WWE NXT Review - December 16, 2025

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Thea Hail def. Blake Monroe to Win the NXT North American Championship

Oops! Hail and Monroe were having a nice match up until the botched finish, and I assume it was toward the end anyway, so it's not like we missed much. And make no mistake about it, that finish was absolutely botched. It was pretty apparent, not to mention it was confirmed by various outlets online afterward. The referee really should have held up the count, even though it wouldn't have come off well. Now NXT has to significantly adjust their creative plans. If nothing else, it was a cool moment for Hail, who had yet to hold gold in NXT.

TNA International Champion Channing "Stacks" Lorenzo and Moose Confronted NXT North American Champion and AAA World Mixed Tag Team Champion Ethan Page

It was said coming into this segment that Page would be calling out Tony D'Angelo, but I don't know that his name ever came up once. It quickly turned into Lorenzo and Arianna Grace staking their claim at Page's AAA World Mixed Tag Team Championship and Moose announcing he'll being facing Page for the NXT North American Championship on the December 30th episode. Lorenzo and Grace going for the mixed tag titles is whatever, but I'm looking forward to Page vs. Moose.

Hank Walker and Tank Ledger def. OTM

I feel like these two teams along with what's left of Chase U are stuck in a never-ending loop of meaningless matches where none of them ever ascend to NXT Tag Team Championship contention regardless of who wins. There was nothing technically wrong with this match, but it was just difficult to care knowing Walker and Ledger will likely remain in the same spot despite their victory here. This isn't a tag team feud that does much for me.

Ricky Saints Attacked Je'Von Evans

Saints got great crowd heat here for betraying Evans last week. He know from his time in AEW that he can be an excellent heel, so I have no doubt he'll do well in this role, at least for however long he's still in NXT. Evans attempted to evade security to no avail and got put through the commentary table by Saints. This was a good segment to effectively further the feud between the two.

Evolve Women's Champion Kendal Grey and Wren Sinclair def. Fatal Influence (WWE Women's Speed Champion Fallon Henley and Lainey Reid)

Grey continues to be incredibly impressive any time I see her in action, and that's to take nothing away from Sinclair, who I'm glad is getting more exposure and television time. This followed the same formula as Fatal Influence's other tag team matches, but it was well worked and Grey winning for her team was the right outcome so she could maintain momentum ahead of New Year's Evil.

TNA X-Division Champion Leon Slater def. Myles Borne, Dion Lennox and Joe Hendry in an NXT Championship No. 1 Contender's Fatal 4-Way Match

As expected, this was a really fun four-way with entertaining action and I genuinely didn't know who would win. I figured Lennox would win here after losing at Deadline and given what's been teased with him and Oba Femi, but Slater winning came completely out of nowhere. Hey, no complaints. Him against Femi could be a blast and I'm curious how they build it up over the next three weeks.

Overall Show

Well, this turned out to be more newsworthy of a show than I was expecting coming into it. The title change is obviously going to keep people talking this week, but the rest of the show was solid and set stuff up for the coming weeks, including New Year's Evil at the beginning of January. I didn't care much for the men's tag team match, but everything else seemed to serve a purpose.

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