NXT Review – 12.02.25

A few things have happened in WWE-land, so let’s read all about it: Impact | Smackdown | Survivor Series | Raw

NXT comes to the airwaves on the CW in BEAUTIFUL TECHNICOLOR from the Performance Center in Orlando, FL. The presenters of tonight’s show are Vic Joseph and Corey Graves on match calls and analysis, Mike Rome on ring announcements, and Sarah Schreiber on backstage interviews and breaking news segments. Tonight is the go-home show for Saturday’s Deadline event, so let’s watch some wrestling.

Then, Now, Forever….TOGETHER

NXT GM Ava is in the ring with the Women’s Iron Survivor participants for THE SUMMIT. Ava reminds everyone that John Cena picked this field and what the stakes are for the match. Sol Ruca mentions that Cena called her a “world champion calibre” competitor and now she’s beginning to see herself as that. Ruca is currently empty-handed but she can gain her peace back by winning at Deadline. Jordynne Grace mentions that the path is never that simple and that she’s ready to run through a brick wall to win the match. Lola Vice says that Cena picked her because she believes in herself and if it wasn’t for Lainey Reid she’d be champion right now. Kendal Grey chimes in to mention that she’s the only actual champion standing in the ring. Kelani Jordan says Grey is now swimming with the sharks and there’s blood in the water. Jordan runs down Vice and Grace and points out that the match is electrifying, dynamic, and innovative, just like her. Jordan mentions that only her and Ruca have experience in Iron Survivor and she will be the one to walk out as the number one contender.

Here’s NXT Women’s Champion Jacy Jayne flanked by WWE Women’s Speed Champion Fallon Henley and Lainey Reid. Jayne questions in what world would she let any of these losers ruin her newly won title. Jayne runs down each of the competitors. After Jayne makes fun of Jordan losing at Gold Rush, Jordan calls Grace a “meat head” who cost her the Knockouts title and Grace doesn’t take it well. A brawl breaks out and the Iron Survivor challengers end up sending the Fatal crew to the floor in response to them rushing the ring.

EARLIER TODAY here’s Joe Hendry and Thea Hail backstage to talk about the John Cena chatter at Gold Rush about how he also believes in Hendry. In walks Stacks Lorenzo and Arianna Grace to put down Thea Hail’s performance in Gold Rush. Grace and Hail get into it and I think a match is made. We go to commercials.

Backstage Ava is giving Security their walking orders, before running into Fatal Influence. Ava makes a six woman tag with Fatal vs Sol Ruca, Lola Vice, and Kendal Grey.

Thea Hail vs Arianna Grace

Hendry seconds Hail, with Stacks seconding Grace. Stacks has run afoul of TNA International Champion and will apparently fight him at Final Resolution on Friday evening. Hail and Grace bark at each other before locking up. Grace grabs an elbow lock but Hail reverses with an arm drag. Grace hits a double thrust and starts dropping elbows. Grace snaps off a neckbreaker before smashing Hail in a corner with a clothesline. Hail grabs a quick backslide for two. Grace pops Hail in the face but Hail manages to dump Grace to the floor before walloping her with a tope suicida. Hail hits an Exploder and a knee to the jaw. Stacks tries to interfere and here’s Hendry to charge over and slam Stacks on the apron. Grace tries a roll up and Hail puts her into the Kimura. Grace taps immediately.

Short, and to the point. No one sold a thing, but it’s NXT so that is kind of the standard at the moment. I’m beginning to wonder if selling is just kind of an afterthought at this point. Anyway, there’s nothing to go out of your way to seek out with this one. 1.5*

Winner – Thea Hail (Kimura submission)

EARLIER THIS WEEK OTM arrived to the NXT Parking Lot and almost get run over by the Chase U students. Andre Chase tells Kale Dixon and Uriah Connors that OTM mentioned the next time they see the students, it’s “on sight”. Chase isn’t sure exactly what that means but asks if Connors and Dixon are BLEEPING stupid.

Josh Briggs makes his entrance as we go to commercials.

Here’s Ava with Je’von Evans, TNA X Division Champion Leon Slater, Myles Borne and the ubiquitous Joe Hendry having a quick chat about Darkstate and the eight man tag coming up tonight. Robert Stone walks in with a box that came for Ava (that is open) and Ava takes it to open it. It’s a bunch of coal, I think.

