Results
- Jaida Parker & Thea Hail def. Nikkita Lyons & Karmen Petrovic (9:18)
- Wren Sinclair vs. Zaria (WWE Women’s Speed Championship) (5:00) (Draw)
- Myles Borne & Tavion Heights def. Brad Baylor & Ricky Smokes (NXT Tag Team Championships) (10:48) (Recommended)
- Keanu Carver def. EK Prosper (10:39)
- Kendal Grey def. Lola Vice (NXT Women’s Championship) (10:30) (Recommended)
Parker & Hail take down Nattie students in tag opener
This week’s episode of NXT, live from the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida, started with a quick In Memory Of graphic for Dory Funk Jr., who passed away this afternoon at the age of 85. We were then shown a recap of last week, when Grayson Waller unexpectedly showed up to NXT and injected himself into the rivalry between Tony D’Angelo and Cruz Montana.
The first live segment of the night was a tag bout which saw Jaida Parker and new ally Thea Hail team up to face Nattie trainees Karmen Petrovic and Nikkita Lyons. Nattie got involved in this early on, attacking Hail while the referee was distracted (this attack happened close enough to the ref that I’m convinced he has no peripheral vision). This interference allowed the heel duo to isolate Hail through a commercial break.
Parker got a hot tag after the show returned, taking on both Lyons and Petrovic at the same time. Petrovic was able to escape a “high-step” hip attack in the corner, then gave Parker a slick slingblade. A double-team move from Petrovic and Lyons caused a near fall, with the pin attempt broken up by Hail.
After taking out Nattie with a Hipnotic on the ring apron, Parker scored her hip attack out of the corner to Lyons. Hail then tagged in and scored her springboard senton to Lyons for the pinfall victory in nine minutes. The heel team tried for a post-match attack but were backed off by Parker and Hail. Good opening match tonight. Lyons and Hail get a lot of flak for being green, but they looked strong here. I’m ready for them to move on from this Nattie & Parker story.
Tavion Heights was seen backstage telling Myles Borne that he doesn’t know what he would do if he loses his tag title opportunity with him tonight. What does that mean? We’ll see, I guess…
Tony D’Angelo sets up his next title showdown
The next segment saw NXT Champion Tony D’Angelo come out and address the events of last week. D’Angelo said he’s not going to let Grayson Waller use him as a “stepping stone” to get back to the main roster. He called Waller “old news” then put his focus on Cruz Montana, whom he called to come to the ring and face him.
It wasn’t Montana who came out, but instead the so-called “old news” that is Waller. The Aussie said that he made shockwaves last week during Summerslam week.
“I’m the money fight, so you and take title go through me,” Waller said.
D’Angelo made fun of Waller for talking smack from afar, calling him a “b****.” The champ reminded fans that he and Waller have history, as they worked together as part of Team 2.0 match at NXT WarGames 2021. D’Angelo tried to own Waller by saying he was the one person on that four-man team who never won the NXT title (Counterpoint: D’Angelo is the only guy on that team who, five years later, has yet to be called up. Not sure it was the best anecdote to pull out).
Montana joined in and cut a promo about how he had no choice but to succeed in wrestling. Waller was getting sick of Montana telling his story again: “I get it dude, you conquered some demons.”
D’Angelo cut off this back-and-forth, saying he’s going to ask for a #1 contender’s match to get booked between these two. Man, whenever D’Angelo gets put in these multi-man feuds, he consistently comes out looking like the least interesting character.
Sinclair & Zaria fight to a draw, setting up a rematch for next week
We saw a replay of the March match between Lola Vice and Kendal Grey, which had a controversial and silly finish where Grey tapped to a submission while scoring a pinfall win. I still feel like this was an awful booking decision – it was a poor move that took away from an otherwise great performance they put on that night.
The next match saw Wren Sinclair defend her WWE Women’s Speed Championship against Zaria. It was an added stipulation for this match that, if Sinclair wins, she’ll get a shot at Zaria’s North American title next week.
Sinclair got a near fall after scoring a butterfly suplex. A top-rope crossbody from Sinclair was caught by Zaria. Sinclair escaped Zaria’s hold but was speared through the ropes, putting them both on the floor at ringside. They went back into the ring, where Zaria attempted an F5, but let the move go as the match hit its five-minute time limit to end in a draw.
Something about the lack of urgency in this match made it clear quite early on that it was going to go the full five minutes. Not a huge fan of this title stipulation and this match; I guess we’ll see a proper one between them soon for the North American belt.
Backstage, OTM were seen trying to patch things up. They both seemed fine with Bronco Nima spending time with Perros del Mal in AAA… Until Lucien Price dropped the line that it seems Nima has a “backup plan.” Birthright entered the room and started talking smack, causing Price to call for a match against Lexis King. Onlookers asked why Price would want a singles match if he’s a tag wrestler. He looked to tag partner Nima and said that if his tag partner has other plans, he’ll find his own as well. Not looking good for OTM!
Former NQCC teammates snag NXT tag gold
Backstage, a brawl broke out between Kam Hendrix and Mason Rook. Thank god, we’re finally getting something of substance with Rook, who has been meandering around the backstage area for weeks.
Tag titles were on the line next, as Vanity Project’s Brad Baylor and Ricky Smokes defended the NXT duos belts against Myles Borne and Tavion Heights.
Heights and Borne scored dual powerslams late in the match. Just after this spot, Vanity Project’s helpers started to try and get involved with their usual shenanigans. The referee caught Jackson Drake trying to enter the ring and made the decision to eject both him and Myka Lockwood from ringside.
