Ethan Page

Saints enters first for some reason. Mike Rome starts the announcements, but Page decides it’s on and off we go as Rome scrambles out. Slugfest and all the Security dudes immediately swarm both guys. The ref takes the title and tells Rome that the match is starting, the bell rings, Security exits, and now it’s actually, you know, on. Lockup, and Saints whips Page into the corner and grabs a headlock. In a blood feud? Okay. Page tries a backdrop suplex but Saints holds on. Page escapes and grabs his own headlock. Sigh. Page works over Saints in the corner with kidney punches, and then catches him with a backdrop. Ego’s Edge attempt is reversed and Saints dumps Page outside. On the floor, Page wins a standoff and whips Saints shoulder-first into the steps. Page grabs a chair but Security stops him and I’m like…that’s not why you’re there, team. You aren’t extra referees! Saints is also being held back for some reason and here’s GM Ava to speak with the referee, and then the announcers Booker T, Corey Graves, and Vic Joseph. I think we’re now in a No Disqualification situation, but Joseph says no, it just means that the referee has more “discretion” to let things go? WE HAVE RULES FOR A REASON, VICTOR. We go to picture-in-picture commercials.

During PIP, Saints drops a giant elbow to the back of Page’s head, then runs him into the turnbuckle. He chops Page, and mocks his finger-to-the-smile taunt. Another chop and Pretty Ricky hits his pose. This is some blood feud. Page takes over and starts clubbering, but Saints comes charging out of a corner-whip and levels Page with a clothesline. Uppercut from Saints and Page flies out to the floor. Saints dumps Page into the crowd and a hockey fight ensues, and again Security intervenes to pull both guys out of the stands. Both guys start whaling on the Security dudes and it’s the first time I’ve enjoyed anything they’ve done so far.

Saints charges Page on the announce desk and there’s a hysterical shot of Joseph behind Graves watching it unfold. The crowd is…amused…until Security intervenes AGAIN. Why are we here, what are we doing? The ref tells the guys to get in the ring, but Page drops Saints throat-first onto a conveniently placed chair. Booker’s headset is broken from the earlier shenanigans. The ref gives Saints a ton of time to crawl back in, Page immediately hits the Ego’s Edge, and gets two. Page throws bombs, but the ref puts a five count on him and I’d love to know what actual rules we’re working with. Saints gets control in the corner but Page pops him in the throat and we’re down. Slugfest in the middle of the ring ends with a Page superkick. Page hoists Saints up, but Saints reverses into a DDT. The crowd is clapping, and we get “This is awesome” chants. Y’all need Jesus, for real, calling this awesome. Saints beals Page, and then drops him on the back of his head for two. Page recovers, hits a clothesline, and gets two. Ego’s Edge attempt is reversed and Saints tries for Roshambo, but Page is on the apron, and he snaps the top rope into Saints throat. Page hits a Diamond Cutter and gets the three count. The crowd is pretty shocked. Page will now defend that title at Worlds Collide. I have no idea how to rate this, maybe 2* or so? The whole thing was a mess, very punchy-kicky, and the Security interventions were stupid. The crowd was into it, though, so you have to figure that in. Ugh. Did not like this much.

Winner – and NEW men’s North American champion – All Ego Ethan Page (Diamond Cutter)

Here’s Sarah Schreiber with Fatal Influence. Jayne says they promised they would get a title shot and they have one. Henley says she should be the one with the title shot tonight since the last time Jayne was in the ring with Stephanie Vaquer she lost, but Jayne says she’ll bring back gold to the group since Henley lost her North American title to….Stephanie Vaquer. Jayne says Henley can be in her corner, or not. Nyx tries to look confused.

A pre-tape video of Mike Santana from TNA is up next, using his promo from Battleground as the voice-over. He’ll take on Tavion Heights of the No Quarter Catch Crew after the break.

Here’s Josh Briggs and Yoshiki Inamura in the locker room, and Inamura has returned from Japan for his big buddy. Isn’t that nice! Briggs wants to go after the tag titles but Inamura tells him to think BIGGER. Briggs: “Hell yeah.”

