By John Moore, ProWrestling.net Staffer (@liljohnm)
NXT TV
Orlando, Florida, at the WWE Performance Center
Aired live July 15, 2025, on The CW Network
[Hour One] Vic Joseph sent the show to a Great American Bash highlight package…
Vic Joseph, Booker T, and Corey Graves were on commentary. Mike Rome was the ring announcer…
Fatal Influence made their entrance made their entrance to start the show, with Jacy Jayne still Women’s champion coming out of Evolution due to the Blake Monroe heel turn on Jordynne Grace. Jayne pointed out her voice was cracked due to Jordynne Grace smashing her vocal cords. Jayne then went on to talk about how their weekend wasn’t perfect due to Henley and Nyx dropping the ball to not help her at Great American Bash.
Jayne said they redeemed themselves when they helped her retain the title on Sunday. Henley said everyone is still shocked and Jayne is going to be a champion for a long time. Jayne then turned her attention to the TNA Knockouts title match on Sunday and she gave Masha Slamovich her props. Masha Slamovich made her entrance to new music. Masha’s mic wasn’t working. Henley handed Masha a working mic.
Masha pointed out how Jacy is still champion due to Blake Monroe getting involved. Masha said she’s going to shock the wrestling industry by holding the TNA and NXT Women’s Championships at the same time. Jayne tried to stake her claim, but was cut off by Sol Ruca and Zaria made their entrance. Sol talked about how she’s already a two belt champion (yes, she showed off the twitter only Speed title). Zaria talked about Sol having a strong weekend last week on Smackdown, GaB, and Evolution.
Nyx and Jayne talked about how Sol and Zaria are just friends by accident. A brawl ensued with the babyfaces chasing the heels away…
John’s Thoughts: A bit of a messy segment that will presumably set up the Teddy Long classic six person tag team match, Playa! Nothing really of substance here other than Fatal Influence continuing to show cracks in their unity. I felt bad for Masha Slamovich’s first promo in NXT. Not her fault at all, but the ghosts of LOL-TNA’s past shut off her microphone. So, they’re really going to Sunday with Jayne vs. Masha for both belts. That raises the probability of a wonk finish. But I also hope that also raises the possibility of Masha Slamovich coming out of Sunday with both belts. Could lead to one hell of a Bound for Glory marquee match with Masha and Grace continuing their longtime rivalry if they want to go that direction.
A graphic aired that started a mult-part vignette. They aired what seemed like Tony D’s initial promos in NXT 2.0 when he first joined NXT where he talked about his first goal to become the don of NXT. Highlights from Tony D’s early NXT 2.0 run aired. He ended up becoming the “Don of NXT” after beating Tommaso Ciampa…
Mike Santana made his entrance through the crowd…[c]
As expect, it was made official that the expected women’s six person tag teased in the opening segment was made…
Say his name, and he appears! I believe in Joe Hendry! Clap Clap! Joe Hendry made his entrance. Vic noted that at Slammiversary, Trick Williams doesn’t have to be pinned to lose the championship. Trick Williams made his entrance. DarkState made their entrance and were hit by a Mike Santana flip dive. Joe and Mike brawled with DarkState while Trick watched from a distance…
John’s Thoughts: I hope Vic throwing in that obligatory triple threat line doesn’t mean they put Joe Hendry in this match so that Trick doesn’t have to be pinned by a TNA wrestler? Trick was eating losses to Eddy Thorpe to set up this heel turn. I don’t think it would hurt for him to lose to two guys WWE should be high on in Joe and Mike. I also wonder if the triple threat is to keep the belt on Trick to have Trick hold the title until Bound for Glory.
1. Trick Williams, Mike Santana, and Joe Hendry vs. “DarkState” Saquon Shugars, Osiris Griffin, and Dion Lennox (w/Cutler James). Santana tossed around Shugars initially. Trick tagged himself in and slammed Shugars to the mat. While Trick was mocking Joe Hendry tuning up the band, Griffin tagged in and hit Trick with a clothesline.[c]
During the break, Graves and Booker said they were fans of Saquon Shugars the most in DarkState. Booker kept calling him the “Shuga Man”. DarkState cut the ring in half on Santana back from break. Dion blocked a Buck 50 with a Belly to Back Suplex. DarkState went back to quick tags and isolation offense on Santana. Santana took out Shugars with a Yakuza Kick and took out the other two guys with a double Rolling Buck 50.
