By John Moore, ProWrestling.net Staffer (@liljohnm)
NXT TV
Orlando, Florida, at the WWE Performance Center
Aired live January 13, 2026, on The CW Network
[Hour One] Highlights from last week’s New Years Evil show aired…
Vic Joseph and Booker T were on commentary. Mike Rome was the ring announcer…
The show started with the camera focused on the vacant NXT Championship in the center of the ring. GM Ava picked up the belt and talked about there being an opportunity in her hands now. The NXT roster was surrounding the ring. In the middle of Ava’s pep talk, Ricky Saints made his entrance. The crowd played along a bit with Ricky’s theme, but then showered him with boos once he got into self-gloating mode.
Ricky took credit for running off Trick Williams, Je’von Evans, and Oba Femi, and he called them the past while he’s the future. Ricky said he’s the Then, Now, and Forever of NXT and everyone is watching him. Ricky talked down to the men around the ring and said they were the talented and “the future”. Ricky said Ava should just hand the title over to him.
Ava said Ricky is funny. Ava said Ricky deserves an opportunity at the title, and so does everyone else in the ring. Ava said on February 3rd, there will be a 6 man ladder match to crown the new NXT Champion. Ava said qualifying matches start next week. Ava then loaded the belt on the hanger. Joe Hendry stormed the ring to attack Ricky, while everyone else brawled.
Evolve’s Keanu Carver chucked a random dude into the crowd and then pounced another man in the ring. Carver power bombed someone, I think Jensen, through the announce table. Carver then Press slammed someone on a pile of wrestlers. Carver stood tall alone in the ring while Ricky Saints stood in fear on the ramp.
Separate shots of Lola Vice and Kelani Jordan heading to the ring were shown…[c]
John’s Thoughts: I was a bigger fan of what Jason Powell proposed of doing last week for the title situation, a tournament. Tournaments are a positive lazy booking strategy which allows TV to be written automatically while you focus your creative bandwidth on massive character development for a bunch of wrestlers, which NXT needs at the moment with the raided roster. Good showing with cocky ass Ricky here, which is his wheelhouse. A nice left-field introduction of Kenau Carver to the NXT main roster as he got the obvious spotlight and looked impressive standing above the cannon fodder in the ring.
GM Ava was on her phone backstage. Tony D’Angelo was randomly passing by in the background. Robert Stone met up with Ava and told her Blake Monroe was in the building and has a lot to get off her chest…
Entrances for the next match took place…
1. Kelani Jordan vs. Lola Vice. Kelani Jordan hit Vice with a dropkick before the bell and then hit her with a Corkscrew Plancha. Vice punched Jordan in the gut midair. Vice and Kelani traded ground and pound. Vice hit Jordan with a armdrag and shoulder tackle. Jordan countered Vice’s TKD with her own kicks. A picture-in-picture showed The Culling arriving to the venue.
Jordan worked on Vice with methodical offense. Vice came back with nice shortarm roundhouse kicks. Both women traded quick rollup counters. Jordan got to the rope to prevent a Triangle. Vice worked on Jordan with hooks. Jordan came back with a bitch slap. Jordan took down Vice with a clothesline at ringside.[c]
Vice had reversed Jordan’s Three Amigos when Kelani went over the top in doing the Eddie Guerrero shimmy. Jordan regained control with methodical offense. Both women took each other out with pump kicks. Kelani and Lola had a kick Fighting Spirit exchange with Lola getting the upper hand with her Tae Kwon Do kicks.
Kelani ducked to ringside to avoid the I’m a Latina. Lola hit Kelani with a modified Ruff Ryder from the apron. Lola hit Kelani with a Stink Face. Vice reversed a Pele Kick into a Rear Naked Choke. Kelani broke the hold with a pin attempt. Kelani hit Vice with a RVD Pele Kick and Frog Splash for a nearfall. Vice reversed a One of a Kind into a Triangle Choke.
Jordan broke the pin with a pin. Jordan hit Vice with a Reverse Angle Slam. Vice avoided a 450. Vice missed a spin kick. The referee didn’t count when Kelani tried to steal the pin with a hand full of tights. While Kelani was distracted arguing with the ref, Vice nailed Jordan with a Spinning Backfist for the victory.
Lola Vice defeated Kelani Jordan via pinfall in 11:26.
Vice got in the camera and said since she beat Izzi Dame a few weeks ago, Vice is going after the North American title…
John’s Thoughts: A strong women’s match from two of NXT’s tenured roster members. I wouldn’t be surprised if Vice or Jordan were called up because they’re definitely ready, but I also understand that you want to do these in batches and not risk wrestlers getting lost in the shuffle. Jordan worked this match better as a heel compared to her attempted heel turn about a year ago. She was more emotive here whereas last year she was just acting boring and mopey. Vice has come a long way as a developmental type and delivers on her end too. It is also a joy for me all the time to see a fellow Tae Kwon Do practitioner get to Tae Kwon Do in pro wrestling.
