NXT Review – 07.01.25

The show opens with a look back at last week’s events. Stacks Lorenzo became Heritage Cup champion, Ricky Saints and Ethan Page continued their endless feud, Je’von Evans beat Tavion Heights and then was attacked by Jasper Troy, and Trick Williams retained the TNA World Championship against Josh Briggs before Joe Hendry showed up to attack. Jordynne Grace won the fatal four-way to determine the new challenger for the NXT Women’s Champion and will challenge Jacy Jayne at Evolution.

We are live with a recorded show at the WWE Performance Center and your announcers are Booker T, Vic Joseph and Corey Graves on match-calls, Mike Rome handling ring intros, and Kelly Kincaid backstage.

Here’s TNA World Champion Trick Williams to join the announce desk for the first match. Booker seems to be happy about this.

Wes Lee vs Joe Hendry

Lee is seconded by High Ryze. Trick accuses Graves of waving his hands during Hendry’s entrance and Joseph immediately sells Graves out. Hendry grabs a wristlock to start as Joseph questions Trick on having to face both Mike Santana and Joe Hendry in the main event of Slammiversary. Williams points out he’s beaten both already and it’s very unfair that he could lose his title without getting pinned.

Lee reverses the wristlock but Hendry reverses acrobatically and grabs a headlock. Lee reverses into head scissors and Hendry escapes acrobatically. Hendry runs Lee over with a shoulder tackle and then tries a suplex. Lee escapes to the corner and meets a charging Hendry with a big boot and a springboard enziguri. Lee hits a rana on Hendry and sends him to the floor in front of the announcer table. Lee hits a baseball slide dropkick between the ropes and gives Williams a smile, but Hendry recovers to clothesline Lee as he moves in for his next move. Hendry stares down Williams and we go to commercials.

Back live with Hendry whipping Lee into the ropes, but Tyriek Igwe of High Ryze grabs Hendry’s boot to prevent him from doing anything else. Hendry confronts the team on the floor and while he’s doing that, Lee shoots through the ropes with a running shoulder tackle. Lee tosses Hendry back in the ring and ascends. Lee hits a springboard back 450 splash from the second rope that gets two. Lee starts throwing rights as Hendry tries to get back to his feet, and then Lee hits a pump kick that staggers Hendry. Lee goes for a tilt-a-whirl DDT but Hendry stops it and hits Lee with a backdrop suplex. Hendry fires off some rights and clotheslines Lee down before hitting Lee with a fall-away slam. Hendry nips up to a big pop before doing his pose, and then he gets the crowd really going. Lee counters a Standing Ovation attempt and they slug it out. Lee charges off the ropes but Hendry catches Lee’s cross-body attempt and turns it into a fireman’s carry slam. This gets a two count as Tyson Dupont puts Lee’s foot on the ropes at the last second. Hendry is pissed about this and Igwe and Dupont jump onto the apron to confront him. Here’s Mike Santana to yank both Igwe and Dupont from the apron, and then Santana drops both with rights. Lee charges Hendry who scoops him right up into the Standing Ovation chokeslam and that gets three.

The match was fine and Wes Lee will always put on a good acrobatic show even if he’s clearly down the pecking order in NXT at this point. Hendry is mega-over and Santana got a nice pop when he showed up. 2.5*

Winner – Joe Hendry (Standing Ovation chokeslam)

Post-match sees Hendry and Santana in the ring together pointing at Williams, who’s standing on top of the announce table.

Last week NXT Women’s North American Champion Sol Ruca and Zaria tried to convince Tatum Paxley to not be friendly with Izzi Dame, but Dame makes sure to tell Paxley she’s her friend and that they’d make a great team. Ruca sticks out her tongue at Dame as Paxley leaves with her. The two teams will meet on tonight’s show.

