NXT – June 3, 2025

We are live at the Performance Center.

Highlight package from last week’s show include Ethan Page taking the men’s North American title from Ricky Saints, Hollywood Trick being confronted by Mike Santana, and Jacy Jayne’s SHOCKING upset of women’s champ Stephanie Vaquer.

Walkups: Jacy Jayne, Fallon Henley, and Jazmyn Nyx of Fatal Influence, Mike Santana and Hollywood Trick.

Je’von Evans is heading up the ring steps with Laredo Kid in the ring ahead of him with a microphone in hand. Next to enter is men’s North American champion Ethan Page. Page is in the aisle and says the entire idea of a “summit” is a farce. Rey Fenix apparently had travel issues and couldn’t make it to Orlando and the champ should just be celebrating tonight, but instead he has to share the celebration with Evans and Kid. Page has to defend the title in the four-way at Worlds Collide and Ava has granted a NA title shot to Sean Legacy of Evolve. Page says he didn’t agree to any of that, former champion Ricky Saints did, and Laredo tells him all he does is talk, talk but that he has “no huevos”. Evans says Page cost him his match on Smackdown, and Page tells Evans it was because he keeps sticking his nose in Page’s business. Evans says okay, if you don’t want my nose in your business perhaps you’d prefer my foot in your ass? Something to ponder, champ. Page goes to leave and here’s Sean Legacy to interrupt. Legacy says the obvious regarding the four way and that he’d like to face Laredo, Evans or Fenix but he hopes it’s not Page. He can become the first men’s Evolve champion on tomorrow night’s show, but here’s Evolve’s The Vanity Project to interrupt. It’s the Swipe Right dudes and Jackson Drake who’s also in the Evolve title deal on Wednesday. They say they have Page’s back and a fight breaks out as Page hits Legacy from behind. Evans clears out the Evolve kids and Page is tossed by Laredo. All three babyfaces hit over the top rope dives on the heels and here’s Security to break it up. Just a promo to set a whole bunch of things up. We go to commercials.

When we come back, new AAA Mega Champion El Hijo Del Vikingo is shown, belt in hand, prior to his defense against Chad Gable at World’s Collide.

Darkstate vs Chase U

During ring intros the announcers talk up the Tyrese Haliburton merch and mention Michael Cole wearing a Pacers jersey the previous night on Raw, which was a hell of a visual. For Chase U, it’s Kale Dixon, Uriah Connors, and Andre Chase. For Darkstate, it appears to be Dion Lennox, Osiris Griffin, and Cutler James. James and Connors start. James tosses Connors around and shoulders him in the corner. Lennox tags in and trash talks. Lennox gets some ground and pound and then hits a Sidewalk Slam on Connors. Lennox slaps on a Boston Crab as the announcers mention once again that Andre Chase has said that they are not a team. Connors gets to tag Dixon, who comes in on fire to flatten Lennox. Both men hit simultaneous clotheslines on each other. Dixon tags Connors as Chase seems to maybe not want to tag in while Lennox tags in Griffin. Griffin misses a leg drop and Connors dumps him out after he misses a clothesline attempt. Dixon tags back in and he and Connors hit a double superkick (HI MATT AND NICK) on Griffin, double clothesline on James (who’s dumped out) and a double superkick on a charging Lennox. They go to double team Griffin but he reverses and suplexes both Dixon and Connors simultaneously. Darkstate hits their powerbomb finisher on Connors for three. Not much to this, again, and Andre Chase never tagged in. 1.5*

Winners – Darkstate (toss powerbomb)

Backstage and here are Sean Legacy, Laredo Kid, and Je’von Evans with GM Ava. She tells them to find a partner to face Ethan Page and the Vanity Project in an eight man. Dragon Lee walks up and says he’ll be their fourth.

Sarah Schreiber is with TNA Champion Hollywood Trick Williams. Williams mocks Santana’s “loud and proud boricua” catchphrase. Williams is now the standard in TNA and he’s calling the shots. TNA has been looking for someone to make the title “legitimate” (activate the burn unit because I can feel Hannifan warming up for Thursday night already) and he says it’s not Elijah, Average Joe (Hendry) or Santana, it’s Trick Williams. We go to commercials.

In the women’s locker room, we get an “Earlier This Week” graphic as Tyra Mae Steele is chatting up winning LFG. Here’s Arianna Grace to interrupt. Grace mentions that Steele’s gold medal (women’s freestyle in the 2021 Games) might not be 100% gold. She tells Steele not to be a braggart, flips her hair, and leaves. Steele wants to fight.

