WWE NXT 8/25 Results: Heatwave Summit, Saquon Shugars wins Weaponized Cage Match, Submission Match added to Heatwave

August 25, 2026 John Pollock NEWS, Show Reports
Photo Courtesy: WWE

WWE NXT
Tuesday, August 25, 2026

Results:

  • Weaponized Steel Cage Match: Saquon Shugars over Dion Lennox
  • Keanu Carver over Kam Hendrix
  • Non-title match: Kali Armstrong over Zaria
  • Lexis King, Charlie Dempsey, Stacks Lorenzo & Uriah Connors over Romeo Moreno, Noam Dar, Sean Legacy & Dorian Van Dux (Recommended)
  • AAA Cruiserweight Championship: Rey Fenix © over EK Prosper (Recommended)

Saquon Shugars vs. Dion Lennox in a Weaponized Steel Cage Match

Vic Joseph promotes this as the fourth weaponized cage match and “nearly 5,000 pounds of steel”. The cage contains trash cans, chairs, kendo sticks, and tables.

Shugars was being attacked until placing a trash can over Lennox’s head and landed a missile dropkick. Lennox scoop slammed Shugars onto the legs of a chair set upside down. Lennox was Irish whipped face first into the end of a kendo stick in the corner.

Shugars had his baseball bat and began using it. He was stopped with a chair to the knee. There was a big pop when Lennox grabbed the table. Shugars attempted a sunset bomb to put Lennox through the table but fell, and the crowd groaned. Lennox landed on top of the table, but one of the legs wasn’t fully set up, so the table collapsed, and this took some air out of the balloon. Joseph and Booker had a good cover citing Shugars’ injured knee. Shugars placed a trash can over Lennox and kicked him, leading to the saddest table break ever.

Shugars climbed to the top of the cage and hit a crossbody and pinned Lennox.

WINNER: Saquon Shugars

Both have improved a lot since arriving in NXT, and this match was going well until the final stretch, but it was a struggle as they fought to get the table break.

Backstage, Tony D’Angelo is interviewed by Blake Howard. D’Angelo states he’s the only NXT Grand Slam champion and mentioned Oba Femi and Bron Breakker battling to determine “the future,” but he put Femi down first. He said his three opponents at Heatwave are coming for his title, and he beat three to get the title and will beat these three to keep it.

STRIKE!

Sarah Schreiber is on location to interview Vanity Project at a bowling alley. I have no idea what they were going for here. They sat around and buried Myles Borne and Tavion Heights while bragging about their connection as a “family.” They took turns bowling with no one hitting a strike as the others gossiped with Schreiber over water. This felt like a backstage interview, and someone suggested they do it at a bowling alley for the hell of it. They will win the North American and tag titles this Sunday “and burn this place to the ground” (the bowling alley?)

Submission Match at Heatwave

Nattie is in the ring and explains coming to NXT to fight Jaida Parker and has all the tools but is wasting her potential. Nattie woke her up, and it worked and turned a “possibility” into a “reality”. Parker comes out, and she did question herself, but she sees through her and dismisses Nattie having the right intentions. Nattie says, “I want a submission match with you…BITCH” at Heatwave, to which Parker states she will “Highkey wax that ass”. I wish this was at the bowling alley.

Kam Hendrix vs. Keanu Carver

The match was made earlier today with Carver chatting with Robert Stone and Mason Rook watching in the background.

Hendrix hit the “Showtime kick”, which consists of him jumping in the air and throwing a kick, not the Anthony Pettis version. Carver fires up and suplexes Hendrix around the ring, and a Pounce sends him to the floor. Hendrix used a thumb to the eye when Mason Rook nailed Hendrix and rolled him into a fisherman suplex for the win.

WINNER: Keanu Carver

Carver is learning how to wrestle and surprising Vic Joseph whenever he displays a wrestling move. Carver did well during the series of suplexes, and the audience got into that portion.

Kelani Jordan was featured in the NXT Spotlight. Jordan bragged about being pegged as a star from the minute she signed a contract, and all the women have followed her path. She didn’t need the Indies, AAA, EVOLVE, or a famous last name. She won the North American and TNA Knockouts title on her first chance and will continue that streak when she challenges Kendal Grey at Heatwave.

Nepo Baby?

Next was a Zilla Fatu video that showed off the chain he wore last week in honor of his father, Umaga. He said people will remember his first name rather than his last and made a joke about the Nepo/Nympho baby line and admits, “I get excited when I talk”.  

Zaria vs. Kali Armstrong in a non-title match

If Armstrong wins, she is added to Zaria and Wren Sinclair’s match at Heatwave for the unified titles.

Armstrong sent Zaria to the floor and hit a crossbody off the top. Armstrong worked her over as Booker T. confirmed that Armstrong passes “the airport test”. Armstrong hit a superplex, and they traded shots and lifted Zaria for a powerbomb. Zaria fought back and hit a German suplex and stopped the Kali Connection with a spear. The F-5 was countered by Armstrong into a Victory Roll for the pin.

WINNER: Kali Armstrong

Kali Armstrong is added to the match at Heatwave. They had a nice match, and Armstrong is a very good addition to this women’s division and should be a bigger priority now.

Kendal Grey walked into the trainer’s room with a Daytona race car driver (conveniently wearing his CW hat) and asked DOCTOR TANNER about her ear. He is worried about the soft tissue damage and could face hearing loss and balancing issues…she is cleared. “But, Kendal, you’re playing with fire”. Wren Sinclair joined and was worried about Kali Armstrong being added to the match, and the driver had them take a deep breath. The Mug Root Beer guy didn’t seem so out of place after watching this.

