NXT Showdown 2025 Review

Linus O'Howell
Oct 8
4 min read

Champions VS Champions, Winner Takes All: DarkState VS The Hardys

After a great video package highlighting the history of both brands, NXT Showdown 2025 kicked off with DarkState taking on The Hardys in a Title-for-Title, Winner Takes All match! This match was okay, it made sense to start with The Hardys coming out, but I don’t think this clicked as well as it should’ve! You could tell the huge difference in experience between the two teams, and DarkState didn’t exactly look that strong! This was a fair 2-on-2 match, though (after the initial start), but I don’t know, something here just failed to click! In the end, though, after a Swanton Bomb, Matt and Jeff Hardy scored the victory to become both the NXT and TNA World Tag Team Champions! This is the first time TNA superstars have held NXT Gold, and it makes a lot of sense for it to be them!

Grade: C+

Team NXT (Jacy Jayne, Sol Ruca, Jaida Parker, and Lola Vice) VS Team TNA (Kelani Jordan, The IInspiration, and Mara Sade): Women’s Survivor Series Elimination Match

It was time for the first Survivor Series-style matchup of the night as Team NXT’s Jacy Jayne, Sol Ruca, Jaida Parker, and Lola Vice took on Team TNA’s Kelani Jordan, The IInspiration, and Mara Sade! Jordynne Grace was the Special Guest Referee, and she did a decent job of calling it down the middle to begin with, but there are definitely some questions that need to be asked! After no one was eliminated for a bit, Mara Sade scored the first fall over Jaida Parker, but she celebrated too much, opening the door for Sol Ruca to deliver a Sol Snatcher to eliminate the former “Miss Jackson”! Things then quickly got worse for TNA as Lola Vice eliminated both Cassie Lee and Jessie McKay of The IInspiration, leaving Kelani Jordan in a 3-on-1 situation! This is when Kelani got screwed over, as she nailed Jacy Jayne with her “One of a Kind” Split-Legged Moonsault, only for Jordynne Grace to not be around to count the 3! Now, Jordan was able to recover and eliminate Lola Vice, but it wasn’t enough, as she still had to go against the two Women’s Champions of NXT! Eventually, Lani got nailed by a terrific Sol Snatcher, and a reactive Jayne tagged herself in, pinning Jordan to earn a win for Team NXT! There were some good bits in this; I thought the story that was being told was good, but in execution, there were a lot of sloppy moments. However, what I did like was both Jacy and Sol being there at the end!

Grade: C+

NXT North American Championship: Ethan Page VS Mustafa Ali

After both Matt Cardona and Josh Briggs told Ava that they want a match with each other, Mustafa Ali made his return to in-ring competition in WWE as he went one-on-one with Ethan Page for the NXT North American Championship! This was easily the match of the night; both guys are terrific at what they do, and the crowd really got into this! See, not only were they fully against Page, but they also really started to root for Ali, and the drama here was clear for everyone to see! Whilst no big finishers were kicked out of, the near-fall after Mustafa rolled up Ethan was great, and some of the bumps Ali took, particularly the two at the end of the match, were absolutely ridiculous! On top of all of this, the story was superbly told, with Ali getting his foot trapped by Booker T’s headset, opening the door for All Ego to hit Twisted Grin to score another successful Title retention! Very well done from everyone involved!

Grade: A-

Team NXT (Ricky Saints, Trick Williams, Je’Von Evans, and Myles Borne) VS Team TNA (Mike Santana, Moose, Leon Slater, and Frankie Kazarian): Men’s Survivor Series Elimination Match

After a fun segment where Lexis King believed he was talking to Tavion Heights dressed as El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr., only for Tavion Heights to appear behind him, it was Main Event time as Team NXT looked to finish the job against Team TNA! After less than 2 minutes, NXT were already down a man as Myles Borne was eliminated by Frankie Kazarian, and it eventually turned into 4-on-2 as Leon Slater got an early edge on Je’Von Evans heading into their X-Division Title clash at Bound for Glory! The MVP of this match for me was Trick Williams; I thought Trick was everywhere here, and he carried himself as the man of both brands! However, as we’d kind of come to expect, Trick abandoned his team late on, leaving Ricky Saints alone to face the entirety of Team TNA! Now, Ricky was able to pull out victories over both Kazarian and Slater, and he also came close to pinning Santana after Moose accidentally speared his own partner! Honestly, at this point, I wondered whether Trick Williams was going to come back at the end and pin Mike Santana to win it for Team NXT, because that would’ve been a very interesting play! However, that didn’t happen, as Santana and Moose worked together to pin Saints to score the victory for TNA, making it 2-2 and all even on the night! I’m glad TNA won this match, it would’ve been silly if they didn’t, and yeah, this was a good Main Event!