By John Moore, ProWrestling.net Staffer (@liljohnm)
NXT TV
Orlando, Florida, at the WWE Performance Center
Aired live May 12, 2026, on The CW Network
[Hour One] Vic Joseph and Booker T were on commentary. Mike Rome was the ring announcer…
The show started off with entrances for the opening match…
1. Tatum Paxley and Lizzy Rain vs. Zaria and Nikita Lyons. Rain and Zaria started the match. Zaria dominated the early collar and elbow exchange. Zaria then dominated a Test of Strength. Both women stuck out their tongues and traded headbutts. Rain landed a huracanrana, but Zaria came back with a shortarm clothesline. Tatum tagged in and caught Zaria with a knee to the face. Lyons tagged herself in, which Zaria didn’t like.
Nikkita worked on Tatum with methodical offense. Rain tagged in. The face team dumped the heels to ringside. Rain and Tatum gave their opponents wrecking ball kicks heading into break.[c]
Back from break, Lyons worked on Tatum with methodical offense to cut the ring in half on her. Lizzy Rain caught the hot tag and sent Nikkita into the corner to hit her with rapid chops. Rain caught Zaria with a cutter. Rain hit Lyons with a running headbutt. Nikkita caught Rain with a right hand. Rain tagged in Tatum who gave Nikkita a superkick. Lyons reversed Tatum’s finisher with a switch spin kick.
Zaria dropped off the apron when Nikkita went for the tag. Tatum knocked down Lyons. Rain tagged in and hit Lyons with Thunderstruck (Modified Scorpio Rising) for the victory.
Lizzy Rain and Tatum Paxley defeated Nikkita Lyons and Zaria via pinfall in 9:24.
John’s Thoughts: I’m totally fine with the finish as I sympathized with the Zaria character here. We’ve been waiting months and months until the Sol Ruca and Zaria tag team breakup so we can get Zaria as a monster heel, only to have her first match after the breakup be a tag team match again? Zaria was tontally justified here in my opinion. Again, can we just start pushing her as a singles monster? Good showing for Lizzy Rain here as she continues to show a captivating and unorthodox character on screen. I’m also really liking Nikkita Lyons as a midcard heel (I also hope for more of her dorky promos as well. The Divine Feline! Nikkita Multi Media!).
Kendal Grey was chatting to an injured Wren Sinclair (you can tell she’s injured because she’s holding crutches). Wren said she hopes she’s not a distraction for Grey due to her being injured. Grey told Wren to not worry. Lola Vice showed up. Vice and Grey bickered a bit over weather Wrestling or MMA was better. Wren told Grey to worry more about Kelani Jordan later…
A Naraku hype package aired to hype his debut. The video included a sound byte of Vic noting that Naraku is a former IWGP World Champion…[c]
Vic Joseph plugged TripleMania…
Vic announced that Grayson Waller, Pentagon, and Bayley will be at NXT live events this weekend…
WWE Player coach, Lince Dorado, made his entrance. Naraku made his highly produced entrance, which included pictures of Oni…
2. Naraku vs. Lince Dorado. Naraku dominated early on with elbows and a wristlock. Naraku followed up with a shoulder tackle. Naraku worked on Dorado with chops. Lince showed off hit agility and hit Naraku with a crossbody for a one count. Naraku used paintbrush boots to prevent a Triangle. Naraku suplexed Dorado into the turnbuckle. Naraku hit Dorado with a flapjack and clothesline.
Naraku kept Lince on the mat with a double chop. Naraku gave Lince a body slam and overhead elbows. naraku put Lince in a leg trap hammerlock into a chinlock. Dorado hit Naraku with an enzuigiri. Lince hit Naraku with a pop up dropkick. Lince hit Naraku with a Lethal Injection. Naraku came back with a few Yakuza Kicks. Naraku gave Lince a spinebuster and Fisherman Suplex. Naraku hit Lince with a Side Russian Legsweep for the victory.
Naraku defeated Lince Dorado via pinfall in 4:33.
Naraku got up in the camera and talked about how he’s “pure evil”…
John’s Thoughts: A well worked match, but I think it went a little too long with it being a bit too competitive. They’re bringing in the former Evil as a contender to the top title, so he should look like a main eventer, not having a competitive match with a gatekeeper. I like Lince and think he can have top quality matches, but they haven’t built him on NXT (I don’t think he’s even wrestled on NXT for years, has he?). For a positive, I like the name change as I thought “Evil” was generic as hell. I’m also willing to give him a fresh start as he never really stood out when he was one of the background guys in Los Ingonables (Even his COVID era world title run didn’t seem too impactful, and was kinda just there and felt transitional).
Shawn Legacy, EK Prosper, and Tate Wilder were chatting backstage. Wilder talked about how he picked his spot a few weeks ago and is about to bring his wild side. Dorian Van Dux showed up to dap it up with everyone. He said he’s one week away from being fully recovered…
Birth Right made their entrance. Ariana Grance no longer has the TNA Knockouts championship as she lost the title to Lei Ying Lee (Xia Li) last week on Impact…[c]
Nattie Neidhart was being filmed backstage, to talk about LFG. She tried to promote LFG, but Jaida Parker showed up to interrupt. Production guys got in between both women to prevent a fight…
Entrances for the next match took place…
3. EK Prosper, Shawn Legacy, and Tate Wilder vs. “Birth Right” Uriah Connors, Charlie Dempsey, and Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo (w/Ariana Grace, Lexis King). Stacks and Tate started the match. Tate hit Stacks with a rolling toss and dropkick for a nearfall. Dempsey and Legacy tagged in. Dempsey rallied with uppercuts. Legacy tripped up Dempsey and hit him with a double stomp and dropkick for a nearfall. Prosper tagged in and hit Dempsey with a double stomp to the shoulder.
Prosper flipped out of the corner and hit Dempsey with a dropkick. Prosper hit Dempsey with a cool kickoff Moonsault for a nearfall. Dempsey hit EK with a kick and tagged in Uriah. Uriah and EK ran the ropes with Connors landing a dropkick. Connors hit EK with a slingshot senton. EK came back with a huracanrana and dropkick.[c]
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