NXT Heatwave 2025 Review

Linus O'Howell
Aug 25
4 min read

NXT Women’s Championship Number 1 Contender’s Match: Kelani Jordan VS Lola Vice VS Jaida Parker

NXT Heatwave 2025 kicked off with a Triple Threat match as Kelani Jordan, Lola Vice, and Jaida Parker went at it to become the brand-new Number 1 Contender to the NXT Women’s Championship! I’d say this was a good match overall; all three women are talented, they’ve improved a lot since they first appeared on TV, and there were some good spots here! The crowd were wildly behind Jaida Parker; they absolutely loved her, but the fan support wouldn’t prove to be enough for Miss Parker. See, after Jaida nailed Kelani with a Hypnotic, Lola took advantage and rolled Parker up to score the 3 count! This means that Lola Vice will challenge Jacy Jayne for the NXT Women’s Championship at NXT No Mercy, and that should be an interesting one!

Grade: B-

NXT Tag Team Championships: Hank and Tank VS DarkState

The first Championship match of the night saw Hank and Tank put their NXT Tag Team Titles on the line against DarkState! Dion Lennox and Osiris Griffin were DarkState’s two representatives in this match, but it’s very much worth noting that all four of them consistently got involved! In fact, the referee was awful, he didn’t do his job well at all, allowing DarkState to use their numbers advantage to great effect! The best part about this match was definitely Hank and Tank; those guys are a lot of fun, but despite all of that, DarkState again used the numbers to pin Hank Walker, capturing the NXT Tag Team Championships in the process! The result was pretty obvious, and I’m not too excited for this next Title reign!

Grade: C+

TNA Knockouts World Championship: Jacy Jayne VS Ash By Elegance VS Masha Slamovich

After finding out who her next challenger for the NXT Women’s Championship will be, Jacy Jayne was looking to remain a double Champion as she put her TNA Knockouts World Championship on the line against both Ash By Elegance and Masha Slamovich! I feel like this was the weakest match of the night in terms of overall action; I felt like it was lacking something! However, having said that, it wasn’t at all bad, I think Masha Slamovich will sign for WWE at some point, and we also had the referee chuck out Fatal Influence (which was certainly a choice)! Jacy then came close to retaining before she nailed Masha with the Rolling Encore, only for The Elegance Brand to pull her out of the ring, opening the door for Ash to deliver a Swanton Bomb to Slamovich to score the win! I don’t think I ever would’ve expected the “then” Dana Brooke to win World Championship Gold on a WWE Show, but that’s the crazy world we live in right now!

Grade: C+

Blake Monroe VS Jordynne Grace

After weeks of bullying, Blake Monroe had nowhere else to hide as she went one-on-one with Jordynne Grace! This was a battle between two women who have held World Championships in other promotions, and I would be surprised if both women didn’t capture World Championship gold in WWE at some point either! In terms of this match, I thought it got better, it was a slow start, but they picked things up towards the end! Jordynne Grace is really good, I rate her highly, but I still feel like there’s more to come with Blake Monroe, the hype was too high for this to be her best form! Wouldn’t you know it, the referees were at it again as he did nothing when Jordynne went face-first into the exposed turnbuckle, allowing Monroe to deliver a Butterfly DDT to earn a victory!

Grade: B-

Team Canada VS Team America

In the penultimate match of the night, Countries collided as Team Canada’s Ethan Page and Chelsea Green faced off against the American duo of Tavion Heights and Tyra Mae Steele! I said in my NXT Review on Wednesday that better, more over wrestlers should’ve been picked to represent America, simply because Chelsea Green and Ethan Page are both talented and (in Chelsea’s case) popular! However, I didn’t expect it to be as extreme as it ended up being as the American crowd in Lowell, Massachusetts, consistently booed Heights and Steele, like genuinely booed them! This was really the main talking point from all of this, because the action itself was kind of just there! However, another surprise was that Chelsea won; I didn’t expect that either!

Grade: B- (Because of the Crowd)

NXT Championship: Oba Femi VS Je’Von Evans

And in the Main Event of NXT Heatwave 2025, Oba Femi looked to continue his dominant reign as the NXT Champion by retaining his Title against Je’Von Evans! This was the best match of the night, easily in fact! This was a lot of fun, I thought it particularly got great in the final 5 minutes or so, that was when things really started to pick up! The one uppercut that Oba delivered whilst Je’Von was flying through the air was absolutely insane, and so was the cutter that Evans delivered whilst being chucked in the air by The Ruler! A ref bump then led to the biggest controversy of the night (which is saying something), as a new referee counted to 3 following Evans’ flying Cutter, but the other referee called the decision off due to Femi’s foot being underneath the ropes! All of this clearly angered Oba Femi as he “murdered” The Young O.G. by throwing him out of the ring and straight through the announce table, followed up by a Fall From Grace to secure a successful retention! After the match was over, Ricky Saints arrived to line himself up as the next challenger for the NXT Title, but the way things are going, Oba’s not losing any time soon!