Borne gave Baylor a Borne Again then took Smokes out of the ring with a clothesline. Heights followed up, delivering a Height of Glory to Smokes for the pinfall win in 10 minutes. Borne and Heights are your new NXT Tag Team Champions.
This was a really fun tag match; these four hooked the PC crowd in a way few matches do. I like the move to do the title switch: Heights dearly needed something of significance, and now he can work with Borne for a while before having a more meaningful, clean split from him sometime down the line. Vanity Project have been great for the tag division, but had been on a long run and might benefit from losing the titles.
Backstage, it was announced that Shawn Spears and Lizzy Rain will team up to face Niko Vance and Izzi Dame next week. Rain said she doesn’t trust Spears and warned that, “if things go sideways,” it’ll become a three-on-one beatdown.
EK prosper & Keanu Carver put together exciting trilogy match
Before the title main event, we saw Keanu Carver face off against EK Prosper. These two have been in a never-ending rivalry, as this is their third time facing off in two months.
The fight went to ringside early on, where a misdirection spot allowed Prosper to dropkick Carver into a guardrail. Prosper came flying off the top of a guardrail with a double stomp to Carver’s back as the show went into a break.
Carver regained control of the match during commercials. A replay was shown of a nice spot where Prosper was thrown head-first into a turnbuckle – he sold this well. Carver caught a leg kick from Prosper into a huge lariat just as the show returned.
A suplex from Carver was countered mid-air into a cutter from Prosper. He followed up with a pair of kicks, a springboard moonsault, then a tornado DDT. Prosper came off the top with an incredible blockbuster for a near fall.
A move from Prosper was reversed in the air into a German Suplex from Carver, this was snazzy. He followed up with a big powerbomb for a two-count. Prosper, who was bleeding from the mouth by this point, connected with a dropkick, then a Shining Wizard. A top-rope moonsault from Prosper was attempted to be blocked by Carver, but Prosper saw the counter mid-air and got out of the way. Carver caught Prosper sleeping with a roll-up to end the match in 10 minutes.
The story they’re trying to hit home here is that Carver is dialling back his anger and instead becoming a smarter, calmer wrestler. This was a really fun match, admittedly more than I expected.
Backstage, Dion Lennox was seen shouting at the rest of DarkState about how they can’t become complacent.
In a pre-taped video, Shiloh Hill said he might be out of the ring for some time after suffering a “fractured maxilla” last week.
We got a video package on Dory Funk Jr.
Here’s what NXT confirmed for next week:
- Cruz Montana vs. Grayson Waller (NXT Championship #1 Contenders Match)
- Zaria vs. Wren Sinclair (NXT Women’s North American Championship)
- Saquon Shugars vs. Dion Lennox
- Shawn Spears & Lizzy Rain vs. Izzi Dame & Niko Vance
Kendal Grey defends NXT Women’s Title in Underground showdown against Lola Vice
The main event of the night was the trilogy match between NXT Women’s Champion Kendal Grey and former titleholder Lola Vice. This time they were meeting in an NXT Underground match (no ropes, wins emerging strictly via KO or submission), a stipulation Vice is undefeated in. Considering how strong their two past showdowns were, I was really looking forward to this one.
Like you’d see at the start of an MMA match, wrestler Grey shot for a single-leg takedown on Vice, which was blocked. Vice was pushed to the ringside area, where Grey came leaping off the apron with a hurricanrana. Grey tried to score a kick off the ring apron, but was tripped by Vice and landed face-first on the steel steps – this spot looked brutal. Grey was sporting a (worked) bloodied right ear as the show went to its final break.
Grey slipped and tripped around the ringside area due to a messed-up equilibrium. They spent a fair amount of the commercial break doing a doctor spot, with people checking on her at ringside. Grey bandaged up her head then fired back up, shouting “I got it, I got it!” before getting back into the ring. While Grey re-entered the fight with momentum, a far less damaged Vice regained control almost immediately.
After scoring a series of slams, Vice knocked Grey out of the ring with a knee strike to the head. A spinning head kick from Vice was suddenly reversed by Grey into an Ankle Lock! Vice was able to roll out of the move and counter into an Ankle Lock of her own.
Vice scored a spinning backfist which threatened to knock Grey out of the ring. However, Grey allies Hank & Tank at ringside caught her! The tag duo tossed her back into the ring. Grey used the momentum of this throw from Hank & Tank to score a spinning back elbow of her own! Grey landed on top of Vice, but there are no pinfalls in this one.
Vice applied a rear naked choke while on the floor, but Vice escaped. Grey tried for another spinning backfist, but Vice dodged the move, and it instead hit the referee. Vice locked in another rear naked choke, but with a down-and-out referee, the match couldn’t stop yet! Vice let go of the hold and went to try and wake up the ref.
Wren Sinclair, one of the many onlookers at ringside, started to give Grey a pep talk, slapping her and saying she has to get back into the match. Grey stood up and gave Vice a superkick; Vice responded with a spinning head kick which knocked the champ down!
Vice tried to finish the match with hammerfist punches on the ground, but Grey caught an arm and applied an armbar for the submission win in 10 minutes. Vice raised Grey’s arm as the show came to a close.
I thought this was a great match. It was obviously full of many more gimmicks than their typical showdowns, but they worked a fun MMA-inspired style and made a quick 10-minute match feel much larger than it was. The rivalry between these two has established Grey as one of the top names in the women’s division, and helped further elevate Vice. Overall, it’s probably the best thing NXT has put together in 2026.
Final thoughts
This was a good episode of NXT. The women’s and tag title showdowns are both worth checking out. While I am critical of how cyclical Keanu Carver’s booking has been, he put on a great match with EK Prosper. It also looks like the men’s division is getting much more interesting in the title picture. Overall, an enjoyable two hours.