A hype package aired to hype Jasper Troy vs. Tavion Heights for the WWE Speed Title…[c]
Vic Joseph plugged WWE’s podcast lineup…
Both wrestlers were already in the ring…
2. Jasper Troy vs. Tavion Heights in a Five Minute time limit Match for the WWE Speed Championship. Heights managed to get Troy to a knee with his amateur Greco Roman wrestling. Troy escaped and hit Heights with a front kip attack and rapid standing splashes. Troy whipped Heights around the ring. Troy got a two count after a backbreaker. Shiloh Hill was shown doing bicep curls backstage.
Troy worked on Heights with an abdominal stretch. Heights rallied back with a body slam and Belly to Belly Suplex. Heights hit Troy with a Splash for a nearfall. Troy came back with a choke at the one minute mark. Troy hit Heights with a Black Hole Slam for the victory.
Jasper Troy defeated Tavion Heights via pinfall in 4:08 to retain the WWE Speed Championship.
After the match, Lexis King attacked Tavion Heights and laid him out with a twisting neckbreaker…
Wren Sinclair and Kendal Grey were waiting at Ava’s office door to ask for a rematch for Grey due to the interference in her last match. Sol Ruca and Zaria also were there and wanted title shots. Jacy Jayne was already in the office. Sol, Zaria, Grey, and Wren all barged in. Ava talked about how they are all booked in a match to become number one contenders to the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championships…[c]
John’s Thoughts: Ugh! Really? More belts? Why?
Lexis King was gloating om front of the New Chase U guys and talked about how he’s trying to claim the top spot. He said it was his birthright to be on top. Stacks and Ariana Grace showed up to brag about how King helped him win the International Championship…
A replay aired of Ava booking the ladder match to name a new NXT Champion in February…
Vic Joseph and Booker T checked in on commentary…
A Elio Lafleur promo aired. He talked about it being unique seeing a french man in a mask. He said his trainer was a Mexican Luchador named Nitro who gave the mask to his best student, Elio Lafleur. He said he represents his trainer every time in the ring to do the lucha style proud. He said the French Luchador is coming to NXT and he’s going to slash the sky…
Ethan Page showed up to Ava and thanked her for signing Vanity Project to NXT. Page asked who is his opponent in his qualifying match? Ava said Page needs to vacate the NA title if he wants in the ladder match? Page bragged about his strong year in multiple companies defending the North American title.
Ava said it’s a big deal that Page is the longest reigning champion in WWE currently and Page should get the spotlight defending the title against the French Luchador next week. Page asked Ava if she’s awarding a man a title shot in his first match? Ava smirked and said Page would know something about that (noting how he won the NXT title in his first match)…
Blake Monroe was shown walking backstage…[c]
Blake Monroe made her entrance. Blake said last week she had every intention to regain her North American championship. She said she attacked Thea Hail, but so what? She said she wanted to bring Hell out to play. She said instead of letting Blake Monroe rise to the occasion, they turned it into controversy. Blake said instead of given answers, she was walked out the building like she’s the problem. Blake said secret is, when you’re as talented as her, people don’t know what to do with you (this got cheers).
Blake said they complain and make her look controversial. Blake said they won’t admit that Blake Monroe is the standard. She said she’s the most complete woman in NXT. Blake said Ava keeps talking about “new” but nobody compares to the Glamour. Blake said she didn’t lose control last week, she lost patience in a system that pushes things out when they see it’s not convenient. Monroe was cut off by the returning Jaida Parker.
Parker soaked in the cheers from the crowd. Monroe cut off Parker before she could get a word in. Parker came back with right hands and a tackle. Parker draped Monroe in the corner and hit her with her signature draping Banzai Drop. Jaida Parker stood tall in the ring to end the segment…
John’s Thoughts: A decent enough promo, but I think it got a bit wordy. Nothing wrong with Monroe’s verbage, but they should have cut her off sooner. Good to see Jaida Parker back. She’s extremely talented on the mic and good in the ring, and she has that “It” factor in terms of aura. She was just kinda a victim of the bottleneck created by WWE’s extremely talented female pipeline.