Myles Borne vs Charles Dempsey in a Rounds match

Borne is accompanied by Tavion Heights and Dempsey is with Wren Sinclair. At stake is Borne’s continuing membership of NQCC as he wants to be on his own. The bell rings and we’re off as Dempsey grabs an arm. Borne flips Dempsey down and gets a quick two. Borne gets a shoulderblock for one. Dempsey reverses an armlock into head scissors before Borne nips out. Dempsey goes back to the head scissors before starting to work on Borne’s left arm. Booker talks up how much experience Dempsey has in Rounds matches. Borne yanks Dempsey up but Dempsey slides into a rollup for two. Borne reverses for two. Dempsey has a double underhook, which Borne reverses into a cradle for two, and Dempsey reverses that for two. Borne catches Dempsey in a rollup and gets a three count with seven seconds left in the first round. Sinclair and Heights fight over the one bucket they apparently brought to the ring to second these competitors and we go to picture in picture. Heights and Sinclair talk to both Borne and Dempsey as the between-rounds phase passes.

Dempsey is in control during PIP as the second round gets underway. Borne takes over and is working a headlock before Dempsey reverses into a surfboard. Borne flips out of it and gets two. Borne hits a huge suplex on Dempsey for two. Back live and the second round is counting down to zero as both guys are locked up. The bell rings and Borne eases up only to have Dempsey knee him in the ribs a full second or two after the bell. Dempsey indicates he didn’t hear the bell to the ref as the announcers debate the veracity of that claim.

Borne starts the third round with Euro uppercuts but is still selling Dempsey’s illegal knee. Dempsey hits another knee to Borne’s ribs, grabs the RegalPlex and gets a three count with only 24 seconds gone. We are now knotted at one fall apiece. Wren tends to Dempsey as Heights is helping Borne. Dempsey starts the fourth round with a shotgun dropkick in the corner, a couple of Euro uppercuts, and a big knees to Borne’s ribs. He rolls Borne over for two. Dempsey gets an octopus hold on and elbows Borne’s ribs repeatedly. Borne reverses a charging Dempsey into a backdrop and starts throwing bombs. Borne hits Dempsey with a couple of clotheslines and two belly-to-belly overhead suplexes, and then a side suplex gets two. They lock up and Dempsey hits a series of gut punches while holding Borne’s hand behind his back in a clever spot. We get twenty seconds of each guy hitting roll up-type pin attempts for two, followed by Borne hitting Dempsey with a dropkick that gets three! This was very scientific, for the most part, even with Dempsey’s post-round shenanigans. Call it 3*.

Winner – Myles Borne (two falls to one)

Post-match sees Dempsey refuse a handshake and Borne and Heights head to the back.

Here’s Shawn Spears, Niko Vance, and Brooks Jensen of The Culling in the back. Izzi Dame whales Jensen with a chair and says Jensen is OUT because he never fully bought into The Culling, and that Vance and Spears now have a match next week instead of this week. Okay then. We go to commercials.

Tyra Mae Steele vs Arianna Grace

Booker talks up Steele’s attitude and work ethic during LFG as she enters. Steele offers a handshake and Grace refuses it. WE DON’T SHAKE HANDS IN NXT PAL. Steele grabs a leg and dumps Grace, and then works an arm before Grace reverses into headscissors. Steele grabs her legs as Grace screams and reaches the ropes. She certainly has her father’s comedy chops. Steele tosses Grace over her head and charges over, but Grace kicks her to break things up, and then runs Steele into the corner. Grace punches and kicks, and then pulls Steele into a short-arm clothesline. A big boot from Grace gets one. Grace puts the badmouth on her and says she’s Miss NXT and then slaps Steele full in the face. Steele smiles, and as Grace offers a handshake to calm her, Steele says NAH NAH and hits two clotheslines and a fireman’s type suplex. Steele hits Grace with a bridge German suplex and gets three. Not much to it, but for a debut match Steele looked fine. She’s got a powerful build and will need a ton of reps but they have something with her, it feels like. 1.5*

Winner – Tyra Mae Steele (bridge German suplex)

The NXT Spotlight (Brought To You By Progressive) is on the women’s title match from last week’s show. It was SHOCKING in case you missed it. SHOCKING. We go to commercials.

