By John Moore, ProWrestling.net Staffer (@liljohnm)
NXT Heatwave
Edinburg, Texas, at Bert Ogden Arena
Streamed live August 30, 2026, on The CW and ESPN Unlimited (Netflix internationally)
[Hour One] A intro video aired with a heatwave and dehydration theme (I liked it better when they were doing Paul Heyman ECW Heatwave themed intros for this PLE). Side note, if you’re watching the show on CW through antenna, the show is actually airing live instead of on Tape Delay like the Tuesday Night show…
Vic Joseph and Booker T were on commentary. Mike Rome was the ring announcer…
Vic Joseph introduced the show and noted that the crowd was still around from the AAA show. Arrival shots were shown of Kelani Jordan, Wren Sinclair and Kendal Grey, Zilla Fatu, Cruz Montana, Granson Waller, and Tony D’Angelo…
Women’s North American Champion Zaria made her entrance. WWE Women’s Speed Champion Wren Sinclair made her entrance. Kali Armstrong made her entrance wearing Lakers silver and purple Sunday colors (Nice change up. I’m biased as a Lakers fan). Vic reminded viewers that there wasn’t going to be a Speed Match time limit for this match…
1. Zaria vs. Wren Sinclair vs. Kali Armstrong in a Title Unification Match for the NXT Women’s North American Championship and WWE Women’s Speed Championship. All three traded rapid pin attempts. Zara took down both opponents with suplexes and then with running strikes. Kali took out Wren with a pop up punch. Kali rallied with Road Dogg style punches. Wren tripped up Kali and dragged her to ringside. Kali hit Zaria with a high speed shoulder tackle. Kali tried to do the same to Wren, but Wren dodged, sending herself into the steel steps heading into Picture-in-Picture break.[c]
Back from break, Wren hit Zaria with a Butterfly Superplex. Kali gave Wren a Spinebuster for a nearfall. Wren dodged Kali and got a two count off Zaria with a backslide. Wren dropkicked Kali to cause her to hit Zaria with a DDT. Wren hit Zaria and Kali with a cross body block for a nearfall on Zaria. Zaria escaped a final WrenCh and hit Wren with a Discus clothesline. Zaria dumped Kali into the corner. Wren went for a Sleeper, but Zaria escaped by using Wren to hit Kali with a Backpack Cannonball.
All three women traded hands and heads in the center of the ring. Kali scooped up Zaria for a power bomb for a nearfall. Wren rolled up Kali for a two count. Wren got another two count after an inside cradle. Zaria hit Wren and Kali with a double Spear. Kali broke up Wren’s rollup with a Kali Connection. Kali hit Zaria with a Power Slam. Kali reversed Zaria’s F5 attempt with a rollup for a nearfall.
Wren hit Zaria with an X Factor and put in the Final Wren-ch. Kali dragged Wren away to break the hold. Wren went for a dive at ringside, but Kali hit her with a Power Slam at ringside. Zaria caught Kali entering the ring with a Spear and F5 for the pinfall win.
Zaria defeated Kali Armstrong and Wren Sinclair via pinfall in 11:46 to unify the NXT Women’s North American and WWE Women’s Speed Championships.
John’s Thoughts: I’m curious as to why they shoehorned Kali Armstrong in this match when the ultimate result of them hurting Kali even more by having her eat a clean pin to the champ? Wren and Zaria are two talented veterans and probably could have put on a better match if this was one-on-one. I don’t see any reason to protect Wren as she’s the plucky underdog type that can shrug off losses. Soooooo, the Women’s Speed title is gone right? Time to burn the Men’s Speed title too?
Sarah Schreiber interviewed Cruz Montana. Cruz said he’s a poor Puerto Rican kid from the New York City projects, with a dream. He said you can watch him work and the NXT Title is his for the taking. Cruz said he thrives with his back against the wall. He said what separates him from his opponents is he’s willing to go to hell and back. Cruz said his title win won’t just be for himself, but to also show those that said he couldn’t do it, that he can…
Separate shots of Vanity Project and NQCC were shown as they were warming up backstage…[c]
Still shots of Kelani Jordan, Bron Breakker, Roxanne Perez, and Trick Williams were shown as they highlighted past Heatwave shows…
Smokes, Baylor and Myka Lockwood made their entrance. Tavion Heights and Myles Borne made their separate entrances. Heights is back to his Afro hair look (The afro is fine enough, but was was a fan of him shaking things up with the dreadlock look. Vic reminded viewers that Myles Borne is doing double duty tonight (essentially wrestling all three male members of Vanity Project…
2. Tavion Heights and NXT North American Champion Myles Borne vs. “The Vanity Project” Brad Baylor and Ricky Smokes (w/Myka Lockwood). Baylor rolled up Borne for a nearfall. Borne hit Baylor with a dropkick. Tavion tagged in and tossed around Smokes. Baylor and smokes called for a time out. [c]
Back from break, Heights had Baylor in an ankle lock. Smokes helped Baylor escape. Smokes hit Tavion with a chop block after the distraction from Lockwood. Vanity Project cut the ring in half on Tavion. Off the clothesline, Tavion was able to bring in Borne with the hot tag. Borne hit Baylor with a Power Slam and Eye of the Hurricane. Borne hit Smokes with a Neckbreaker. Borne hit Baylor with a Ushigoroshi for a two count.
