NXT Deadline – 12.06.25

Welcome all as I am the temporary fill-in for NXT’s show due to some personal happenstances for our regular reviewer (all love to Niz right now, IYKYK) and this is going to be a very truncated review as I worked very late and couldn’t watch it live and am not feeling up to any PBP.

We’re in Texas! The crowd looks decently sized, we run down the whole deal and WWE’s video packages are great.

We start with Ricky Saints defending his NXT world championship against Oba Femi. They play off their prior match (where Ricky beat Oba for the title) with the spammed DDTs but this time Oba is just too powerful and powerbombs Ricky into oblivion.

This was Meh.

Look, I’m happy with the result, the match was…fine, not one of Oba’s best, but the whole thing is like…why did Oba lose? Just so Ricky could be champion and job to Mike Santana in that one match? It’s baffling to me, I hope Oba does well, I’m unsure what Ricky’s future is.

Next up we get some more hype videos, and we have a sitdown interview with Kendal Grey and Wren Sinclair talking about how Grey stands a chance in the Iron Survivor and how Cena picked her and though she has the least experience she has the most heart and they set up the Wrendal thing. Then we have some of Hank and Tank talking about their time in Japan and how they earned gold there and are coming back to NXT.

This was Meh.

Look, I like these acts, but Kendal is pretty rough on the mic and Hank and Tank are sorta dorks. This is fine TV stuff but I don’t know why it’s on a Big Show (weeeeeell).

Now we got an Iron Survivor match with Kelani Jordan, Kendal Grey, Jordynne Grace, Lola Vice, and Sol Ruca, I love the Iron Survivor deal and this match used the format to a tee, perhaps a bit TOO slickly as this was spotty as heck and very polished with everybody doing pretty tremendously choreographed setups to all the pinfalls, buuuut they did it very well, it was tight right to the very end, it had good character moments, good setups for future feuds, and I think the big swing of having Kendal Grey win is a FANTASTIC decision. She’s great (though of course she has some flaws) and sometimes you just have to run somebody up the card.

This was Good.

WWE gets the “not real wrestling” diss a lot, and I’m not overall a Gimmick Match Guy but I think the IS scratches a very particular itch for me and this was tremendous stuff, I’m not gonna do star ratings for much of this cause I’m half-awake here but 4* feels reasonable for me.

We get a little Mania and then Evolve hype video before we settle on Drake Morreaux who is a southern-fried Louisiana redneck who we’ve seen around a few times and is apparently ready to make his Evolve showcase, of course he’s the real-life beau of one Roxanne Perez, so I’d wager he gets a decent push. We also get some It’s GAL, an arrogant body guy heel who focuses on how good he looks, so I guess they’re using a NXT PLE to showcase Evolve? Huh.

This was Meh.

I like Evolve! I review Evolve! But Uh, why are we watching Evolve segments on NXT?

We get a backstage segment with Ava and Blake Monroe (a dodgy start) and then Blake wants to prove she’s a legit champion with (sigh) an open challenge.

This was Bad.

Open challenges are awful and overused and Blake and Ava are unpleasant screen experiences.

Myles Borne has an interview now where he’s asked about where he wants to start (having earned that opportunity via a match on NXT) and he’s contemplated if first or last makes sense, so LIKE A COWARD he picks the middle…which hey is reasonable and makes sense.

This is Good.

Borne’s diffability aside, he’s a pretty damn good promo and this was short and sweet. He’s a solid babyface but I do wonder if he lacks the sizzle to be a big star.

We now have a brawl with Jordynne and Jordan as I realized they both were primarily dressed in Red, what does this mean for the nWo? Turn into Nitro to find out.

Now we got Ethan Page defending his North American championship against Mr. Iguana. Iguana does his comedy bit and Page plays it off well enough. Eventually we got to the point where Page just whooped on Iguana and commentary slobbered all over him and then beat Iguana clean.

This was Meh.

I like Iguana, Page is tolerable, but the idea that Ethan is this unbeatable “best pound for pound champ” is just absurd to listen to.

We go through a ton of ads cause this is WWE, but afterwards we have Kendal Grey and Wren Sinclair talking about how despite being underdogs, they made it happen. Sol is now here to congratulate Kendal but says that if she wasn’t jumped and had her knee at 100% she’d have won, and Wren says that is an excuse and that Zaria jumped Kendal. Sol says that Zaria’s behavior is dodgy, but she’s still her best friend so she’ll stick up for her and I’m smelling tag-match.

This was Good.

Hey, we’re getting a good transition into a future showcase and setting up two stars and potential rivalries down the line, I’m hyped!

We get DarkState hyping up Dion Lennox before Oba Femi shows up to remind Lennox that he’s champ again, and Lennox vows to win the Iron Survivor to avenge the disrespect he’s gotten from Femi.

Now we have Izzi Dame vs. Tatum Paxley and they just did the “I still love you” deal and just…had the match go on. And on. And on, and then Tatum gets distracted and loses to Izzi.

This was BAD. Very Bad. Extra bad.

Way too long, way too boring, and I wonder why they even put the belt on her, she feels like a total dork.

Ricky is crying about his loss and how he feels like he’s a loser and Je’Von Evans tells him not to feel bad in a very condescending way. And Evans promises to not wait when he wins Iron Survivor and he’ll go in early.

This was Meh.

Ricky is turning heel to cost Je’Von the match against Oba. Which is…okay it’s reasonable but holy shit that’s gonna be blagh.

We have a Dion Lennox interview and he talks about how people thought he was a joke and how they became DarkState to show that he was…something, He was dominant. But also to be Dion Lennox. Cause it’s about DarkState, but also to be Dion Lennox…but also DarkState. And also I’ve realized that Lennox is using a ton of AAVE and uh…huh?

This was Bad.

I’m white so take this with a ton of salt but uh, what was ANY of that? Lennox has completely switched up his promo style and while the prior version didn’t work, neither did this one. What is going on?

Now we have a Shiloh Hill segment. Oh lord. He talks about being some weird edgelord kid and now we have some HAL business or something.

I’m sticking to my guns and saying this is Meh.

This is a total disaster. But disasters are exciting. I fully expect this to be terrible but this fan-fic 4channer thing is…a gimmick. I’m growing soft.

Now we got Joe Hendry, Je’Von Evans, Dion Lennox, Leon Slater and Myles Borne in the Iron Survivor and oh my goodness this was plodding for the first 15 minutes. Hendry woke it up a bit. They do a ton of stuff at the end and Evans pulls off a clutch cradle on Borne for the winning point.

This was Meh.

This was SO boring for most of the match, they did recover but my goodness this really dull, the right guy won in terms of being able to properly bump for Oba at least.

And well, Tony D’Angelo is back, with a very nice beard to stare down Oba.

So, this is not a long-term review but I’m glad to step in and I hoped y’all enjoyed it.