Mike Santana vs Tavion Heights

Santana enters through the crowd, which he does in TNA. Graves brings up both Homicide and Amazing Red in talking about Santana’s long journey through the indies and TNA. Heights is flanked by Charles Dempsey, Wren Sinclair, and Myles Borne.

Lockup to start, and Heights gains back control. He tosses Santana around a bit and then we’re grappling. Some leapfrogs lead to a Santana dropkick and these two are ridiculously athletic. Santana is on the apron and he flips over Heights back (and slips), before hitting a reverse cross-body from the second rope. Might be a few nerves here. Heights beals Santana and charges, but Santana pulls the top rope down and Heights spills outside. Santana eyes him up, runs the ropes and hits an over-the-top rope dive onto Heights, before getting some crowd approval. We go to picture-in-picture.

During PIP, they are back in the ring. Santana has the advantage, and he slams Heights down and hits a standing senton for two. The match has slowed considerably. Series of reversals and Heights gets a gnarly looking German on Santana for one. Heights grapples him down and gets another one count. Heights throws elbows into Santana’s chest and covers for two. Santana recovers and hits Three Amigos for two. Lockup is won by Santana, he drops Heights to his butt and dropkicks him in the back for two. Charles and Wren are supporting Heights but Borne appears to not be there. Heights yanks Santana up, plants him the corner, and hits him with a bunch of shoulder blocks. Santana fires a chop into Heights, but this fires Heights up as Santana stalks. Chops by both guys in the corner and we’re back live.

Heights hits a big clothesline and then a second, and then he rolls Santana onto his shoulders, but Santana reverses into a rollup for one. Heights gets a gut-wrench for two. Headlock from Heights with encouragement from Charles and Wren. Santana wins a slugfest and chops Heights in the corner. In the opposite corner Santana nails Heights with a standing enziguri, and a rolling cutter gets a two count, and Santana is shocked. Second “this is awesome” chant and I can live with this one. Heights tosses Santana and then hits a Sling Blade and a modified Death Valley Driver for two. Heights fires up but he eats a superkick, and then Santana catches Heights and drops him face first to the canvas. Santana hits a Spin The Block discus clothesline for three! This was good, the veteran beats the young kid, and both guys got their shine. Crowd is on their feet and rightfully so. Terrific television match. 3.5*

Winner – Mike Santana (Spin the Block clothesline)

Post-match show of respect is not appreciated by Charles.

Back from commercials, here’s High Ryze (Wes Lee, Tyson Dupont, and Tyriek Igwe) in a pre-tape promo. They aren’t chasing greatness, they’re building it brick by brick. We then go backstage to see Kale Dixon, Uriah Connors, and Andre Chase.of Chase U. Chase tells the two kids to calm down a bit after they got too demanding and ended up getting squashed like bugs by OTM last week. They completely misinterpret the instructions, and here’s Ava. Connors and Dixon want a match for next week. Ava gives them Darkstate but says it’s a six-man and not a tag. Andre Chase is horrified and says they’re NOT A TEAM. Graves is joyful at Chase U’s stupidity and probable impending ass-whomping.

The announcers go over the Tony D’Angelo-Stacks Lorenzo fight at Battleground. Luca Crusifino shows up after a few weeks away and his distraction costs the Don the match. Here’s Tony D backstage, and Luca Crusifino takes a seat at his table. Crusifino swears Stacks drove him out to the desert and left him, and that he couldn’t make contact without putting the Don and Rizzo at risk. D’Angelo doesn’t believe him and doesn’t know who to trust. Luca says he can trust him.

Here’s new TNA World Champion HollywoodTrick Williams walking towards the ring.