Josh Briggs vs Tavion Heights

A fight breaks out on the floor before the bell rings. They end up in the ring and the bell sounds. Heights gets the early advantage but Briggs cuts it off with some clubbering and a choke slam. Briggs covers and gets two. Briggs kicks Heights but that fires Heights up and he snaps off a German and a clothesline. Heights covers and gets two. Heights dumps Briggs a couple of times before Briggs fires up with a brief flurry. Heights hits a kind of tilt-a-whirl suplex that dumps Briggs right on his head. Heights covers for two. Heights hits a fireman’s carry and covers for two. Briggs snaps off a forearm as Joseph speculates as to why John Cena didn’t name either of these guys for Iron Survivor. Heights starts clubbering but Briggs dumps him to the floor and kicks him in the face when he tries to return. Heights snatches up Briggs and slams him through the barricade. We go to commercials.

They’re slugging it out and Briggs hits a side slam and a splash before covering Heights for two. Briggs works an armbar but Heights escapes and starts firing off forearms. Heights hits a dropkick and wanders in to Briggs firing him face first into a turnbuckle. Briggs goes to hammer fists and then fires off a forearm. Brigggs slaps Heights and talks trash. Briggs misses a charge and Heights snaps off a hip toss. Heights hits some running clotheslines and a sling blade. They crash together and Briggs pulls off his chain. The official tosses the chain out as Heights hits a belly-to-belly. The ref rushes over and counts two. Heights barks at the ref and Briggs crushes him with a big boot and a gigantic lariat. The ref counts three after Briggs covers.

Graves had some very pointed comments about Briggs on commentary during this, and again, I wonder if it’s literally a message to Briggs to get better and soon. This result was highly unpopular with the PC crowd but Briggs held his own tonight. I don’t admit that often, but he did sell, and he won with the power game, which is what he should do. It was more back-and-forth than a lot of Briggs matches are, as well. I have questions about the future of Tavion Heights at this point, I have to admit. 2.5*

Winner – Josh Briggs (lariat)

Here’s The Culling backstage walking towards the ring as we go to commercials.

Izzi Dame has a microphone and she points out the crowd love Tatum Paxley because they’re just like her. At this point the crowd is chanting something the censors won’t allow so we miss a bunch of the promo. Dame says she didn’t betray Paxley, she corrected a mistake. Dame questions why Paxley thought her advice about the title was not to be taken seriously. Dame says she gave Paxley a voice, but Paxley kept tripping over her own vices. Dame says Paxley clearly thought the Culling wasn’t good enough for her. (The PC crowd is now singing the Addams Family theme song as Dame is trying to cut this promo and it’s clearly messing with her delivery. YOU SCAMPS.) Dame says Paxley could not have become champion without the Culling and Dame allowed her to become that champion. Dame says she took everything from Paxley because she owed Dame. Dame and Paxley will go one on one at Deadline and Dame will finish what she started at MSG. Dame says she’ll end Paxley in San Antonio.

Here’s Tatum Paxley on the video board to question why Dame took what they had and tore it apart. Dame calls Paxley pathetic and predictable and invites her to do something about it. Paxley says she’s scared because she’s going to have to make Dame feel all of her pain at Deadline.

Sol Ruca is with Lola Vice, Kendal Grey and Wren Sinclair in the locker room as Zaria walks in. Ruca apologizes for not seconding Zaria at Gold Rush since she was dealing with the fallout from the Blake Monroe match. Zaria says she won’t be out there tonight with Ruca, and Sinclair promises to second the group during the six women tag. Zaria seems miffed at this as we go to commercials.

Evolve Women’s Champion Kendal Grey, Lola Vice and Sol Ruca vs Fatal Influence (NXT Women’s Champion Jacy Jayne, Fallon Henley and Lainey Reid)

Reid starts with Vice but everyone piles in and starts barking at each other. A Pier Six breaks out and everyone gets a move in before it ends with Ruca hitting a moonsault on the floor that sends Fatal flying. Back in the ring Vice starts snapping off kicks on a helpless Reid. Ruca tags in and hits a standing moonsault before covering Reid for two. Reid gains control and Henley tags in. Henley smashes Ruca with a kick and covers for two. Ruca tags in Grey and she fires Henley over before Henley fires up. Henley misses a charge and Grey trips up Henley before waffling her with a dropkick. Grey’s cover gets two. Reid tags in and crushes Grey with a dropkick before covering and getting two. Grey hits a fireman’s carry on Reid who luckily ends up close enough to tag in Jayne (THIS MATCH IS GOING TEN MILLION MILES AN HOUR WHY GOD WHY). Grey tosses Jayne around so Jayne blind-tags Reid and dumps Grey to the apron. Grey slugs Reid but Henley sneaks in to drop Grey face-first on the apron. Henley pushes Grey in to the ring so Jayne can smash her with a senton. We go to commercials.