Back from commercials and Sarah Schreiber is with Mike Santana. Santana mentions that it’s kind of crazy that he’s going to be in the main event of a WWE NXT show fighting for the TNA world title and I’d say he’s right about that. He takes off his sunglasses and addresses the camera directly. He doesn’t see a fighting champion in Trick, he sees a pretender who only fights for himself, so tonight he fights for everyone who’s ever stepped foot in a TNA ring. Most of all he’s fighting for his daughter, who’s about to witness history, and he never breaks promises to her. He just needs to be three seconds better than Trick. This was an EXCELLENT promo.

We’re at the top of the second hour and here’s new women’s NXT champion Jacy Jayne, along with Fallon Henley and Jazmyn Nyx. Jayne is chewing gum, which…okay. Jayne says that no one supported her for the last four years so no one is allowed on the bandwagon now. Fatal Influence is finally on top where they belong because Jayne pulled off the most SHOCKING moment in NXT history. Did we mention it was SHOCKING? She calls the fans fickle and says they called her the third wheel and latched onto every “flavor of the month” while she was putting in the work. Jayne says her and Fallon started in the business together and after a long discussion, they finally decided to run the play. Here’s Lainey Reid to interrupt. She tells Jayne that she was going to wait her turn but Jayne is the most “beatable” champion of all time (BURN UNIT HIGH ALERT). Here’s Lola Vice to tell Jayne that the title isn’t about her or Fatal Influence and it’s time to bring it to er…Vice City. Here’s Jordynne Grace to say that she came to be part of the best division in the business, but it’s apparent anything can happen. Here’s Jaida Parker and I’m not enjoying this at this point. Parker says everyone knows she’s the baddest bitch in the place. Here’s Kelani Jordan and my will to live is draining away. She gets half a sentence out and here’s Lash Legend. Thea Hail charges in and whales on Miss Parker, and the whole thing breaks down into a brawl. The refs charge out and try to break it up, while Fatal are laughing in the ring with Reid eyeing them up from the apron. The lights go out and when they come up a spotlight hits the roost and here’s Mariah May (who the announcers do NOT reference by name) to say she’s the next NXT women’s champion and that the division just got a lot more glamourous. We’ll see what name they come up with for her. We go to commercials.

Back live, and in the locker room are Evolve Prime Minister Stevie Turner, Evolve women’s champion Kali Armstrong, and who I assume are the Evolve women’s roster. Turner says it’s impressive how many people stepped up in the previous segment, and Armstrong turns to the women and says she wants to see who’s going to step up to her tomorrow night. I’m going to have to start watching Evolve too, somehow. Good lord.

We take a look back at the Ricky Saints- Ethan Page men’s NA title match from last week and the heinous jaw/throat spot Saints took on a chair. Saints apparently has a contusion on his larynx, which if true, sounds delightful. The Vanity Project and Page are watching in the locker room and Page mentions hurting Saints, taking Je’von Evans smile, and tonight he wants to take the masks from Laredo Kid and Dragon Lee.

Dragon Lee, Je’von Evans, Laredo Kid, and Sean Legacy vs The Vanity Project and Ethan Page

Dragon Lee gets the LWO graphic during his entrance so I guess that’s still a going concern? I don’t actually know. Aerostar, Octagon Jr. and Mr. Iguana are shown in the crowd as the announcers shill their match at Worlds Collide with Dragon Lee, Cruz Del Toro and Lince Dorado. I’m realizing Page and these Evolve goobers might actually make an effective stable. Laredo and Jackson Drake to start. Laredo shoulders him down and then hits a running springboard rana. Laredo tags in Dragon Lee and they hit Drake with chops, and then hit double superkicks to his head as Lee gets two as Page breaks it up. Lee abuses Drake in the corner and then leaps off the top rope with a crossbody for two. Ricky Smokes tags in, as does Je’von Evans. Evans hits his springboard rana and tags in Sean Legacy, who hits two kicks and a standing backflip splash for two. Smokes backs Legacy into the heel corner and as Evans comes charging over to help, the ref turns to stop that as the heels beat the crap out of Legacy. Page tags in and immediately tries for Ego’s Edge, but Legacy slides off, ducks a clothesline, and dropkicks Page out of the ring. Brad Baylor charges in and gets dumped out with a clothesline. Smokes charges over and gets dumped with a back bodydrop as Legacy tags in Evans. Legacy wipes out the Swipe Right goons as Evans dumps Drake out, and Evans tags in Lee. Evans and Lee hit simultaneous planchas on the Vanity Project. Laredo wants in on it but Page wipes him out with a big boot. Page smartly drags Laredo into the heel corner (TAG PSYCHOLOGY ALERT) as we go to commercials (no PIP).