Luca Crusifino is on his way to the ring as we go to commercials. Once we’re back, Crusifino is in the ring with a mic. He says that Tony D’Angelo hasn’t trusted him since Stand & Deliver and after last week, Crusifino wants to put the whole thing to bed. Here’s Tony D’Angelo to respond. They go over last week’s events and Crusifino says D’Angelo is going to listen to him now. Crusifino has given up a lot to be where he is and has always been loyal. Here’s NXT Heritage Cup Champion Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo to join the proceedings as I continue to wonder where Rizzo is. Stacks thanks Crusifino for helping him become the Cup champion. Crusifino says Stacks is not part of the family, and this is between him and D’Angelo. As D’Angelo is agreeing with that, Crusifino drops D’Angelo with a right hand. Stacks comes into the ring and puts his arm around Crusifino in celebration, but Crusifino punches Stacks as well. Crusifino says his loyalty now lies with himself as he throws down the mic and leaves D’Angelo and Stacks on the mat staring at him.

Here’s Kelly Kincaid with NXT Men’s Champion Oba Femi to ask about the number one contender match. Femi says he wants to see if Inamura has the grit and tenacity to overcome Jasper Troy who is very hungry. Femi doesn’t want to see them destroy each other and here’s Yoshiki Inamura with Josh Briggs. Inamura says he will show Femi tonight the needed tenacity. Femi says among all the changes happening there’s one constant and it’s him. Inamura says Femi won’t have to wait long and he’ll see him at the Great American Bash.

Lexis King makes his entrance as we go to commercials.

Lexis King vs Myles Borne

Borne reverses King’s opening wristlock. King acrobatically reverses Borne’s wristlock with a short kick to the face, and Borne is pissed. They run the ropes and it ends with King stepping comically on Borne’s back further frustrating the young man. They run the ropes again and this time Borne catches King with a Saito suplex. Borne ragdolls King around in a gator roll. Borne whips King into the corner and charges, but King flips Borne onto the apron. Borne catches King with a right hand and ascends, but King recovers to dropkick Borne while he’s perched on the top turnbuckle. King starts clubbering, and then hits Borne with a massive superplex for two. King wins a slugfest after taunting the crowd and then clotheslines Borne in the corner. King hits a big chop and then a shotgun dropkick on a prone Borne and that gets two. They slug it out again and King legdrops Borne face-first on the bottom turnbuckle. King pretends he’s going for another shotgun dropkick but he stops and simply slaps Borne in the face. THAT’S VERY DISREPECTFUL LEXIS.

Borne fires up and clubs King with some rights before clotheslining King to the mat. Borne hits a Euro uppercut and a swank belly-to-belly overhead suplex. Borne charges but eats a King elbow. King charges out and Borne catches him in an Olympic Slam for two. Borne hoists King up on his shoulders but King rakes Borne’s eyes to slip out of it. King catches Borne with a superkick, but Borne recovers with a huge dropkick. Borne hits his lifting reverse STO (think the Zig-Zag finisher) and gets the three count.

Borne is so incredibly athletically gifted and I’m glad he’s getting some solo shine. He still needs a lot of reps and that’s fine, but in terms of his overall deal, I think they really have something with him if he can stay healthy. Lexis King is just a shitheel who eats pins at this point, and the wrestling world needs those kinds of guys. He doesn’t blow spots or do anything to really stand out but he doesn’t stink the joint up too badly, I guess. This didn’t get enough time to really get anywhere special though. 2*

Winner – Myles Borne (lifting reverse STO)

Here’s Darkstate in a pre-tape promo. Dion Lennox says he knows where they’re going next, but we don’t.

Thea Hail makes her entrance as we go to commercials.