Santana brought in Joe for the hot tag. Trick didn’t like this. Joe ducked a Griffin punch and gave him a DDT. Joe hit Dion with a Fallaway Slam. Joe then hit Shugars with the Fallaway Slam into his signature Zoolander turn. Joe hit Shugars with a swinging slam. The other guys entered the ring to lead to a six person brawl. Joe, Mike, and Trick cleared Dark State from the ring. Joe yelled at the TNA guys and were dropped by Mike.
Mike and Joe hit all of DarkState with stereo Plancha variations at ringside. The System’s entrance theme played. Brian Myers, Johnny Dango Curtis, and Eddie Edwards stormed the ring and brawled with the NXT wrestlers to cause the No Contest.
Joe Hendry, Trick Williams, and Mike Santana vs. DarkState ended in an apparent no contest in 9:01.
The five TNA wrestlers cleared everyone else from the ring and stood tall to end the segment…
John’s Thoughts: As much as I think The System was dead on arrival and have run their course, NXT viewers don’t know them, so this is sorta fresh. You even get wrestlers that they are familiar with with the former Fandango and Curt Hawkins. This could maybe set up to some sort of huge TNA vs. NXT war style match. The commentators are pointing out how even though Trick has been attacked by them, he still might be the puppetmaster behind them. I wouldn’t take that out of the question because it could be interesting (It would follow what WWE initially wanted to do with The Shield when they were supposed to be “The shield of CM Punk”, which Punk revealed on the podcast after he walked out. Here we get the shield of Trick Willy. The last time I remember a hidden leader taking one for the team, was when Bully Ray was revealed to be the leader of Aces and 8’s).
Ariana Grace and Karmen Petrovic were chatting backstage. Evolve women’s champion Kali Armstrong showed up and bragged about beating Natalya recently. Petrovic goaded Armstrong into putting her title on the line in a match…
Evolve Women’s Champion Kali Armstrong made her entrance…
Part 2 of the D’Angelo Family recap aired called “Enter the Underboss”. A replay aired of the segments where Tony D introduced Stacks to the Family (RIP 2 Dimes of AEW’s Frat House). Highlights of their matches and cinematics were shown, which led to them becoming tag team champions…
John’s Thoughts: While it may be a coincidence, like me, the NXT graphics team might be a fan of the Yakuza series. Those intro graphics to the Family vignettes looked ripped right out of the Chapter graphics in every Yakuza game. I’m not complaining, I love those games! Yakuza and Mafia? Makes sense. They even had the same animation and sound effects as the Yakuza series chapter change.
Karmen Petrovic made her entrance with her signature katana sword…
2. Kali Armstrong vs. Karmen Petrovic for the Evolve Women’s Championship. Petrovic took down Armstrong and shortarm karate kicks. Kali came back with right hands and trash talk. Kali took down Petrovic with a Power Slam. Jordynne Grace ran out and dragged Armstrong to ringside, punching her for the DQ.
Kali Armstrong defeated Karmen Petrovic via apparent DQ in 1:09.
Grace took down Petrovic with a Fisherman Suplex. Grace took a mic and demanded Blake Monroe come out now to explain why she betrayed her. GM Ava’s assistants, Robert Stone and Stevie Turner ran out to calm Grace down. A 70s style Blake Monroe vignette aired where she mocked Jordynne Grace for not being worthy for a NXT Women’s Title shot.
Blake Monroe was then in a bubble bath, saying she invites Jordynne Grace to NXT next week to witness her singles debut. After the vignette aired, Grace shoved Stevie Turner to the mat and gave Robert Stone a Spinebuster. Referees ran out to drag Grace to the back…
John’s Thoughts: That’s two apparent non-finishes in a row. That said, I didn’t mind the wrestlers being cannon fodder for Grace here as it made her look badass. Grace showed good fire. Smart on them to turn Blake Monroe quickly as she’s a proven strong heel (though the one fear I have is the Hurt Syndicate problem of her being more popular than her babyface opponents, but it’s up to her to turn the crowd against her).
Undertakers LFG rookies were chatting backstage talking about how hype they were for Undertaker appearing on NXT next week. Trick Williams pulled up and mocked the rookies for being rookies. He said when the TrickNA Champion shows up you better start walking. The larger rookie got in Trick’s face. Trick said they are wasting his time and he doesn’t know what Taker sees in them anyway. Trick left. One rookie had Taker’s kid rock theme as a ringtone. He picked it up and we assume it’s Taker…[c]
John’s Thoughts: Making the LFG kids look like the American Badass Taker fan club looked kinda cheesy.