Back live and it’s Baylor and Evans in a standoff in the middle. Evans wants a tag, but Baylor yanks him back and knees him in the ribs. Baylor tags in Drake and they double-team Evans and a dropkick to the back of Evans gets two. Drake stands on Evans hands and rakes his back, and then double-stomps his hands. Yowch. Evans has had enough and just chops the crap out of Drake, but Drake gets a knee, a back kick, and sweeps the leg (!). A standing reverse splash by Drake gets two. Drake puts on a bulldog choke (HI MOX). The AAA trio is clapping along with the crowd, how nice! Page tags in and Evans reverses his arm drag into a superkick. Page tags in Smokes as Evans finally gets to tag in Dragon Lee. Lee ducks a clothesline and wipes out Drake and Baylor with a dropkick. Smokes charges over and Lee flips him upside down on the top turnbuckle and then superkicks him in the face. Lee hits a running dropkick to a sitting Smokes face. Lee wants his powerbomb but Baylor saves Smokes. Laredo comes charging in and I don’t know if it’s nerves or an unfamiliarity with WWE ring dimensions, but he botches a “through the ropes” tope and wipes out Baylor. Back in the ring, Lee gets his sit-out powerbomb on Smokes for two, and it’s broken up by Page. Lee tosses Page and tags in Legacy, but Smokes smacks their heads together and tags in Baylor. Baylor runs Legacy into Lee who’s on the apron, and Lee tumbles. Baylor hoists up Legacy and backdrops him, Drake comes off the top with a splash, and Page (who’s tagged in) hits Legacy with a powerslam for two as the faces break it up. Everyone is down and we reset as the crowd…chants for the brand. I’d like to punch the ECW mutants in the face for starting that shit, for the record. CHEER FOR THE PERFORMERS YOU MORONS.

Laredo and Evans wipe out Drake and Smokes, and then Laredo holds down the top rope so Evans can soar onto them. Laredo makes damn sure to hit the second rope and he wipes them out with his back handspring. I have no idea who’s legal but Legacy and Page are slugging it out in the center of the ring, so let’s go with them maybe? Legacy is winning the hockey fight but Page knees him in the ribs. Legacy falls back and Lee tags in, as Page tags in Baylor. Baylor charges in but Lee kicks him and goes up top. Baylor comes charging back in and tries to catch Lee, but Lee stops him and drops him crotch-first on to the top turnbuckle. Lee hits a prone Baylor with a double stomp and Operation Dragon (which I think is just Sliced Bread #2) gets the three count. You know, I liked this more than I thought I would. The crowd was into it, there was some psychology, and it wasn’t done at a million miles an hour like I was expecting. Match of the night thus far. 3.5*

Winners – Dragon Lee, Laredo Kid, Je’von Evans and Sean Legacy (Operation Dragon pins Brad Baylor)

Post-match the faces celebrate. Trick Williams is warming up for the main event. Mike Santana is pacing. We go to commercials.

Back live, and backstage here’s Stevie Turner, Robert Stone and NXT men’s champion Oba Femi. Turner and Stone are apparently waiting for signatures from Femi and Jasper Troy, who’s entered, to make their title match for next week official. Troy points out that this is the first time Femi has had to look up at a man he’s facing and wonder how it feels. Femi says whether it’s a tall tree or not, he’ll knock it down. Both have signed, and Troy smiles at Femi.

Walking backstage are women’s North American champ Sol Ruca and Zaria. They come upon a prone Tatum Paxley who’s holding a naked doll. Ruca emphasizes once again that they’re there for Tatum if she needs them, but Izzi Dame walks up and doubts that. Dame says she purges people who aren’t real friends and that’s what Paxley needs.

Here’s Tony D’Angelo on the phone and in walks Luca Crusifino. Luca mentions he hasn’t heard from Tony, but Tony doesn’t want to make small talk. Luca knows Tony doesn’t trust him so he “made a move” to prove he’s still loyal. He got them a tag match against High Ryze for next week. Tony is upset that Luca didn’t ask for consent first, but Luca points out they aren’t really a family anymore, and walks away.

Next week we will have the men’s NXT title match between champion Oba Femi and challenger Jasper Troy, and Sean Legacy will face whomever the men’s North American title holder is (Page defends in a four-way at Worlds Collide). It’s time for the main event.

TNA World Title: Hollywood Trick Williams (C) vs Mike Santana

Santana enters through the crowd as he always does. Elijah is in the crowd and they fistbump. We go to commercials. Back live, the announcers go over the Worlds Collide card. Trick’s entrance is met with the usual from the crowd and Booker. Mike Rome does the ring announcing. I think Rome is pretty good. Santana gets a huge pop, Trick hears some derision. The ref holds up the belt, the bell rings, and off we go.