Thea Hail vs Lainey Reid

I continue to marvel at how much Lainey Reid resembles a certain wrestling dentist. Reid takes the early advantage and whips Hail to the canvas. Hail fires up and dumps Reid for some ground and pound. Hail legdrops Reid down and hits a reverse standing moonsault for two. Hail runs Reid into the corner and hits a back elbow, and as Reid tries to reverse, Hail hits her with a second back elbow. Hail slips a Reid charge, but Reid catches Hail from behind and drops Hail face-first on the top turnbuckle. Hail staggers backwards and Reid hits her with a release German suplex. Reid grabs a seated Hail and drops big elbows to Hail’s left shoulder before stomping Hail’s head. Reid dumps Hail into the corner and puts her boot under Hail’s chin.

Reid staggers Hail with another elbow before grabbing a headlock. Reid lifts a knee, and then hits Hail with an enormous shoulder-breaker on the targeted left shoulder for two. Hail slips an elbow drop and then smacks a charging Reid with a fist to the gut. Reid charges again and eats a Hail thrust kick as Hail fires up. Hail hits Reid with two double sledges, and then drops Reid for a short-arm clothesline. Hail hits a running reverse neckbreaker for two. Reid bails to the apron and as Hail follows Reid shoulders her to the mat and ascends. Reid hits a top rope roundhouse kick and charges in, but Hail catches her and tries for the Kimura. They tussle and Reid drops Hail for a cover and tries to leverage the pin attempt with her feet on the ropes, but the ref sees this and stops the count. While Reid argues with the ref, Hail rolls her up for two. Reid hits Hail with a huge elbow right next to the ropes and the referee counts three with Reid using the bottom rope for leverage.

This was a short hard-hitting affair and while Reid still needs a ton of reps, she’s got some good heel juice. Thea is a good opponent to work with because she’s got the character stuff down pat but she’s little enough to be tossed around by bigger competitors like Reid. I’d like to see Hail get a win once in awhile, though. 2.25*

Winner – Lainey Reid (Back elbow)

Backstage here’s No Quarter Catch Crew with Wren Sinclair hyping up Tavion Heights coming ever so close to beating Je’von Evans last week. Charles Dempsey says Heights should have done what Jasper Troy did to Evans but since he didn’t it proves Heights still needs to be a part of NQCC. Heights says he wants the same deal that Myles Borne got, a one-on-one with Charles and if he wins, Heights is out. Dempsey agrees to it, but says after he beats Heights he doesn’t want to have this conversation ever again.

Zaria and Sol Ruca make their entrance as we go to commercials.

Here’s Jasper Troy to cut a backstage promo. He says the locker room lives in fear of Oba Femi who is dominant and entitled, but Femi barely survived being in the ring with Troy. Troy is sure Femi is rooting for Inamura tonight because Femi knows what he’s in for at the Bash if Troy gets his hand raised tonight. Troy says he’ll go through Inamura tonight because he is Femi’s destiny.

Zaria and Sol Ruca vs Izzi Dame and Tatum Paxley

Joseph openly accuses Niko Vance and Shawn Spears of attacking Hank & Tank at the end of last week’s show, as they are seconding Dame and Paxley. I was guessing maybe it was Darkstate but oh well.

Ruca once again tries to talk some sense into Paxley. Dame comes in to rebut as Zaria comes charging over, and then Zaria uses Ruca as a swinging weapon to kick both Paxley and Dame to the floor. Ruca goes behind Paxley with a waist lock, but Paxley reverses acrobatically. Paxley tags in Dame who slugs a charging Ruca into a roundhouse kick from Paxley. Dame bodyslams Ruca and joins hands with Paxley in a show of friendship that has Paxley grinning from ear to ear. Dame whips Ruca into the corner and runs a shoulder into her. Dame hits chops and punches before tagging Paxley back in. Paxley puts the boots to Ruca in the corner, but Ruca catches Paxley’s leg and dumps her down into a rollup for two. Ruca hits some elbows and whips Paxley into the corner for an elbow.