Back from commercials, and Hollywood Trick makes his entrance to the usual from the crowd and Booker. “Hollywood Trick has finally arrived!” says the champ. He runs down his list of accomplishments and it’s an impressive list, to be fair. Trick admonishes the crowd for singing along with “Average Joe” last week. Everyone is always trying to figure out the line between TNA and NXT and Trick says HE is the line. Trick mentions Kurt Angle, Drew McIntyre, Bully Ray, and AJ Styles as former TNA champs but none compare to him, and especially not Joe Hendry. Trick says the company will now be known as Trick-NA and here’s Mike Santana to interrupt. He wants to give Trick props for Sunday but Trick doesn’t appreciate the interruption. Santana says he’s not HIS champion and he doesn’t appreciate Trick “tearing down” TNA, because he and the locker room have been grinding to make TNA a better place. Trick points out that Santana has never been TNA champ and he doesn’t understand that when you have the belt, you call the shots. Santana reminds him that he’s a boricua from the Bronx, New York and he’s seen people like Trick come and go, and that Trick is a “pretender”. He points out Trick’s “tight ass pants and high heels” and the crowd erupts with laughter. Santana wants to spit some facts and the first one is that he is going to be the one to take the world title from Trick. Here’s TNA Director of Authority Santino Morella on the video board and Santana will get his shot next week. Trick holds up the title up, Santana extends a hand, and Trick walks away, only to turn back to attack. He’s met with a couple of rights from Santana, and he topples out to the floor. Santana holds up the belt and Trick is grumpy. This was good and the match should be as well.

Here’s women’s champion Stephanie Vaquer in the locker room. Ava comes in and tells her that she’ll have a tag match at Worlds Collide against Dalys and Chik Tormenta and she needs to find a tag partner. Lola Vice comes in to volunteer as the partner and Vaquer is cool with that.

Back from commercials and Jaida Parker is in the ring.

Jaida Parker vs Tatum Paxley

Paxley carries dolls with green and red hair, respectively, and appears to be weeping. She definitely looks ready to wrestle, is what I’m saying. We look at Tatum and Thea Hail’s backstage meeting from last week in an insert, and Parker comes in and wrecks Hail and calls Paxley stupid. Still so RUDE, Jaida. SHE JUST MISSES HER FRIENDS SHEESH.

Lockup to start and Parker runs Paxley over with a shoulder. They run the ropes and Paxley gets a sneaky rollup for two. Double underhook for Paxley, and she runs Parker’s head into the corner turnbuckles. Parker hits a backstabber after gaining control and then charges Paxley in the corner. She drapes Paxley over the middle rope and whales her with a fist to the gut. Parker hits Paxley with a butt drop and then crip walks across the ring. She grabs Paxley’s arms and pulls back, and starts talking trash. Paxley gets a reversal and a sneaky rollup gets two. Parker charges the corner but Paxley ducks, rolls her up, and gets two. A big knee from Paxley, followed by two knockdowns and a running enziguri and Paxley is fired up. She hits a crossbody in the corner and a running flywheel kick to the head. A dropkick sends Parker to the floor. Parker picks up the orange headed doll and tosses it across the ring. Paxley forlornly picks up the doll and Parker wrecks her with a knee, and covers for three. Not much to this one and the finish kind of came out of nowhere. 2*

Winner – Jaida Parker (running knee)

Post-match and Thea Hail has jumped Parker and is on top throwing bombs. Parker bails and they chirp at each other.

We get some LFG highlights to introduce Jasper Troy. He is a Large Human (who jumped Oba Femi last week, as a reminder). He is on his way to the ring.

Jasper Troy vs Dante Chen

Hey, Dante Chen is still alive! Congratulations, welcome to the world of Pin Me, Pay Me Dante. Booker says Troy is going to change the game. We lock up and Troy is just muscling Chen around. Huge backdrop from Troy and he clotheslines Chen to the floor. Troy picks Chen up and drops him face first onto the apron. Joseph and Booker are bickering about LFG while Troy destroys Chen. He mashes Chen in the corner with a charge and then drops him across his knee. Chen gets a couple of kicks in, and tries some running elbow strikes and an enziguri. Chen gets a DDT, and a big boot and fires up. Troy wastes him with body block and a Black Hole Slam for three. Just an extended squash. 1.5* Troy looked solid enough, I guess.

Winner – Jasper Troy (Black Hole Slam)

Post-match and here’s men’s champion Oba Femi from the NXT roost. Femi says he was impressed with Troy, but instead of doing what Troy did last week, he’s treating Troy with respect and not coming in to waste him. Femi says he hopes Troy is enjoying his five seconds of fame, but he’s got the attention of The Ruler and his five seconds are OVER.

A promo for Cody Rhodes upcoming podcast and his first guest is a real shocker, his wife Brandi. Vodka ads everywhere.