[Hour Two] A Shiloh Hill hype promo aired. He talked about how he won LFG with Undertaker’s help. He then talked about how excited he was to wrestle in the Christmas gimmick match. He then told a story about how he picked up squirrels in the snow and nursed them back to activity. He said it was awesome, but his family didn’t like the squirrels running around the house. He then talked about how he’s going to be a champion in NXT and TNA when he wins the International title…
Channing Lorenzo and Ariana Grace made their entrance…[c]
John’s Thoughts: Shiloh Hill replaces Zaria as the most miscast wrestler in WWE for me. Similar thing too, coming in with strong promos/vignettes. The vignettes screamed socio or psychopath, and Shiloh Hill’s delivery came off well. Instead, they have him come out as this happy go lucky goof who’s gimmick is that his tooth falls out. Huh?
A DarkState promo aired where they hyped up the group. They bragged about beating Matt and Jeff Hardy to earn the tag team titles. Saquon Shugars talked about how 2026 is going to be their year and they are going to stand tall over Joe Hendry. Dion Lennox said it doesn’t matter who his body guards are, DarkState will run through them…
Shiloh Hill made his entrance. Mike Rome handled the formal in-ring championship match introductions. Stacks and Grace made out before the bell. Grace also slapped Hill before the bell…
John’s Thoughts: Hol up? No Carlos Silva in the crowd? That guy usually takes every opportunity to get camera time from in the crowd.
3. Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo (w/Ariana Grace) vs. Shiloh Hill for the TNA International Championship. Hill and Stacks traded strikes to start the match. Hill rolled up Stacks for a close nearfall. Stacks dragged Hill to the ground with a wristhold. Hill used a backflip to escape. Hill then manhandled Stacks around with a armbar. Hill backdropped Stacks to ringside. Hill used a Tiger Feint to hit Stacks with a clothesline.
Grace dragged Stacks aside to cause Hill to crash and burn at ringside. Hill recovered and hit Stacks with a cannonball heading into break.[c]
Stacks was dominating the match from the break. Hill got a moment of respite with a Tilt a Whirl Power Slam. Hill took his tooth out and powered up. Hill rallied and hit Stacks with a standing 630 for a good nearfall. Stacks hit Hill with a tackle and Gutbuster for a nearfall. Hill ducked a Shining Wizard and rolled to ringside to flirt with Ariana Grace, who had PTSD from the missing tooth.
The referee punted Stack’s arm away when Grace tried to help Stacks get a leverage win. Hill rolled up Stacks. Grace kicked Hill which put Stacks on top for the win.
Channing Lorenzo defeated Shiloh Hill via pinfall in 10:39 to retain the TNA International Championship.
The Culling were shown walking backstage…[c]
John’s Thoughts: On the positive side, Stacks, while his character could use some development, is one of the better in-ring guys in NXT and helped young Shiloh look good in a 10 minute match, which isn’t a guarantee with the NIL wrestlers. That said, the TNA International Title has no business on NXT TV as it’s underdeveloped and adds to the title belt clutter in NXT (While also clutter, the Knockouts Title would have made more sense). I think NXT creative might be getting counter-productive signals because the Performance Center crowd might pop for the tooth gimmick, but it’s very limiting and unintelligent. Again, what makes that worse is Shiloh has so much potential if they just went with the psycho or sociopath character that the vignettes were teasing. Him being happy-go-lucky would even work in that dark character!
NXT Women’s North American Champion Izzi Dame made her entrance without The Culling. Izzi bragged about surprising everyone by taking the title when no one expected it. She said she’s not going to give the same story of making the most of an opportunity, because that’s what people say when they stumble into success. She said she calculated everything and outsmarted everyone else. She talked about how happy everyone was to see her lose to Tatum Paxley.
Izzi wondered if everyone thought she would have cried in the shadows, because that’s what the fans do. She said she’s always calculating and how she sees emotion as a weakness and not a strength. Izzi talked about how she was three steps ahead and that led to her being a champion. Izzi brought up how people like Lola Vice and Thea Hail are coming after her now and how she’s in control of who actually gets close to it.
Tatum Paxley made her entrance to interrupt. Tatum broke through the referees and got some hands on Dame. Tatum hit a referee with a headbutt before being contained…
John’s Thoughts: Very similar to the Blake Monroe segment earlier, which made it feel repetitive and diminishing returns. The Monroe segment was pretty standard too, and this segment shared the flaw of the heel in the ring being a bit too wordy before the interference. Again, it’s talking a lot without saying much.
Kelly Kincaid interviewed Ricky Saints about how he thinks the title should be handed to him. Saints mocked Kincaid and said she sounds like a biased journalist. Saints said he shouldn’t have to qualify for a title match. Saints claimed that Ava caused him to bypass the qualifying matches and he can sit front row to qualifying matches.