Zaria tags in and her and Ruca hit a double-team rolling slam and fistdrop as Zaria covers for two. Paxley ducks a kick and rolls to tag in Dame. Dame and Zaria scream at each other before Dame hits a big boot to knock Zaria to the canvas for two. They slug it out and hit simultaneous headbutts on each other and as Dame staggers back, Paxley tags herself in. Zaria hits a pump kick on Dame but Paxley soars in with a big crossbody that gets two. In a cool show of strength, Zaria lifts Paxley up as she’s got Zaria in a headlock, and Zaria calmly tags in Ruca before tossing Paxley off of her. Ruca hits a springboard front slam on Paxley and then hits a charging Dame with the same move. Ruca tags Zaria in.Zaria hoists Paxley on her shoulders and Ruca walks onto Paxley’s back before leaping onto Dame on the floor. Zaria presses Paxley and dumps her onto Dame. We go to commercials.

Back live with Dame tagging herself in as Zaria has Paxley on her shoulders. Paxley uses the ropes to tie up Zaria and Dame charges in with a huge dropkick. Dame whips Zaria into her team’s corner and shoulders her before tagging Paxley back in. Zaria ducks an enziguri attempt, but Paxley elbows her and then hits a short dropkick. Paxley charges Zaria in the heel corner and cross-bodies Zaria. Dame grabs Paxley’s hands and feet and uses the ring post for leverage to torture Zaria. Dame hits a short-arm clothesline and covers for two. Dame is bleeding from her nose and she slugs it out with Zaria before hitting her with a big chokeslam. Paxley tags in and hits a beautiful running tilt-a-whirl double spin kick on Zaria for a long two. Paxley drives a knee into Zaria’s back and slaps on a headlock. Zaria gets to her feet and breaks free, but Paxley catches her with an enziguri and covers for two. Paxley goes back to the headlock. Zaria again rises and this time Paxley hits her with a huge swinging DDT before tagging in Dame.

Dame whips Paxley into Zaria, but Zaria lifts the knees and then ducks past a stunned Dame to tag in Ruca. Ruca runs wild on both heels and ends the sequence with a dropkick to both before nipping up to a big pop. People love a good nip-up, team. Ruca charges in with an elbow on Dame and Zaria tags back in. Zaria splashes a prone Paxley before assisting a Ruca dropkick to Paxley. Zaria slams Dame down and then assists Ruca in a two-handed twisting splash on a prone Dame. Zaria covers for two as Paxley breaks it up by stepping on Zaria’s back before delivering a big knee to an unsuspecting Ruca. Ruca bails and Paxley chases after, but Ruca catches her and dumps Paxley face-first on the apron. Zaria hoists Dame on to her shoulders, but Dame escapes and catches Zaria with a Codebreaker. Dame goes to tag but Paxley has not made it back to the corner. Ruca charges in and hits Dame with a kind of reverse double-boot backbreaker. Zaria goes to spear Dame but Paxley flies in and pushes Dame out the way as Zaria flattens Ruca instead. Paxley dumps Zaria to the floor and dropkicks her through the ropes. Dame slugs Ruca and then hits her sit-out Sky High powerbomb on Ruca for three.

Match of the night so far for me. Tatum Paxley is WILDLY underrated as a performer and while Dame still needs a shit-ton of reps and more moves than just shoulders, punches, and chops, they worked well together here. Graves was pushing the inevitable ZaRuca implosion throughout the match commentary and maybe it’s coming sooner rather than later after this ending. I thought the match flowed well, there was a good long heel heat sequence on Zaria that lead to the hot tag, and the heels won clean without cheating. I enjoyed this a bunch, actually. 3.5*

Winners – Izzi Dame and Tatum Paxley (Dame Sky High sit-out powerbomb on Ruca)

Post-match sees Niko Vance hoist Paxley on to his shoulders to celebrate. I love Tatum Paxley, y’all.