Here’s Tavion Heights and Myles Borne backstage. Charles and Wren join and Dempsey says that both of them made the NQCC proud with their recent matches but they tried as singles wrestlers and failed, so it’s time to re-focus on the group. Borne says he isn’t going back to that and he wants to beat Dempsey to prove he doesn’t need the group. Dempsey agrees but insists on a Rounds match. They shake on it. Wren: “Why?”

Back from commercials and here’s new men’s North American champ Ethan Page in the ring. He wants to celebrate his win tonight. You won’t believe it, but there’s an interruption. Here’s Je’von Evans to chat about their shared history and that Page is an undeserving champ. Evans talked to Ava, and Page’s defense at Worlds Collide will be against him. As it turns out, Laredo Kid emerges through the crowd and he’s part of the title match as well. Page is grumpy about it being a triple threat but Evans says no, it’s a fatal four way and the other opponent is Rey Fenix. Well then. Page has now upgraded to livid.

Ava is backstage with Robert Stone and Stevie Turner. Turner points out that Sean Legacy won last week’s triple threat and that Ava is giving these three others a shot at the North American title before him. Ava says that Legacy will face the winner of the four way at Worlds Collide as the next challenger. Turner hypes up tomorrow night’s Evolve show that has a fatal four-way between Wendy Choo, Kali Armstrong, Kendal Grey and Kylie Rae for that brand’s first women’s championship and subsequent champion. Stone, who looks like he’s getting ready to nail the audition for Henchman Number Four at the local dinner theater revival of Scarface, says he’ll be there to see it unfold.

Fatal Influence are on their way to the ring. Stephane Vaquer is on her way as well, and she walks past a number of women who give her and the belt the stink-eye. Lash Legend is the last one and she pushes Kelani Jordan out of the way to give stare down the champ.

Back from commercials and here’s a distraught Tatum Paxley who wonders what she’s going to do. Zaria and women’s North American champ Sol Ruca enter and Zaria tells Tatum they hate to see her like this. They offer to be there for her to talk if she needs to, as The Culling come into the background. Shawn Spears and company turn and leave after hearing the back and forth.

It’s official between Hollywood Trick Willams and Mike Santana for next Tuesday night and the TNA World Championship will be on the line. Myles Borne vs Charlie Dempsey will also happen next Tuesday in a Rounds match. During the main event it’s also shown that Briggs and Inamura will take on Niko Vance and Brooks Jensen of The Culling in a tag match.

It’s time for the main event.

Women’s NXT Championship – Stephanie Vaquer (C) vs Jacy Jayne

Fatal enter first and Jacy’s fishnets have seen better days. Perhaps that’s on purpose. The champ comes running out, the bell sounds and it is ON.

Jayne with kicks and punches to start, followed by some trash talk. Vaquer slaps Jayne in the face, and Joseph calls it a “receipt” from Battleground. Miss you, kayfabe. Crowd is solidly behind Vaquer. She gets a tilt-a-whirl for two. Vaquer hits a reverse thrust kick and trips Jayne up for one. Jayne trips up Vaquer for one, and Vaquer comes up with elbows flying. Vaquer teases the head scissors-head smash sequence but Jayne escapes and boots Vaquer hard in the mid-section. Running senton for Jayne gets two. Jayne kicks Vaquer in the head and gets two. Booker questions whether or not the newly announced tag match for Worlds Collide might have taken Vaquer’s attention away from this defense. Backrop for Jayne gets two. Jayne charges Vaquer in the corner but it’s reversed, and Vaquer smashes Jayne’s head into the turnbuckle and then pushes her boot across Jayne’s face. Out of nowhere, Dalys and Chik Tormenta are on the apron, and out charges Lola Vice to assist her new tag partner. Security comes out to break up the brawl as Vaquer watches on, and Jayne charges in and rolls her up for two. A back thrust kick and 619 for Vaquer, and then she hits a springboard cross body thing for two. Picture-in-picture takes over.

During the PIP, Jayne tries a monkey flip which is blocked and Vaquer hits her with a legdrop for two. Vaquer barks at Henley and Nyx on the outside, neither of whom has played any part in this so far. Elbow slugfest in the middle of the ring ends in Vaquer whipping Jayne into the corner where both throw elbows that connect. Jayne charges out and hits a sling blade, and Vaquer bails to the floor. Jayne charges down the apron and gives a huge boot to Vaquer’s chest. Jayne puts the boots to Vaquer who’s sitting in the corner while the ref counts. Jayne dances for the crowd and then hits a cannonball for two. Jayne hits the commercials-mandated chin lock.

