NXT Review: 25/08

Dion Lennox VS Saquon Shugars: Weaponised Steel Cage Match

Credit: WWE

The final NXT before Heatwave kicked off with Dion Lennox and Saquon Shugars finally putting an end to their rivalry inside a Weaponised Steel Cage! It’s always a risk to have inexperienced talent perform these type of matches, but I personally quite like it as NXT is ultimately there as development for these guys to eventually move on to the Main Roster! Unfortunately, this was one of those occasions where it just didn’t work, with multiple things going wrong! Some of that was bad luck; the table breaking following a superkick to a bin was one of those, but at the same time, even I could tell from just watching that one of the legs on the table wasn’t set up properly! Again, sometimes we forget that this is developmental, given the amount of brilliance that NXT has had when it comes to their roster in recent years, but still, I have to grade this match fairly! After the table broke, Saquon Shugars called an audible, jumping off the top of the steel cage to meet Lennox with a crossbody to score the victory! This better be the end of this whole DarkState story!

Grade: C-

Nattie and Jaida Parker Come Face-to-Face, Kam Hendrix VS Keanu Carver, Zaria VS Kali Armstrong

Tony D’Angelo cut a great promo talking about the prestige and the allure of the NXT Championship, and I particularly loved his line about how he was the first one to slay The Ruler (granted, with help from 3 other people)! The Vanity Project then had a rather hilarious video interview in a Bowling Alley, before Nattie talked about how she came to NXT to face Jaida Parker, mostly because she viewed her as the future! However, all Nattie sees now is wasted potential, which prompted Jaida to march down to the ring to say that she’s thankful for Nattie, as she finally woke her up and reminded her who the real Jaida Parker is! Nattie Neidhart would then challenge Parker to a Submission Match at Heatwave, which Miss Parker was more than happy to accept! I don’t need to see Natalya wrestle on a Premium Live Event in 2026: I just don’t!

Grade: C

We then headed straight into more in-ring action as Kam Hendrix was set to take on Keanu Carver! I thought that this match had come about after their interaction in Mr. Stone’s office last week, but that wasn’t actually the case as we got shown a video from earlier in the night where Keanu literally asks Stone for this match! Mason Rook is also seen lurking in the background, and that’s a very important note to remember! The actual match itself was fine; I like what NXT is trying to do with Carver’s character, as it keeps me guessing as to whether (or more probably when) he’s going to start acting Heel again! Remember Mason Rook? Well, he attacked Hendrix at one point, opening the door for Carver to steal the win with a Perfect-Plex! Talk about feuds that feel never-ending; that’s exactly how I feel about Hendrix VS Rook!

Grade: C+

Kelani Jordan cut a great video promo ahead of her challenging for the NXT Women’s Championship this Sunday, with Jordan calling herself “One-Shot Lani” as that’s all she’s needed in the past to win both the NXT Women’s North American and TNA Knockouts World Championships! Great! In fairness, Zilla Fatu is also pretty cool, with Fatu stating that he’s going to leave Heatwave as the NXT Champion in his debut match, before Zaria went one-on-one with Kali Armstrong! This match actually had some weight to it, as a win for Kali would see her be added to the Title Unification match that’s taking place this Sunday between Zaria and Wren Sinclair! Whilst a Title Unification match should always be 1-on-1 in my opinion, this actually made a lot of sense, as Armstrong literally pinned Sinclair the week prior! However, I do have a massive gripe with all of this, and that’s because in the opening match of the night between Dion Lennox and Saquon Shugars, the NXT Heatwave Summit was advertised, and that poster included Kali Armstrong! So, it wasn’t at all a surprise when Armstrong rolled Zaria up, pinning the Women’s North American Championship to book her ticket to Texas! What are we doing here? This is the most basic of errors!

Grade: D (not for the actual wrestling, for the stupid error earlier in the night)

BirthRight VS Noam Dar, Romeo Moreno, Sean Legacy, and Dorian Van Dux, Rey Fenix VS EK Prosper: AAA World Cruiserweight Championship

Kendal Grey was hanging out with NASCAR Xfinity Series driver William Sawalich before Wren Sinclair got excited over the prospect of all three of them ending Sunday as winners! I don’t have enough time or interest to watch NASCAR, but I can admit that Wrestling/Motorsport crossovers are very cool! Speaking of cool, Lexis King and the rest of BirthRight were ready to do battle in an 8-Man Tag against Noam Dar, Romeo Moreno, Sean Legacy, and Dorian Van Dux! I thought that this was a pretty entertaining encounter, with BirthRight playing their roles well against two explosive new Tag Teams! I say it every time, but Uriah Connors is so good, whilst it was actually nice to see Charlie Dempsey wrestle for a change! The springboard move that Sean Legacy did was probably the highlight of the match, whilst Dorian Van Dux stared! Eventually, Dempsey would actually score the win by pinning Noam Dar, and I firmly believe that that was the right decision!

Grade: B

Credit: WWE

Mr. Stone wasn’t impressed with Keanu Carver cheating to win, but Carver rightly pointed out that the referee’s decision is final! Shiloh Hill would then confuse Stone with some sort of medical chat in relation to his vision, before Rey Fenix once again put his AAA World Cruiserweight Championship on the line, this time against EK Prosper! This was always going to be good, but boy did it deliver! Rey Fenix is genuinely one of the best wrestlers in the entire world; I rate him so incredibly highly, whilst EK Prosper is incredibly fun to watch! This was the type of wrestling action that both AAA and NXT have become known for: high-octane, fast-paced action, where the crowd was thoroughly invested throughout! Eventually, an MMB was enough for Fenix to once again successfully retain his World Cruiserweight Title, with the two good guys embracing after the match was over!

Grade: B+

NXT Heatwave Summit

After Hank and Tank said they’ve got their eyes on Myles Borne and Tavion Heights’ NXT Tag Team Championships, the final segment on this week’s edition of NXT was an NXT Heatwave Summit! Kendal Grey and Wren Sinclair started it off, with Kendal putting over her accomplishments in the past, whilst Kelani Jordan would then interrupt to make it clear that she’s leaving Heatwave as the new NXT Women’s Champion! Both Zaria and Kali Armstrong would then appear (separately), with Zaria saying she needs to erase the NXT Women’s Speed Title after all of the damage it’s done to her! Grayson Waller’s music would then hit, as The Arrogant Aussie threw some verbal shots at the NXT Women’s Division, before Tony D’Angelo would also say some things in response to Waller! Cruz Montana had clearly had enough of all of this at this point, starting a mass brawl which saw Kendal, Wren, and Zilla Fatu standing tall with NXT Gold! I suppose that this was an effective way to get people excited to watch NXT Heatwave this Sunday, with three “marquee” matches all being involved in one segment! My final thought is that Waller and Montana are great!

Credit: WWE

Grade: B-