Stacks barged in and asked why Shiloh Hill is getting a qualifying match even though he just lost? Ricky told Stacks not to worry because he still has a title and the girl. Lexis King put his hand on Stacks’s shoulder and said they need to talk…[c]
John’s Thoughts: I hope the “NXT Outlaws” story doesn’t come to NXT. It’s already dragging down TNA when they show up there. It’s just a bunch of undercard NXT wrestlers that they want to treat as main eventers, but it’s hard to take them seriously due to how underdeveloped they are as television personas. Can we get Honor No More back? They were “meh” but better than the NXT Outlaws.
Interviewer Blake Howard announced that Tatum Paxley was kicked out of the building for hitting an official. The Vanity Project guys, Jackson Drake, Ricky Smokes, and Brad Baylor bragged about getting their new NXT contracts. They cartonishly ran away when Keanu Carver walked past. Howard tried to interview
The following matches were announced for next week’s NXT: Josh Briggs vs. Shiloh Hill, Sean Legacy vs. Eli Knight, Ethan Page vs. Elio LeFleur for the North American Champion, and Za-Ruca vs. Wren QCC vs. Fatal Influence to become number one contender to the TNA Knockouts Tag Team Championships…
DarkState made their entrance. “Say his Name and he appears! I believe in Joe Hendry! Clap Clap!”. Joe Hendry made his entrance with Out Tha Mud…
4. Joe Hendry (w/Lucien Price, Bronco Nima) vs. Dion Lennox (w/Cutler James, Osiris Griffin, Saquon Shugars) in a No-DQ Match. Hendry got the upper hand with chops in the corner. Hendry hit Dion with a neckbreaker for a nearfall. Dion came back with boots and a backbreaker for a two count. Hendry was knocked off the top rope, but did a Kip Up into a pouncing Superplex on Dion.[c]
Vic Joseph pointed out during the break how Joe Hendry was one of the biggest stars in all of pro wrestling at the beginning of 2025. Back from break, Dion was working on Joe with methodical offense. Vic noted how it looks like Shugars is plotting. Shugars set up a chair in the corner. It backfired, because Hendry whipped Dion into it, knocking Shugars off the apron. Nima handed Hendry knuckle dusters.
Hendry clocked Dion with a right hand and Dion kicked out. Hendry hit Dion with his signature Fallaway Slam into the Zoolander turn. Cutler handed Dion a Kendo stick to help him escape a Standing Ovation. Dion took down Hendry with cane shots. Hendry stole the stick and beat up Dion with it. Hendry hit Dion with a Standing Ovation. Griffin dragged Joe to ringside to break the pin.
Dion hit Hendry with a rebound Sitout Bomb. OTM dragged Dion to ringside and roughed him up to break the pin. OTM and the other three Dark State members brawled. The extra wrestlers brawled to the ring. Dion Lennox set up a Slim Jim table in the ring. Hendry and Dion slapped chairs. Dion gave Joe a spinebuster on a steel chair. Joe Hendry kicked out at two. Joe hit Dion with a Standing Ovation on a chair.
Dion kicked out. Dion and Joe traded hands. Dion speared Joe through the table. Hendry kicked out at two. Dion was about to hit Joe, but Tony D’Angelo hit Dion in the back with a chair and hit Lennox with a Uranage. D’Angelo helped Joe to his feet and then hit him with a Uranage. D’Angelo dragged Joe on Dion to give Joe the win.
Joe Hendry defeated Dion Lennox via pinfall in 13:24.
Ava and security ran out to confront Tony D’Angelo. Tony D beat up the security guards. Tony D then crossed paths with Ava and then headed to the back to close the show…
John’s Thoughts: The match was a bit of an overbooked mess. The extras added nothing and didn’t gain much from their brawl. Dion kicking out of Joe’s finish is expected given how he’s obviously the booking team’s golden boy, but him kicking out would have had more impact if Checkov’s bright red sticker Slim Jim table wasn’t looming largely in the camera shot. Again, overbooked, especially if they were going to include Tony D’Angelo (which I have better things to say about, even though I have my fears there too). NXT needs to take a step back the next couple of weeks and remember how to tell entertaining stories, especially like they did with the young group during the 2.0 era, which was low key very fun. I really hope AI isn’t writing these shows.
The Tony D’Angelo stuff is intriguing and I like how they are doing a slow burn with it. They do need to move forward or else risk that stalling out right out the gate. Based off Vic dubbing Tony D a “Vigilante”, and how he put Joe over despite also slamming him, I’m assuming Tony D is going to be NXT’s version of Crow Sting, which isn’t a bad character. I just hope that we get Tony D actually doing some promos and cinematics because we know he’s one of the best character-actor-wrestlers in the business with how well he did the cartoon mafia don thing. Overall, this was a pretty middling episode of NXT all things considered and I hope they find a way to pick things back up coming off their massive roster raid.
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