Back live, Jayne tries a running elbow to the corner, but Vaquer catches her and rams her into the turnbuckle. Vaquer tries her own monkey flip but Jayne rolls out of it and kicks Vaquer dead in the chest. Ground and pound from Jayne, and a low superkick gets two. Henley is unimpressed. Standoff and Jayne rams a knee into Vaquer’s gut. Jacy picks her up, but Vaquer slides off so Jayne once again kicks her in the gut. Jayne hits a sling blade neck breaker and tells the crowd it’s over. She charges but Vaquer catches her in her own tilt-a-whirl backbreaker, and then hits a second one. Jayne ducks a clothesline and hits another sling blade on Vaquer and both women are down. The crowd is chanting for the brand…which….okay. Back on their feet and Vaquer hits three headbutts on Jayne, which staggers her. Vaquer hits Eat Defeat, a big clothesline in the corner, and then once again the boots across the front of Jayne’s face. A running Meteora for Vaquer gets two. Jayne slides out of a backslide attempt and hits a huge knee to Vaquer’s face for two. Jayne misses another cannonball attempt and Vaquer charges in to the corner and hits Jayne with a dragon screw leg whip. Jayne bails to the floor. Vaquer tries to drag her back in but Jayne trips her up and she goes face-first onto the apron, and then to the floor. Vaquer catches a kick attempt and drops Jayne face-first to the apron. Turnabout, fair play, and all that. Vaquer runs Jayne into the ring steps and rolls her in. Vaquer drops Jayne in a package knee lift thing, and goes for SVB. Fallon Henley jumps on the ring apron and of course, Stephanie wanders over with Jayne trailing her. Vaquer reverses and pushes Jayne into Henley, who’s dumped to the floor and is…grumpy. Vaquer superkicks Jayne to the floor. Henley and Jayne start bickering as Nyx tries to calm things down. They push Nyx down (!) as Vaquer flies from the top corner turnbuckle on top of both of them. Nyx is in a huff, but doesn’t leave ringside. Vaquer tosses Jayne back in and it’s time for head scissors-head smash because I don’t have an actual name for it. The ten head smashes are counted off by the crowd and Booker, and Joseph says Booker looks like Michael Cole trying to YEET. Vaquer has Jayne draped over the top rope in an armbar while Nyx is in the ring for some reason, and Henley charges down and hits her crappy swinging kick while holding the ring post. Henley pushes Vaquer back in the ring as Nyx bails, and Jayne hits a huge discus punch for three????? WHAT THE HELL. Mike Rome is utterly dumbfounded and has to be prompted to announce Jayne as the winner and NEW women’s NXT champion.

Winner – and NEW NXT Women’s Champion – Jacy Jayne (spinning discus punch)

Joseph: “I am in absolute shock.” You and me both, brother. Jayne seems genuinely overwhelmed and while I’m happy for her, I am going to need some time to ruminate on this. The match was put together nicely and Jacy held her end up as much as she could given she’s more of a power type while Vaquer is more athletically-based. I guess I don’t get this insane booking we’re doing with the women’s titles lately but here’s another change. My quick interpretation here is that the whole thing was probably 3.25* and the finish didn’t make a ton of sense because it didn’t seem like Fatal was on the same page at all prior to Nyx deciding to ignore her teammates pushing her down and Henley and Jayne have been at each other for weeks. Vaquer is gutted at the announcers desk, and we’re out.

Well then, that was quite a show. I know they don’t have a ton of time to get Worlds Collide together. The overbooked men’s NA title match took me a while to get through, there were two basic squashes in the Jasper Troy match, and the Jaida-Tatum deal, and then this main event. It’s a lot to process, but I liked the Santana-Heights match. You all are going to have to give me thoughts on this because I’m leaning thumbs down here but I don’t want my shock at the women’s match outcome to cloud it too much.

I’ll have Smackdown later in the week and we’ll see who’s going to cover Worlds Collide. Y’all be cool and thanks for reading.