Here’s NXT GM Ava having a chat with Ricky Saints and NXT Men’s North American Champion Ethan Page. Page is joined by his pals in Evolve’s The Vanity Project. Ava wants a civil conversation but Saints says nope, it’s going to be man to man because Saints wants his rematch for the title. Page says he’s the greatest NA champion and he’ll be dictating everything that happens around the belt moving forward as Ava rolls her eyes. Page says he’ll give Saints a rematch if Saints can survive “The Vanity Project Gauntlet”. Saints says he’ll do it but when he wins the Gauntlet, he gets to dictate the stipulations for the rematch, and Ava likes that idea. We go to commercials.

The NXT SPOTLIGHT PRESENTED BY PROGRESSIVE is on Chase University. Andre Chase says he’s reflected after last week’s classroom incident and wants to apologize to Uriah Connors and Kale Dixon. Chase got Dixon a singles match for next week and while his methods aren’t for everyone, he and Connors will be in Dixon’s corner. If Dixon listens to Chase, he’ll prove he’s [BLEEPING] Chase U tough.

Kelly Kincaid is backstage with Joe Hendry and Mike Santana. Hendry tries to thank Santana, but Santana says they’re only united now because of defending TNA against guys like Trick and the High Ryze crew. Ava has stated that Hendry and Santana will team up next week against High Ryze (I’m assuming Tyson and Tyriek but it’s never specifically stated). Hendry knows he’s never getting invited to Santana’s cookout but he’ll team up with him next week. Santana says he definitely believes….that Hendry is a “cornball” but he wants to make sure that Hendry knows that he’s winning at Slammiversary. The contract signing for the Slammiversary match is at the Great American Bash show on the 12th.

Here’s Josh Briggs hyping up Yoshiki Inamura for his match with Jasper Troy. Inamura wants Briggs to stay in the locker room. Jasper Troy makes his entrance and we go to commercials.

The Culling and Tatum Paxley are backstage when we come back. Ava comes in to inform Izzi Dame that by virtue of her pinning Sol Ruca, she’ll face Ruca for the Women’s NA Title at the Great American Bash. Here are Hank & Tank to yell at Vance and Spears but apparently they don’t know for sure it was them who attacked. Paxley says she’s sure that her new friends wouldn’t do something like that but if Hank & Tank want to put their titles on the line next week, everyone can work it out. They agree and Ava makes that match as well before scurrying away.

Number One Contender Match: Yoshiki Inamura vs Jasper Troy

They slug it out to start and Troy kicks Inamura in the stomach to slow things down. Troy yanks up Inamura and bodyslams him, and then drops a huge elbow to Inamura’s chest for a one count. Graves says Troy reminds him of Abyss and Booker agrees with that. Troy hits a big splash on Inamura in the corner and then a short-arm clothesline gets two. Troy slaps a headlock on a sitting Inamura, but Inamura powers out and gets his own headlock. Troy breaks free and tries short-arm clotheslines that Inamura no-sells as he’s firing up. Inamura yanks Troy up and hits a sidewalk slam and a big elbow drop for two. Inamura goes back to the headlock as Oba Femi watches on a monitor in the locker room. Inamura goes into his sumo pose and then shoulders Troy, but as he tries for it again Troy yanks him up for his own sidewalk slam and that gets two. Inamura slips a Troy clothesline attempt, and as Troy is dangling on the ropes, Inamura clotheslines him out and down to the floor as we go to commercials.

Back live with Troy trucking Inamura to the canvas. Troy hits three big running splashes on Inamura and the last one gets a two count. Troy yanks up Inamura and hits a jumping drop splash on him for two. Inamura tries to fight out of an abdominal stretch and once he does he tosses Troy shoulder-first into the ring post. Inamura slips a Troy charge and chops away at him, before throwing forearms at Troy’s head. Troy catches a charging Inamura with a Bossman slam for two. Troy charges off the ropes for another splash but Inamura gets his knees up. Inamura fires away at Troy in the corner with sumo strikes and chops. Inamura whips Troy from corner to corner and then twice bodyslams Troy as Booker is incredulous. Inamura ascends and hits a top rope splash for a clean three.