Tavion and Smokes took each other out at ringside. Baylor rolled up Borne for a nearfall. Smokes hit Borne with a dropkick assisted Spinebuster for a nearfall. Height broke up Ricky’s pin. After trading Stereo strikes, Heights and Borne hit Vanity Project with stereo suplexes. Heights hit Baylor with a sitout bomb. Smokes broke up the pin by sending Borne into Heights with a Slingshot Spear. Heights got a two count on Smokes with a Small Package.
Smokes caught Heights with a running Meteora. Heights hit Vanity Project with a Double German SUplex. Baylor hit Borne with a Power Slam. Heights hit Smokes with a Super German Suplex to send him into Baylor. Heights hit Smokes with a compact knee trap suplex. Borne hit Baylor with a German Suplex. Borne hit Baylor witn an X-Plex for a two count. Baylor shoved Borne into Heights to knock him off the apron. Vanity Project hit Borne with their Double Stomp Scorpion Death Drop combo to give Smokes the pinfall win over Borne.
Ricky Smokes and Brad Baylor defeated Myles Borne and Tavion Heights via pinfall in 14:07 to become the new NXT Tag Team Champions.
After the match ended, Borne and Heights hugged it out. The camera hung on both men to tease a breakup, but Heights just put his arm over Borne’s shoulder to support him to the back…[c]
John’s Thoughts: Given the match order and result for Borne’s two matches, my radar is up now regarding Tavion Heights costing him the North American title. The camera angle teased it here, but I think that was just a little bit of a red herring where the actual betrayal is likely to happen in the NA title match. Well, all is right in the world though and they have the tag belts back on the right team again. Given where I think they’re going, there’s a good chance we get Vanity Project draped in gold by the end of the night.
A hype package aired for the Nattie vs. Jaida Parker match…
Nattie, Karmen Petrovic, and Nikkita Lyons made their entrance. Karmen being at ringside for the 2nd time following her being at ringside during the AAA Heatwave event. Nikkita wearing a weird catwoman costume. Jaida Parker made her entrance…
3. Nattie Neidhart (w/Nikkita Lyons, Karmen Petrovic) vs. Jaida Parker in a Submission Match. Nattie tossed Jaida around at ringside. Vic Joseph noted that this feud has somewhat been going on all the way back to last year’s Royal Rumble. Jaida reversed Nattie at ringside with a suplex heading into picture-in-picture.[c]
[Hour Two] Parker put Nattie into an abdominal stretch and then a sleeper. Karmen distracted the ref which allowed Nikkita to pull Jaida’s hair to break the hold (This is no DQ though right? Which Booker and Vic were wondering). Suddenly Daga, Berto, and Angel appeared on the stage. Karmen slowly retreated to them to the back, like she was being pulled by a Mexican tractor beam. The distraction allowed Jaida to rally.
Nattie avoided Hip Notic. Jaida reversed an Anvil Lariat with a Rings of Saturn. Nattie escaped and put Jada in a Rear Naked Choke. Jaida escaped by falling on her back. Nattie tripped up Jaida and slammed Jaida’s knee into the mat. Nattie put Jaida into the Hart Family Sharpshooter. Jaida escaped and spilled to ringside. At ringside, Nikkita hit Jaida with a Tae Kwon Do spin kick. Thea Hail ran out and brawled with Nikkita to the back.
Jaida blocked a Sharpshooter and hit Nattie with a Chop Block. Jaida put Nattie in the Hart Family Sharpshooter. Nattie quickly ran to the ropes, but there aren’t rope breaks. Nattie tapped out after a good amount of time.
Jaida Parker defeated Nattie Neidhart via submission in 12:50.
Vic Joseph noted that it really means something to defeat someone from the Hart family with a Sharpshooter…
Wren Sinclair was disappointed at her loss backstage. Kendal Grey said it’s fine because she didn’t get pinned. Grey said Wren will get her shot against Zaria in no time. Wren then gave Kendal some encouragement for her upcoming match, saying she’ll save a piece of cake for her in the end…[c]
John’s Thoughts: A really good back and forth submission match. Jaida tends to fit in and step things up when it comes to PLE matches, and this was no exception. Nattie was her usual solid veteran self on the other end. While I’ve been fairly lukewarm with this feud, mostly because they are so wishy washy with how they book Nattie, Jaida does come out elevated with some of her mojo back. I’m actually kinda shocked they went with the added heat by having Jaida tap out Nattie with the Hart Family signature hold.
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