NXT GM Ava invited Jasper Troy to her office who told him he can’t keep attacking people who look at him the wrong way. Troy talked about how he was just minding his business and Ricky just invaded his territory. Ava said they settle things in the ring in NXT. Ava booked Troy vs. Saints next week…
John’s Thoughts: Uhm? Are they really going to have Troy lose yet another match? Again, I’d say reboot him soon. Yeet Cutler James out of DarkState. Then install Jasper Troy as the Roman Reigns of DarkState. He’s eating way too many losses early in his career as a presumed monster heel.
They cut to Part 3 of the D’Angelo Family recap. This was titled “Fall of the Family” they showed Tony D introducing Adriana Rizzo and Luca Crucifino. Highlights from their run and falling apart were shown…
Stacks made his entrance to his newer music. Luca Crucifino made his entrance to Tony D’Angelo’s old NXT 2.0 entrance music (Well? It’s better than getting bad def rebel music. He gets to keep moderately ok def rebel music)…[c]
A highlight package aired of the Evolution women’s battle royal. Lash Legend and Stephanie Vaquer were the final two with Vaquer winning in the end after hitting Lash with Booker T’s favorite move…
Kelly Kincaid interviewed Lash Legend about making it to the final two in the women’s battle royal in Evolution. Legend listed off her big eliminations and how she was happy to do it in her hometown. Lash said she was going to show up to Slammiversary to scout the future double champion. Jaida Parker showed up and bragged about how people were chanting her name at Evolution and how she’s going to go after Jayne or Masha. Lash said girl-bye and how that sounded like delusion…
[Hour Two] Tony D’Angelo made his entrance to his upgraded NXT theme, as opposed to the older one Luca uses (that’s one that Def Rebel got right! We gotta keep a scorecard on the bright spots of Def Rebel’s spotty run). Tony D put his Fedora on the ringpost…
3. Tony D’Angelo vs. Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo vs. Luca Crucifino. Tony D dominated Stacks and Luca with hard strikes, hockey punches, and slams. Stacks broke up a Tony D pin on Luca and then crawled to the corner like a coward, looking for a crowbar that wasn’t there. Tony D said he knew Stacks would try that. Tony D shoved Stacks in the corner. Luca gave Tony D a Pounce. Luca took down Tony D and Stacks with a delayed hanging DDT. Stacks dumped Tony D and Stacks to ringside.
Luca took down both opponents with a baseball slide. A “that’s my lawyer” chant ensued. Stacks knocked Luca and Tony D off the apron heading into break.[c]
During the break, the commentary team talked about life in prison due to the past Tony D prison storylines. Graves said it’s tough to live in prison without honeybuns (That reminds me of a lot of Konnan’s “honeybuns and a cup of soup” promos).
John’s Thoughts: During the break, Vic noted that Stacks is still the Heritage Cup champion. Please, don’t tell me that cup is alive?!?! If anything while the cup sucks as an actual title, it’s a fairly powerful entity. If it did survive, it survived Penn and Teller’s magic and Tony D’s murder.
Stacks dominated the match with consecutive cannonballs on both opponents. Tony D recovered and hip tossed both of his opponents to ringside. Stacks found a crowbar, which Tony D ducked. Stacks sent Tony D into the steel steps and hit a Knee version of the Black Out for a nearfall. Tony D hit Luca and Stacks with a double German Suplex. Luca hit Tony D and Stacks with a Tower of Power spot.
All four men took turns hitting corner splashes on each other. Tony D hit Stacks with a Buckle Bomb. Luca hit both opponents with a slingshot crossbody. Luca hit Tony D with a Codebreaker. Luca hit Stacks with an Ushigoroshi for a nearfall. A “this is awesome” chant ensued. Luca and Stacks hit Tony D with a Shatter Machine. Stacks dumped Luca to ringside and got a great nearfall on Tony D.
Luca prevented Stacks from grabbing the crowbar. Luca pondered when staring at the crowbar. Stacks begged for mercy and shoved Luca into the ringpost. Luca dodged getting hit by the crowbar. Tony D flew in outta nowhere through the wooden wall at ringside. Tony D then chokeslammed Luca through the table. Tony D hit Stacks with a heavy Spinebuster for the victory.
Tony D’Angelo defeated Channing Lorenzo, and Luca Crucifino via pinfall in 13:32.