Lexis King, Charlie Dempsey, Stacks Lorenzo & Uriah Connors vs. Romeo Moreno, Noam Dar, Sean Legacy & Dorian Van Dux

Moreno and Dar caught Connors and Lorenzo in ankle locks, but they broke out, leading to Legacy & DVD hitting high crosses off the top. Birthright had the advantage on Moreno throughout the break but leaped over the members and dove to tag Van Dux.

Van Dux landed a dive over the top and a splash onto Lorenzo, followed by a 450 splash from Legacy. Dar applied an armbar on Dempsey, which was broken by a Swanton by Connors. King hit a Blockbuster off the top to Van Dux. Moreno landed a springboard crossbody to the floor and did the slingshot spot, sending Legacy into the air like Joaquin Wilde.

Dar was left with Dempsey and ended with a capture suplex and Dempsey pinning Dar.

WINNERS: BirthRight

This was a really entertaining eight-man tag, in particular after the commercial break when they got into the diving sequences and allowed everyone to showcase themselves. Moreno and Dar are very underutilized in NXT and could be an excellent tag team or strong on their own.

Stone met with Keanu Carver and called him out for “cheating” because of Mason Rook’s interference, but Carver said, “a win is a win”. Shiloh Hill entered and explained the complexities of Naraku’s mist and the dangers of the red version. They will have a match next week.

Rey Fenix vs. EK Prosper for the AAA Cruiserweight Championship

Fenix countered out of a Gori Special into an arm drag, and Prosper flipped onto his feet. Prosper kept catching him and landed an Orihara. Prosper hit a guillotine leg drop off the top and a Michinoku Driver for a two-count.

Fenix landed the Goodbye, Amigo kick and a Frog Splash. He went for a rolling cutter, and Prosper turned into a German suplex, so Fenix attempted again with a handspring cutter and hit it. The Mexican Muscle Buster was blocked by Prosper, and he proceeded to land a super ‘rana on Fenix. The crowd was getting heated.

Prosper missed the moonsault off the top, a running kick by Fenix, a superkick, and the Mexican Muscle Buster to win.

WINNER: Rey Fenix

Really solid match and helped Prosper look like a player in front of the NXT crowd by taking the majority of the first half. This wasn’t at the level of Fenix’s match with Dragon Lee, but that’s a really high bar to clear.

Fenix shook hands with Prosper, and they embraced.

Myles Borne and Tavion Heights were with another race car driver, Sam Mayer!

Borne: Tavion, you know Sam Meyer, right?

Heights: I know exactly who this is, Sam Meyer. He’s got a race this Friday at Dayton, you ready?

Heights isn’t sure what the match order is at Heatwave, and if the tag title match is first, he’ll carry the load so Borne is fresh for Jackson Drake later. Borne doesn’t care, “One lap at a time, one match at a time.”

Hank & Tank showed up and want a tag title shot after Heatwave.

Heatwave Summit

Kendal Grey and Wren Sinclair are out first, and Grey addressed Kelani Jordan. Grey picked up things fast and was on EVOLVE one year ago, and no one knew who she was; now she’s NXT Women’s Champion and the benchmark. Grey said there are champions in this company “who go hundreds of days without defending their title” as a knock at Liv Morgan.

Jordan is out and says she only needs “one shot” to hit the target on Grey’s back. Sinclair mentions being in her home state of Texas, and they’ll have all the gold after Heatwave. Zaria interrupts and will unify the titles and eliminate all the bad memories she has with the Speed Championship. Kali Armstrong joins and will take both titles.

Grayson Waller arrives and calls them “great to look at, hard to listen to,” but they are the 10% he’s been talking about and used to be the highlight of the show until he returned. The world won’t be talking about the women or the “Lucha Losers” after Sunday, but instead, him becoming NXT champion.

Tony D’Angelo is out and doesn’t care what version of Waller this is because he’ll be a disappointment, like always has been.

Cruz Montana arrived in the stands and heard NXT was dysfunctional, but he likes it. Everyone came to talk, but he came to throw hands, and everyone starts to fight.

Zilla Fatu appeared and hit a dive off the top to the men on the floor and grabbed the belt as the audience chanted his name. Kendal Grey and Wren Sinclair remained standing among the women holding their titles.

Final Thoughts

The last segment was cramming too much into several minutes of each performer “taking their turn” for a quick promo and the requisite brawl to conclude. The segment didn’t enhance any of the matches, but it’s clear that Zilla Fatu is really over to this crowd, and they positioned him as the star of the segment by coming out last and getting the visual of the closing shot holding the title.

The last two matches were very good, especially the AAA Cruiserweight title match.

Despite the shows airing back-to-back from the same arena, there has been virtually no cross-promotion between NXT & AAA for Heatwave this Saturday, and they’re being marketed as two totally separate shows and not as one big day of WWE content.

Heatwave is really going to struggle to gain any type of attention on Sunday unless something is so outstanding or newsworthy that it breaks through on AEW’s biggest day of the year.

NXT Heatwave – Sunday, August 30 at 3 p.m. ET:

  • NXT Championship: Tony D’Angelo © vs. Cruz Montana vs. Grayson Waller vs. Zilla Fatu
  • NXT Women’s Championship: Kendal Grey © vs. Kelani Jordan
  • Women’s North American & Speed Championship: Zaria © vs. Wren Sinclair © vs. Kali Armstrong
  • Men’s North American Championship: Myles Borne © vs. Jackson Drake
  • NXT Tag Team Titles: Myles Borne & Tavion Heights © vs. Vanity Project
  • Submission Match: Nattie vs. Jaida Parker
About John Pollock 7405 Articles
Born on a Friday, John Pollock is a reporter, editor & podcaster at POST Wrestling. He runs and owns POST Wrestling alongside Wai Ting.
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