Collar and elbow to start, and Santana gets backed into the corner and pie-faced by Trick. Trick leaps over a rope-running Santana, and then throws him down disrespectfully. Trick hits a big right hand and screams, as Santana is becoming livid. Santana smiles at Trick and drives him into the corner. He starts clubbering Trick who tries to cover up. Santana slaps Trick right on the ear and Trick seems kind of dazed. He hoists Trick up and drops him to get a two count, and I sincerely think Santana might have hurt Trick’s ear with that slap. Running senton from Santana and Trick reaches for his ear again, but Santana hesitates to cover and then only gets two. Santana goes for a headlock but Trick hoists him up into the Saito suplex and drops him. Trick hits a jumping neckbreaker after pawing at his ear again, and gets two. Trick hits a backdrop suplex for two and checks his ear again. Trick goes for a kick but Santana catches the boot, spins him around, and hits chops (WOO from the crowd) and rope-running results in a huge dropkick for Santana as Trick bails. Trick walks away as Santana was going to run and leap on him. He walks around the ring and seems to maybe be leaving, so Santana runs the ropes and hits him with the plancha anyway and we go to picture-in-picture commercials.

During PIP, Santana rolls Trick in and gets a one count. Santana sets Trick up and dropkicks him HARD right in the back of the head, which gets a two count. They start slugging it out and Trick grabs a headlock. Santana breaks free and drops Trick with a suplex for two. Trick goes outside and Santana follows, and slams Trick into the announcers table twice, and we finally see Booker T, Corey Graves and Vic Joseph as they’re pointing something out to Santana. He tosses Trick back in but Trick catches him and puts him in a single-leg Boston Crab.

Back live with Santana trying to kick his way out of the now-just-a-single-leg hold Trick has. He succeeds and then hits a big (WOO) chop on Trick, and then charges into the corner with an elbow. Santana elbows Trick twice on the top of the head while standing on the bottom rope, but Trick grabs him and drops Santana face-first on the top turnbuckle. Trick hits the Trick Kick and gets one, so he gets pissed and goes to ground and pound. Trick hits a leg lariat and gets into it with the crowd. Santana tries to get out of Trick’s headlock. Trick chops Santana in the corner but it apparently doesn’t hurt Santana at all, so he chops him again and Santana fires up. Trick tries the big kick again, but misses, and Santana superkicks him. Santana charges in but gets kicked by Trick from the mat, but he recovers and hits an enziguri. Santana charges in again but Trick reverses and uppercuts him. We run the ropes and Santana catches Trick with what Graves calls a “thunderous” Death Valley driver (and Graves wasn’t kidding) and both guys are down. Santana nips up to a pop while Trick staggers to his feet. Santana hits three right hands and a running elbow. Trick tries to run Santana into the ropes, but Santana holds on and rolls into Trick with a cutter for a long two count. Santana hits a running cannonball in the corner for another long two count. Santana goes up top with the crowd on their feet, and wallops Trick with a 450 splash but Trick puts a finger out and gets the bottom rope. Literally, his pointer finger. Trick is bleeding from his nose as Santana is shocked. Trick bails as Santana is warming up for the Spin the Block. Trick goes over to Elijah, grabs his guitar, and smashes it on the ring steps. OKAY THAT’S VERY RUDE YOUNG MAN. Elijah jumps the barrier and grabs the neck of the guitar, as the ref scrambles out to keep them apart as Trick is clearly trying to get a DQ finish here. As the ref is dealing with that, KC Navarro and AJ Francis (WELCOME BACK TOP DOLLA) of TNA’s First Class yank Santana out of the ring, and Francis choke-slams him on the announce table. They toss Santana back in the ring. Trick hits a running knee to Santana’s back, and then the Trick Shot, and that gets the three count.

Well then, that was a whole thing. I think Santana legit potatoed Trick in the beginning, and it got physical as a result, which I don’t think Santana would have minded at all. The match was good until the finish, but considering it’s two companies working together and one of them has a show in two days, I kind of expected a finish like this. Call the whole thing 3.5* and we’ll move on.

Winner and STILL TNA World Champion – Trick Williams (Trick Shot)

Trick will face Elijah Friday night for the title at Against All Odds, and he poses with the First Class goons to end the show.

Decent show tonight with the second hour matches really delivering. Try to catch the eight man tag, the Rounds match, and the main event to get the good stuff. Thanks for reading, I’ll be back with Smackdown and Worlds Collide later this week.