That’s how you make a number one contender right there. Inamura is wickedly strong and has a decent enough moveset, and he also has good timing in terms of his babyface comebacks. Troy is very obviously a work in progress and I’m betting there are going to be OPINIONS about him losing cleanly in this match after taking Femi to the very limit in their title match a few weeks ago. This was a decent enough hoss fight and I liked it. 3*

Winner and NEW Number One Contender – Yoshiki Inamura (top rope jumping splash)

Post-match Inamura is confronted in the aisle by Oba Femi and as they bicker, Je’von Evans flies in with a cutter on a surprised Troy. Jordynne Grace will join us in the ring after commercials.

Joseph runs down next week’s card. Hank & Tank will defend the tag titles against Shawn Spears and Niko Vance, Ricky Saints will run the Vanity Project Gauntlet, Joe Hendry and Mike Santana will team up against High Ryze, and Tavion Heights will fight Charlie Dempsey for the right to leave the NQCC group.

Here’s Jordynne Grace for a chat and I’m betting we see at least one interruption here. Grace says she wants to be completely honest that getting to this point is the hardest thing she’s ever had to do. Last week reminded her that she thrives under pressure and that the bigger the battle, the bigger the win is. Grace is excited to compete at Evolution because it’s not just a big event for WWE, it’s a big event for women’s wrestling. She wants to make history alongside the best women’s wrestlers in the world. Grace says she’s terrified of being vulnerable but she’s been asking herself if she’s good enough to be here in NXT. She didn’t say she was going to be a WWE superstar as a kid but she did everything she had to do in order to get there. She became someone they couldn’t ignore so at Evolution, she’s going to beat Jacy Jayne and prove to everyone exactly who she is.

Here’s NXT Women’s Champion Jacy Jayne with Fallon Henley and Jazmyn Nyx in tow. Jayne says she’s fully aware that Grace can bench-press more than her but she’ll never carry the division the way that Jayne will. Grace can flex all she wants but it won’t get her a title and it definitely won’t be at Evolution. Everyone says Jayne is the most beatable champion in history but she is at the top of her game and that everyone can keep crying about it while she keeps winning. Jayne says Grace is like Blake Monroe, she walked into WWE expecting everyone to bow down, but Fatal Influence will be there to remind Grace exactly where she stands. Grace interrupts and tells Jayne to shut up. Grace tells Jayne she shocked the world when she beat Stephanie Vaquer for the title, but no one is going to be shocked when Grace beats Jayne at Evolution.

Jayne has had enough chat and tries to slug Grace but Grace blocks it and sends Jayne down with a right. Henley goes to attack and eats a right hand. As Grace stalks Nyx, Jayne slugs Grace in the back of the head and the heels take over with the numbers game. Here’s Blake Monroe to make the save. Monroe runs wild on Jayne and Henley sending Henley to the floor while Jayne walks into a Grace twisting spinebuster. Here’s Ava to tell everyone to calm down and she makes Grace and Monroe versus Henley and Jayne for the GAB card. Henley and Jayne charge the ring but Monroe and Grace dispatch them quickly. The heels yell from the aisle as the credits roll and we’re out.

The second hour was better than the first tonight. For a taped show, this wasn’t bad but I am guessing there are going to be some opinions on the Inamura-Troy match in terms of Inamura kicking out of Troy’s finisher and then pinning him clean. I very much enjoyed the women’s tag match and everything else ring-wise was fine. I am starting to lose patience and interest with the Family storyline and I couldn’t care less about Darkstate or the Saints/Page thing, but everything else was good and the closing angle was done pretty well. GAB looks like a good card and Grace/Jayne being on Evolution is going to be cool. I’d go thumbs slightly up for this week.

Thanks for reading, I’ll see you for Smackdown later this week (TWO HOURS THANK YOU JEBUS).