Chelsea Green retained the Women’s United States Championship on the penultimate episode of NXT this year.
With WWE in a taped format this week, NXT did not air live this week, with the December 23 & 30 episodes already in the can as they gear up for New Year’s Evil on the first Tuesday of the new year.
Tuesday’s show featured Green pinning Sol Ruca in the main event after multiple interferences leading to the heel’s win. Ethan Page saved Green by placing her foot on the rope after taking a cartwheel DDT by Ruca. This prompted Moose to attack Page and brawl to the back while distracting the referee. This opened the door for Alba Fyre to prevent Ruca from hitting a Sol Snatcher by snatching her leg and Green hitting the Unprettier and retaining her belt.
The babyfaces got their shine after Zaria landed a double spear to Green & Fyre, followed by a double Sol Snatcher.
While Zaria didn’t do anything to cost Ruca from winning the title, there was a strong hint during a backstage interview earlier. Standing next to Zaria, Ruca told Kelly Kincaid that she went from being a double champion to having both belts taken from her “without losing them myself,” as a subtle reference to Zaria throwing in the towel, and it was a strong but subtle line.
RESULTS:
- Lola Vice over Izzi Dame
- Speed Tournament – Semi-Final: Tavion Heights over Eli Knight
- Christmas Chaos: Shiloh Hill & Skylar Raye over Stacks Lorenzo & Arianna Grace
- Speed Tournament – Semi-Final: Lexis King over Andre Chase
- Women’s U.S. Championship: Chelsea Green © over Sol Ruca
The show featured a lot of promotion for the next two weeks. Ava hosted a face-to-face segment involving Ricky Saints and Je’Von Evans, where the latter had one of his best promos. He ditched the laid-back demeanor and showed a lot of passion and fire while Saints riled him up. Evans pointed out appearing on Raw, SmackDown, and on John Cena’s retirement show when Saints wasn’t considered, and he’s not going to slow down just because Saints cannot keep up. Evans had some great lines and was very impressed with him in the segment.
Kelly Kincaid hosted a sit-down between Oba Femi and Leon Slater for their NXT Championship match on January 6 at New Year’s Evil. Femi stated that 2025 was a “year of success” and he avenged his major blemish by beating Saints to regain the belt. It’s not just NXT he rules, but all of WWE, and that shift was felt by Cody Rhodes at Saturday Night’s Main Event. Slater gave his backstory as the man of his house growing up without a father, and being introduced to wrestling and starting training at the age of nine. This wasn’t as strong as the Saints and Evans segment.
A pair of “Speed” matches aired as Tavion Heights beat Eli Knight and Lexis King beat Andre Chase, setting up a match between the winners to determine who will challenge Jasper Troy. Knight got a lot of high-flying maneuvers across before losing, including a top rope Asai moonsault and an Asai DDT. He crashed and burned off a moonsault and was struck by a belly-to-belly by Heights. Chase was wearing a face mask as they explained he was “injured in training” and had nasal surgery. King hit an upkick to the damaged nose and followed with the Coronation to win. Heights and Knight had the superior match.
Shiloh Hill & Skylar Raye beat Stacks Lorenzo & Arianna Grace in a “Christmas Chaos” match, which meant a comedy hardcore match with a seasonal theme. Usually, these matches are very tiresome, but Lorenzo & Grace were such great foils, and Hill & Raye were a surprisingly strong babyface pair with some interesting spots mixed with hardcore items. Hill unwrapped a computer keyboard, he used pinecones and removed his tooth, and placed it into Grace’s hand for the “freak out” reaction. This wasn’t a bad match at all, but your mileage might vary on these.
There are hints of Myles Borne turning after his loss in the fatal four-way match last week and being pinned by Leon Slater. Ethan Page confronted Borne and noted how he ignored his advice, and noted how Trick Williams and Ricky Saints made “changes” and became successful. Later, Borne was with Tavion Heights and admitted that Page might be right.
DarkState met with Ava, and Dion Lennox wants to face Joe Hendry, which was not officially announced for New Year’s Evil but was strongly hinted at. DarkState warned Hendry they were watching him and blamed Hendry for Lennox losing the fatal four-way last week. Joe Hendry is going to host a concert next week.
Vanity Project had several segments on the show. One was with Blake Monroe and tried to butter her up by stating she was a victim of the “Orlando Screwjob” against Thea Hail last week, and gave her Christmas presents. Later, the group interrupted OTM and traded insults, and set up a match for next week.
The wrestling was average at best on the show, as I enjoyed the Christmas Chaos match more than I imagined, and Tavion Heights & Eli Knight had a pretty good Speed match within that handicap of time. It was a show designed to promote the next two weeks of shows and the big matches ahead, including the follow-up to Thea Hail’s title win and announcing a rematch with Blake Monroe for January 6. The brand is going to go through several changes in the coming weeks with the expected call-ups, which makes the handling of the top performers intriguing over the next few weeks.
NEXT WEEK:
- NXT North American Championship: Ethan Page © vs. Moose
- Ricky Saints vs. Je’Von Evans
- Speed Tournament – Final: Lexis King vs. Tavion Heights
- Jacy Jayne vs. Wren Sinclair
- OTM vs. Swipe Right
- Joe Hendry’s New Year’s Eve…Eve Concert
- NXT Year-End Awards