Grey is still getting worked over when the show returns. Fatal hits a triple team move that culminates in a Jayne superkick. Jayne’s cover gets two. Jayne hits another superkick and then tells Vice to suck it in true WWE fashion. Grey fights her way out finally and tags in Vice. Vice runs wild on Fatal and hits the hip attack on Jayne and Reid. Henley walks into a German as Vice covers for two. Ruca tags in and she hits a shoulder breaker on Henley but Jayne breaks the cover up at two. Jayne smashes Vice and Grey but walks into a Ruca superkick. Henley rolls up Ruca for two. Henley hits a blockbuster on Ruca and then Reid and Jayne charge in with double knees. Ruca gets rolled up by Jayne for two, but when she escapes Ruca manages to snap off a Sol Snatcher on Jayne. Ruca covers and gets three.

I cannot begin to describe how much I hated this match. This is the kind of match where everyone goes a million miles an hour, no one sells a damn thing except for the extended heat sequence that always happens during the commercial breaks to kill time, and it’s all just move after move after move. No real psychology, just everyone flying around with almost zero purpose just to show off their athleticism. Like, I’m certainly not suggesting these folks aren’t talented but NOTHING is given a chance to breathe whatsoever. It drives me batty. Anyway, Ruca getting a pin on Jayne is probably a false signal but I’m sure her and Jayne will do battle for the title at some point regardless of the Iron Survivor result. 2.5* is generous but again, everyone is wildly talented here. I just hated this match like poison.

Winners – Sol Ruca, Lola Vice, and Kendal Grey (Sol Snatcher on Jayne)

Post-match sees Vice pull Ruca out of the way as Zaria spears Kendal Grey. Zaria and Ruca bark at each other in the aftermath.

NXT Anonymous catches a conversation between Je’von Evans and NXT Men’s Champion Ricky Saints. Evans is hinting around at a title shot and Saints says Evans will win Iron Survivor and then they can meet at New Year’s Evil.

OTM make their entrance as we go to commercials.

Darkstate are backstage and Dion Lennox offers up his tag title so he can fully focus on singles gold. After some back and forth it’s decided that Saquon Shugars will be the recipient. In walks Oba Femi to mention that Lennox is following along his path including Iron Survivor. Lennox says Femi should watch the eight man to see what his future holds.

Chase U (Kale Dixon and Uriah Connors) vs OTM (Bronco Nima and Lucien Price)

Andre Chase is out to second his students. Chase U attack at the bell as Joseph makes a Lane Kiffin joke. Connors hits a swanton and covers Price for two. Nima tags in and starts working over Connors. There are some quick OTM tags and Connors manages to escape to tag in Dixon. Dixon smashes Price in the back but Price fires up with a big boot. Nima tags in and hits a big knee on Dixon before covering and getting one. Price tags in and they hit a stomach breaker on Dixon for two. Dixon hits a blockbuster and tags in Connors. Connors misses a dive and gets sent to the apron. Connors hits a tornado DDT and covers Price for two. Chase U hit some double team stuff but OTM catch them diving off the apron and smash them together on the floor. OTM hit their finisher and Price covers Connors for three.

Sure, why not. Another match that everyone just ran through and got their stuff in before the finish. 1.5*

Winners – OTM (Unnamed powerslam finisher)

Highlights are shown of AAA’s Alianzas card with the mixed tag match with Ethan Page and Chelsea Green taking on Mr Iguana and Lola Vice. Ethan Page runs into Ava as he’s leaving, and Ava mentions he’s due for a title defense at Deadline. As it turns out Mr Iguana has snuck into Page’s vehicle and apparently that will be the match at Deadline. Ava: “A reptile just stole your car!”. We go to commercials.

THE NXT FOCUS PRESENTED BY PROGRESSIVE is yet another Shiloh Hill creepy promo. He mentions a Thanksgiving when he was a kid where he crashed a snowmobile while on the way to his cousins. Hill talks about surviving a long cold night and talks about how cool it would have been to be eaten by wolves. Hill puts over being coached by The Undertaker on LFG. Graves asks if Hill is on a watchlist somewhere after it’s over.

