NXT Review: 30/12

Linus O'Howell
Dec 31, 2025
5 min read

NXT North American Championship: Ethan Page VS Moose

The final NXT of 2025 kicked off with one of its pillars as Ethan Page aimed to successfully defend his NXT North American Championship over Moose! Moose has made multiple appearances across NXT over the past year, and he tends to look pretty good every time! Ethan Page wrestling on the final NXT of the year felt fitting (this won’t be the last time I say that in this article); he’s been absolutely incredible in 2025, and this was another example of a wrestler from another company coming after The Greatest North American! Eventually, despite a strong effort from Moose, a Twisted Grin was enough for Page to retain over The Face of the Franchise, and let’s see how 2026 goes for “All Ego” Ethan Page!

Grade: B-

Izzi Dame Promo, Jacy Jayne VS Wren Sinclair, Joe Hendry’s New Year’s Eve… Eve Concert

After a very strong list of nominees were shown, Je’Von Evans was officially announced as NXT Men’s Superstar of the Year! Je’Von was delighted to have achieved the award, and honestly, I’m not mad at this! Oba Femi, Trick Williams, Ethan Page, and even Ricky Saints all deserved to be voted for this award, but I don’t think The Young O.G. winning is a terrible call! Anyway, after Kendal Grey was found hurt on the floor backstage, Izzi Dame came down to the ring to cut a promo on Tatum Paxley! Izzi stated that Tatum didn’t learn anything from her during their time together in The Culling, which Paxley quickly interrupted to state that she did learn something: that Izzi is insecure! Tatum then challenged Dame to a match at New Year’s Evil (which Izzi accepted), before Pax stood tall after Izzi tried to take her out! I don’t really understand why that match wouldn’t have a stipulation; it feels like the story has warranted one (unless they’re going to fight again at Vengeance Day)!

Grade: C

ZaRuca were given the award for NXT Tag Team of the Year, and my biggest question regarding all of this was where on earth were FRAXIOM?! Anyway, another NXT MVP of 2025 was out next as Jacy Jayne was set to go one-on-one with Wren Sinclair! Fatal Influence had already sort of revealed that they were the ones who attacked Kendal Grey, meaning they sort of had a 3-on-1 advantage over Wren! To be fair, the crowd tried their best to hype up the leader of the WreNQCC, but Sinclair just wasn’t able to sustain enough offense on a consistent basis! Like I said with Ethan Page earlier, having Jacy Jayne wrestle on the final NXT of 2025 felt right, and eventually, The Rockstar managed to pin Wren Sinclair via a Rolling Encore! After the match was over, Fatal Influence continued their beatdown on Sinclair, before Kendal Grey ran down to make the save, forcing the NXT Women’s Champion to tap out! Will that happen at New Year’s Evil? Probably not!

Grade: C+

Joe Hendry was out next to perform his highly anticipated New Year’s Eve… Eve Concert! Joe sang a song about how great NXT has been in 2025, mentioning stars like Je’Von Evans, Ethan Page, Chelsea Green, Trick Williams, Ricky Saints, Jacy Jayne, and more before he mentioned DarkState! This led to DarkState hijacking the concert, dropping Hendry with a massive Powerbomb, before we saw Tony D’Angelo watching on! Firstly, Tony D watching on is certainly an interesting development in all of this! Secondly, I enjoyed Joe Hendry’s concert a lot; the song was actually pretty good!

Grade: B

NXT Speed Championship Tournament Final: Lexis King VS Tavion Heights, OTM VS Swipe Right

After Ava actually gave Blake Monroe some pretty good and helpful advice, a bunch of superstars from both NXT and TNA (including Matt Cardona, Elijah, and Mike Santana) all gave out their predictions ahead of next week’s NXT Championship bout between Oba Femi and Leon Slater! Tavion Heights and Lexis King were then ready to face off in the Final of the latest NXT Speed Championship Tournament, or at least we thought they were! See, after delivering his finishing manoeuvre, Tavion managed to beat Lexis in just 8 seconds, scoring the fastest win in the history of the Speed format! Jasper Troy then appeared on the ramp to stare off with Heights, and honestly, this was much better than how the usual Speed matches go!

Grade: B-

On what was a very hard list to call, Oba Femi VS Trick Williams VS Je’Von Evans from NXT Stand and Deliver was voted as the NXT Match of the Year! Once again, FRAXIOM seemed nowhere to be found, but this Triple Threat match is very much deserving of winning this award! Swipe Right were then back on NXT as they had to face the consequence of their actions from last week as they took on OTM! I’m still not really sure what I think of Swipe Right (or The Vanity Project as a whole), there are certain bits where I see potential, and then there are others where it just doesn’t work for me! Also, it’s not exactly like I’m a huge fan of OTM, and they looked like the better team here! As a result, Bronco Nima and Lucien Price were able to pick up the win over Brad Baylor and Ricky Smokes, and yeah, this was typical last show of the year vibes!

Grade: C

Je’Von Evans VS Ricky Saints

After Jordynne Grace agreed to be in Thea Hail’s corner next week, and Sol Ruca was awarded with the NXT Women’s Superstar of the Year Award (Jacy Jayne was robbed!), it was Main Event time as Je’Von Evans and Ricky Saints clashed in the final WWE match of 2025! Both Je’Von Evans and Ricky Saints have been crucial parts of NXT this year, with very strong performances made by both men on many different occasions! As a result, having these two Main Event the final show of the year was both very fitting and also very deserved! I still wonder why this match isn’t taking place at New Year’s Evil, but I get the feeling that that could be because Je’Von is already headed straight to the Main Roster! If that’s to be the case, Evans went out on a high, with another really good performance! Saints also looked strong; he’s working well as a Heel, and we even got a ref bump to end the year (following an O.G. Cutter)! After this, Saints would take advantage, delivering a low blow to Je’Von Evans, before “Absolute” Ricky Saints dropped The Young O.G. to score the 1.2.3! I love that the main Heels all won on this show; exactly how 2025 deserves to end!