A camera shot showed Tony D glaring at his fedora on the ringpost before leaving it behind and walking to the back…
John’s Thoughts: An awesome and PLE midcard worthy match. What would keep it away from a PLE was how boring the tail end of their feud was with the over melodrama and meandering. This was a fun brawl and the crowd was fired up throughout. There is some potential with Luca as he’s been putting in a lot of hard work in Evolve, and the fruits of his labor are showing. Tony D does things right, especially with his nearfalls. Loved that sequence built around the Shatter Machine. The final camera shot sort of punctuated it in the end, but I really hope this leads to all three men going their separate ways to do bigger and better things…
A replay aired of Wren Sinclair throwing in the towel last week for Tavion Heights. Wren and Tavion were then shown arguing over Wren throwing in the towel. Wren said she was looking out for Tavion’s well being. Charlie Dempsey showed up looking cocky. Charlie said they need to fix things next week. Wren said she’s busy next week because she’s wrestling Blake Monroe in her hometown. Wren said if either one of them would like to join her at ringside, she wouldn’t mind…
Josh Briggs was shown walking backstage…[c]
Vic Joseph hyped the WWE Podcast lineup and noted that Logan Paul has agreed to have WWE platform his Impaulsive show…
A replay aired of Josh Briggs trying to help Yoshiki Inamura trying to cheat on behalf of Inamura, which Inamura didn’t want. Briggs took the mic in the ring and noted how he saw an opportunity of a lifetime go away. He said Inamura has been in NXT for less than a year, and already got a title shot. Briggs said he’s been in the company for 4 years and hasn’t sniffed a title shot. Briggs said Inamura is too nice, and this is a cutthroat business.
Briggs said you have the opportunity, and you take the shot by any means necessary. NXT Champion Oba Femi made his strut entrance to the ring. Oba said Saturday wasn’t supposed to be about Josh. Oba said Josh’s presence caused troubles. He said it didn’t matter, because The Ruler was always going to be on top. Oba said because of Briggs, people are judging the validity of Oba’s win.
Briggs said he saw Inamura lift Oba when he was drowning. Briggs said Oba will break soon. Inamura walked out and said that Briggs doesn’t talk for him. Oba said Inamura deserves another title shot and Briggs deserves nothing. Briggs said Oba only wants to fight Inamura because he won’t do whatever it takes. Inamura said he’s his own man. He said he will do thing by whatever means necessary, but with honor. Briggs proposed a triple threat between Oba, Briggs, and Inmaura.
Oba asked Briggs if he was sure he wants that? Briggs and Oba brawled. Inamura tried to play peace keeper, but Briggs accidentally clocked him in the face. Referees and security ran out to separate everyone…
Fatal Influence were shown warming up in the locker room..[c]
A Ethan Page vignette aired where he was praising the country of Canada. He talked about how we had two great days in a row, Canada Day, and Fourth of July. He then talked about dominating Ricky Saints at the Great American Bash. He talked about being hyped to represent North America. He said he can’t find a better place to celebrate North America, but in the heart of America, Houston, Texas. Page ended his promo by saying “God Bless America”…
Kelly Kincaid interviewed Ricky Saints about his recent match. Saints said he and Page put on a great match. Saints then talked about how Troy’s anger has cost him matches already, and it’s going to cost him next week…
Undertaker confronting Trick Williams next week was advertised. They also advertised Jasper Troy vs. Ricky Saints, Blake Monroe vs. Wren Sinclair, and Oba Femi vs. Yoshiki Inamura vs. Josh Briggs for the NXT Championship. Jacy Jayne vs. Slammiversary in a title vs. title match was hyped. Vic noted that the double-champion will appear on the show next week…
John’s Thoughts: Well, not as much assurance as hearing the words “there must be a double champion”, but it has me mildly hopeful that they might actually go for it (And they better not do it with Jacy Jayne, because, come on now). Masha potentially winning the title also sets up Blake Monroe for an easier path to the NXT Women’s Title due to it being easier to book a Face vs. Heel match now that she’s changed her character alignment. I wonder if Trick and Taker being advertised means Trick is dropping the strap for sure, but we’ll see on that. Again, not “definite” foreshadowing.
Masha, Sol, and Zaria were shown chatting backstage. The camera then panned over to The Culling approaching Tatum Paxley backstage. Paxley was crying and apologizing for Izzi not winning the title next week. Izzi said she’s not mad at Tatum, she’s mad at Sol. Tatum was happy and said she has a plan…
Fatal Influence made their entrance…[c]
Vic Joseph hyped WWE Heatwave…
Zaria, Sol Ruca, and Masha Slammovich made their entrance to Sol and Zaria’s entrance theme. Lexis King was randomly looking awkward and watching the match from the crowd. Vic didn’t know if he was wearing noise cancelling headphones or amateur wrestling headgear…
John’s Thoughts: They avoided a bad def rebel theme for Zaria! Just give her Karrion Kross’s old TNA theme.
