NXT Homecoming 2025 Review

Triple H Starts the Show, Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair VS The Culling: WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships

After a couple of awesome videos highlighting the history of NXT at Full Sail University, NXT Homecoming began with the one, the only, Triple H! Triple H talked about how the fans took this show from being a “whisper to a roar”, and that it was great to be home! This brought out Shawn Michaels who was also happy to see Triple H back, but he made it clear that his NXT Roster is ready to steer this company into the future! Hunter then teased that he’s maybe interested in coming back to NXT (please keep it as a tease), and this brought out William Regal to do his whole “WARGAMES” stick! Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss then followed to highlight the fact that the Women’s Division has always been the backbone of NXT, and whilst this segment was a little bit too long, it was totally fine!

Grade: C+

Credit: WWE

This then led into the first match of the night as Alexa Bliss and Charlotte Flair put their WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships on the line against The Culling! What I liked about this match was it sort of got broken up into two singles matches, mainly because the opponents were very similar! See, you had Alexa Bliss VS Tatum Paxley; two emotionally unstable characters that like to carry dolls around, whilst you also had Charlotte Flair VS Izzi Dame; two tall and powerful blondes that could match strength with a lot of the men! I thought those dynamics made this match better than it would’ve been otherwise, and it certainly kept me intrigued! Eventually, Alexa was able to drop Tatum with a Sister Abigail to secure another successful Title defense, but yeah, I thought this was decent overall!

Grade: B-

Trick Melo Gang VS DIY, Ethan Page VS Tyler Breeze: NXT North American Championship

Credit: WWE

ZaRuca were bickering backstage before Lainey Reid and Candice LeRae walked in to say that they will be taking Sol Ruca’s NXT Women’s Speed Championship at No Mercy! This is when Shanya Baszler made a surprise appearance to tell Sol and Zaria to sort out their issues (this was a very cool surprise) before Trick Melo Gang reunited to take on DIY! Firstly, I was already losing my mind just from the entrances alone; not only did Carmelo Hayes come out with the jerseys hanging on the titantron, but both Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano came out to their original NXT themes (which have to be up there as some of the greatest theme songs of all time)! Then we got the actual match, and it was really, really good! The technical wrestling between Hayes and Gargano was superb, top quality, and everything that Ciampa and Williams did were also great! There were also great call-backs; DIY hit a Shatter Machine whilst Trick stood behind Melo in a similar way to the ending of NXT Vengeance Day 2024 (when the roles were reversed)! However, unlike that occasion, Trick took out Tommaso (after Carmelo ducked) before The Miz came out of nowhere to wreck Johnny Wrestling with a Skull-Crushing Finale to the floor! This then opened the door for Carmelo Hayes to hit Nothin’ but Net to score the 3 count, and all I can say to this is of course Melo won on NXT, when does he not?!

Credit: WWE

Grade: B+

Credit: WWE

Sami Zayn was the next NXT alumni to appear as he wanted to praise Je’Von Evans! Josh Briggs didn’t like this, resulting in a brawl between Briggs and Je’Von before Sami made it clear to The Young O.G. that the sky really is the limit for him! Tyler Breeze then made his return to in-ring competition as he went one-on-one with Ethan Page with the NXT North American Championship on the line! This was a good match; I was impressed by Tyler Breeze here; he hasn’t lost a step! I know this match was done because of it being NXT Homecoming, and that’s why Breeze was on the show, but WWE should really consider having Tyler on NXT full-time because he could do a lot of great things on that brand! Someone else who is doing great things in NXT is Ethan Page; he has been one of the wrestlers of the year for me (so far), and in the end, Page was able to score the win with a very well-executed Twisted Grin! It’s also worth mentioning that El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. was also watching this match from the crowd, so I was correct in my assumption that Worlds Collide wasn’t the end of this little story!

Grade: B

The Grayson Waller Effect (Featuring Oba Femi and Ricky Saints), Lexis King Gets a Surprise

Tavion Heights wasn’t impressed with Ethan Page’s win at all, and this is when he got some advice from a former NXT North American Champion in Damian Priest! Priest got a good reaction, that was nice! It was then time for the return of The Grayson Waller Effect as The Arrogant Aussie hosted Oba Femi and Ricky Saints! Grayson had a great line early on, calling Oba “Obarated” before Femi pulled out a killer line on Ricky Saints, saying he can go to the Main Roster to carry Cody Rhodes’ bags around! Saints then fired back, cutting a really passionate promo about how hard it’s been to get to this point, before Trick Williams arrived to say that he still has his eyes on the NXT Championship! Somehow, Grayson Waller had enough power to suggest a “Winner Takes All” match for both the NXT and TNA World Championships, and that was later agreed on! Now, that’s a crazy big matchup on an episode of NXT, but based on the show-long running story, we might just be getting a TNA invasion next week (Ali and Dolph/Nic Nemeth please)!

Credit: X

Grade: B-

Charlie Dempsey told Wren Sinclair that he needs to go to Japan for a month before Bobby Roode showed up to be his usual glorious self! Wren then said the name “Joe Hendry”, which of course resulted in Joe showing up, with Roode saying he’ll be rooting for Hendry once he goes after the NXT Championship! Lexis King then decided to make his presence felt as he called Myles Borne some crazy things, before Finn Balor was the next guy to show up, as The Prince came out to his epic NXT theme song! The crowd absolutely loved this, treating Finn like the star he is, before Myles Borne showed up to beat up The King! Balor also got involved in the action, delivering a Coup de Grace to the delight of the NXT Universe! Bringing back some of the old themes was arguably the best part of this entire show!

Credit: WWE

Grade: B

Fatal Influence VS Rhea Ripley, Lyra Valkyria, and Stephanie Vaquer

Credit: WWE

After Montez Ford gave DarkState some advice, it was Main Event time as the super team of Rhea Ripley, Lyra Valkyria, and Stephanie Vaquer looked to run through arguably NXT’s greatest ever female faction, Fatal Influence! This was another strong match; this whole show featured a lot of good wrestling, and these women delivered! I still think it was a shame that Iyo Sky was nowhere to be seen on this card; she is more NXT than any of these women, but anyway, this was still cool! Jazmyn Nyx continues to impress; she is getting better and better, and Stephanie Vaquer is so good! As expected, Booker T nearly died whilst Vaquer and Ripley delivered a double Devil’s Kiss, and a back-fist from Lola Vice opened the door for Rhea to drop Jacy Jayne with a Riptide to send the crowd home happy! Fatal Influence always lose, and yet there’s been 3 Titles in that group this year! We then headed backstage to see Oba Femi and Trick Williams standing face-to-face, but Ava confirmed that TNA wrestlers are not happy! Stay tuned!

Credit: WWE

Grade: B