WWE NXT Review - April 22, 2025

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez def. Gigi Dolin and Tatum Paxley

It was noted by the commentary team that this marked Morgan's first NXT match since she left for the main roster eight years ago. Meanwhile, it's wild to think that Rodriguez was trading wins with Dolin in tag team action around this time three years ago and Dolin is still in NXT. At any rate, this was a well-worked opener. No one from NXT has ever held the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship and that didn't change here, but at least the women's teams on NXT are striving for something. Interestingly, Dolin and Paxley will have another opportunity at tag title gold when they take part in the four-way tag team match for the TNA Knockouts World Tag Team Championship at TNA's Rebellion pay-per-view this Sunday.

NXT Heritage Cup Champion Lexis King Confronted NXT North American Champion Ricky Saints; Noam Dar def. King to Win the NXT Heritage Cup Championship

It's weird that King and Saints would set up a Winner Takes All match only for King to immediately lose the Heritage Cup title to someone else, but unless Saints was going to win that pointless championship and trash it, perhaps it's for the better he doesn't have it in his possession. The Saints and King confrontation was solid and the subsequent match with King and Dar was fine. I have never cared for Dar and have zero desire to see him with the Heritage Cup again, so I can't say his return or title win did much for me.

Thea Hail def. Fallon Henley

I hate the opening to Hail's new entrance theme ("I'm a grown ass woman"? Really?), but I do like that she's branching off on her own and finally being given a chance to show what she can do. After her loss in the Ladder match at Stand & Deliver, this was a logical way for her to bounce back. Fatal Influence continue to tease tension. I'm ready for Henley to break away from them and move on up to the main roster where she belongs at this point, assuming she doesn't get lost in the shuffle there like Kiana James did before she got hurt last year.

NXT Champion Oba Femi and TNA World Champion Joe Hendry Attacked Trick Williams

I realize Williams wasn't pinned in the NXT Championship Triple Threat at Stand & Deliver, but him and Femi resuming their rivalry over the title doesn't intrigue me whatsoever. Williams is another one who should be called up imminently, but it looks like he'll be sticking around for a little longer to do something with these two. By the way, what a weekend for Hendry, who will also be in action on Thursday's iMPACT! and again at Rebellion on Sunday where he'll be defending his TNA World Championship. This was an enjoyable segment.

DarkState (Dion Lennox and Osiris Griffin) def. Myles Borne and Je'Von Evans

What a random match. I know Evans has had his run-ins with DarkState in recent months, but going from challenging to the NXT Championship in the main event of Stand & Deliver to losing to DarkState two days later feels like a demotion. Hopefully he'll be fine. Even more random was him teaming with Borne, as I didn't know No Quarter Catch Crew were faces now. The match itself was good.

NXT Women's Champion Stephanie Vaquer def. Roxanne Perez

When it originally looked like Perez was main roster bound at the beginning of the year, this was one match I was bummed we didn't get with her. They had been involved in tag team matches, but they never went one-on-one until now. Thus, I'm glad we got it, especially since it was a strong main event. Was this it for Perez in NXT after she showed up on Monday's Raw, or will she continue to stick around for some reason?

Overall Show

Honestly, why doesn't NXT hold their Stand & Deliver show on the Tuesday after WrestleMania in the same host city instead of doing it the afternoon of WrestleMania Saturday? That would make way more sense to me. Nonetheless, this was an eventful episode with the two title matches, Hendry showing up and the deck being reshuffled slightly post-Stand & Deliver. It wasn't nearly as exciting as Monday's Raw but still entertaining on the whole.

SEE MORE: NXT Reviews