4. Masha Slamovich, Sol Ruca, and Zaria vs. “Fatal Influence” Jacy Jayne, Fallon Henley, and Jazmyn Nyx. Zaria dominated the match by tossing around Henley. The babyface team used quick tags for tandem offense. Henley managed to hit Masha with a throat chop and sent her to the heel corner. Nyx tagged in and gave Masha a PK to the gut. Nyx and Henley hit Masha with a springboard high low for a Nyx nearfall. Masha took down Nyx with a clothesline. Masha asked for Jayne.
Jayne tagged in. Masha rolled up Jayne a few times for kickouts. Jayne came back with an armdrag and huracanrana. Jayne hit Masha with an axe handle for a nearfall. Masha hit Jayne with a strike combination. Zaria and Sol tagged in and hit Jayne with a hip toss and double team elbow. Sol got a two count. Ava showed up and randomly berated Lexis King for being in the crowd. Sol surfed on Jayne and body slammed Nyx on her for a two count.
Nyx got a cheap shot on Ruca. Jayne hit Ruca with a superkick. Fatal Influence dumped Sol to ringside heading into break.[c]
Back from break, Fatal Influence cut the ring in half on Sol, with 7 minutes left at the top of the hour. Sol got a window of opportunity by hitting Jayne with a back suplex. Zaria caught the hot tag from Sol and cleaned house. Jayne hit Zaria with a superkick. Nyx tripped up Zaria. Jayne hit Zaria with a neckbreaker for a nearfall. Fatal Influence used quick tags to swarm and isolate Zaria. Zaria fought out and hit Nyx and Jayne with a diving double clothesline.
Masha tagged in and hit Nyx and Jayne with Savate Kicks. Masha hit Jayne with a Liger Kick for a nearfall. Jayne rolled up Masha for a nearfall. Jayne hit Masha with a shortarm clothesline for a nearfall. Nyx and Fallon hit Masha with a double flapjack. Jayne hit Masha with a running knee for a nearfall that Zaria broke up.
The women took turns hitting their signature moves Zaria took out Nyx with a spear. The Culling and Paxley showed up with Zaria and Sol hitting them with dives. Hank and Tank ran out to take care of the men. Sol and Zaria brawled to the back to leave Masha alone. Masha took out Nyx with a Savate Kick. Masha hit Jayne with a Snow Plow for the victory.
Masha Slamovich, Sol Ruca, and Zaria defeated Fatal Influence via pinfall in 12:25.
Masha picked up both the NXT and Knockouts belts. Masha handed the NXT Women’s Title to Jayne, who quickly rolled to ringside. Vic ran through next week’s advertised segments again. The show closed after the executive producer credits…
John’s Thoughts: A well worked TV main event made to make Masha look strong. Good tandem work from Fatal Influence too. I do have mixed thoughts on NXT’s introduction of Masha to the NXT audience. As usual, she looks great in the ring. This is more subjective because I saw her have an amazing debut push in TNA, but I’m not a fan of WWE introducing “this” version of Masha to the WWE audience. When she was an evil Russian buzzsaw who couldn’t speak English when she showed up, it was stellar.
She was beating top TNA Knockouts in under a minute too, which added to her mystique. It was sorta like Asuka’s dominant introduction to the NXT audience. On top of that, WWE had to rush a one night build because Slammiversary is only in a few days. This is WWE’s fault for their odd booking of three culmination shows in one weekend, leaving NXT to book towards 5 shows last week all over the place (NXT TV, GaB, Evolution, TNA Impact, and Slammiversary). They clearly exhausted their creative bandwidth last week and the Knockouts vs. NXT title match hype was hurt by it.
TNA Impact should be a lot more focused in that sense this week, so I’m looking forward to Thursday. Because NXT got to have a lot of their creative bandwidth cleared, I thought this week’s show was much better and easier to watch compared to last week. It was focused and they could get back to developing characters and telling episodic televisions. Subjective bonus points for the D’Angelo recap videos pulling graphics and exact sound effects from one of my favorite video game series of all time.
They just had Masha pin the champ on night 1 in NXT,how is that not booking her to look strong?
Good catch on the Yakuza influence. Nice game series, but wayyyy too much dialogue at times for my taste.
Btw, I didnt mean to sound too aggressive in the top part lol. This is the first I’ve seen of Masha, so I defer to your judgement on her booking, I was just confused on that part.