Graves and Joseph run down the Deadline card, which looks to be a decent show.

Joe Hendry, Leon Slater and Je’von Evans make their entrances as we go to commercials.

Darkstate (Saquon Shugars, Cutler James, Dion Lennox and Osiris Griffin) vs Joe Hendry, TNA X-Division Champion Leon Slater, Je’von Evans and Myles Borne

Borne starts with Griffin and Griffin trucks Borne before tagging in Shugars. Borne gets his knees up when Griffin goes to slam Shugars on him. Shugars trucks Borne and Borne fires up with a snap powerslam that gets two. Borne works over Shugars and a neckbreaker gets two. Hendry tags in and hits a hiptoss on Shugars. Hendry’s neckbreaker gets two. James tags in and stops Hendry with a Euro uppercut. Slater tags in and wallops James with a dropkick. Evans tags in and he and Slater run some double-team stuff before an Evans stomp gets two. A chop battle starts but James snaps off a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker before covering Evans for two. Lennox tags in and starts firing off rights on Evans. Evans fires up with a dropkick and covers Lennox for two. Borne tags in and runs into a Lennox spinebuster. A Pier Six erupts and everyone ends up on the floor as we go to commercials with Darkstate firmly in control.

Evans and Shugars are slugging it out and Evans gets a sunset flip for two. Hendry tags in and runs into Lennox who drops him over the top rope throat-first. Lennox works over Hendry along the ropes and then drops a leg. Lennox covers Hendry for two. Griffin tags in and a double-team back elbow gets two. Griffin smashes Hendry into a turnbuckle and then chokes him over the top rope. Shugars tags in and his kick to Hendry gets two. James tags in but Hendry fights him off so Lennox tags in. Lennox puts on a guillotine but Hendry snaps him up and over with a suplex. Hendry tags in Slater and he runs wild on Darkstate until he runs into a double-team slam. Darkstate isolate Slater and try for their powerbomb finisher but Slater escapes it and tags in Evans. Evans dumps James and Griffin and then flies over the top rope to crush Shugars on the announce desk. Evans then flies and crushes James on the other side of the ring. Evans smashes Griffin and then hits his springboard cutter on Griffin but Darkstate break up the cover at two. Everyone comes in and there’s a sequence of blind tags on the babyface side that end up making everyone mad, but it ends with Borne hitting Borne Again on Griffin and covering him for three.

Everything, and I mean EVERY DAMN THING on this show went a million miles an hour in the ring tonight. I will say that Darkstate is growing on me a bit because the act is a bit more polished and not as chaotic as the early incarnation was. They work well as a unit and are athletic as hell. I still don’t love them or anything but they seem to have settled into a groove and I think Shawn has figured out how to use them more effectively. The babyface team was just loaded with athletic ability and this was just a showcase to get to Iron Survivor, realistically. 3*

Winners – Joe Hendry, TNA X-Division Champion Leon Slater, Je’von Evans and Myles Borne (Borne Again on Griffin)

Ava is moderating the contract signing between Oba Femi and Ricky Saints. Femi signs while saying he’s not the same man he was at No Mercy. Saints says he’s the exception to the rule and signs as well. The match will open the show at Deadline in an interesting development. The credits roll and we’re out.

You might have been able to tell that I was annoyed thoroughly by the in-ring stuff tonight, but I’m interested to hear in the comments if others felt the same way. For me, the basics of wrestling are look, promos, in-ring work, selling, and psychology. Perhaps it’s possible that this kind of wrestling is what this newer and younger audience is looking for and far be it from me to tell them they’re wrong. I just worry about just how FAST it all goes, and hey, FrAxiom certainly haven’t slowed down in the slightest since they joined the main roster. It’s just not really the prevailing style on the main roster at this point, so I wonder if people who get called up will be told to slow it down and grab a hold. I guess we’ll see. For a go-home, I thought this was pretty underwhelming but I think Deadline looks like a good show overall.

Thanks as always for reading and commenting. I appreciate you all very much. On a personal note, this is a very difficult time in my offline life and wrestling has always been an outlet, which is why I need to continue writing these recaps to escape things for a bit. I hope you’ll understand and continue to be kind to each other in the comments.