WWE NXT Review - December 9, 2025

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

NXT Champion Oba Femi, Ricky Saints and Je'Von Evans Interrupted Each Other

Evans made a comment backstage at Deadline that if he won the men's Iron Survivor Challenge (which he did), he intended to cash in his title shot before New Year's Evil. I wasn't sure what he meant by that exactly, but we found out here that he wanted to get his shot on this show, which was later confirmed. He, Femi and Starks had a quality promo exchange to start the show, though Starks' mannerisms made it clear he'd be turning at the end of the night.

Kelani Jordan def. Jordynne Grace

Jordan is adapting well to the heel role, but I'd like to see her get a bit of a makeover as far as her attire, entrance and overall presentation are concerned. I feel like tweaking those things would help her adapt even better to being a heel. Nonetheless, this was a good match from these two. I thought Grace might get her revenge on Jordan, but I have no issue with dragging this out a little longer, likely with a gimmick match being the blow-off.

NXT Women's North American Champion Mariah May's Open Challenge Never Got Underway

Well, this was lame, and the worst part is that it was actually advertised in advance. Sure, the entire NXT women's locker room coming up to attempt to accept the open challenge makes sense from a storyline standpoint, but why wouldn't we get a match even after Thea Hail attacked May? The approach was underwhelming, but we will be getting May vs. Hail for the NXT Women's North American Championship on next week's show.

Shiloh Hill def. Lexis King

King not getting a televised entrance isn't an encouraging sign for his future. At any rate, this was a super successful showcase for Hill in his official NXT TV debut. His vignettes in recent weeks have been creepily great and he came off excellent here. I was a fan of his work on both seasons of LFG and feel he has potential, not only in the ring but more importantly as a character.

Tony D'Angelo Attacked NXT North American Champion Ethan Page

Page ran down everything he's accomplished in NXT so far and no lies were detected. He's a terrific talker and this was the usual strong promo from him. D'Angelo laying him out was interesting because D'Angelo also laid out Evans at the conclusion of Deadline, so I assume the idea is for D'Angelo to target multiple champions and contenders before we finally hear from him.

Sol Ruca def. Wren Sinclar; Fatal Influence Attacked Sinclair and Evolve Women's Champion Kendal Gray

This solely existed to get Ruca back on track with a win after she came up short in the women's Iron Survivor Challenge at Deadline. It was a fairly basic bout that didn't overstay its welcome, but I would like to see Sinclair in more competitive matches in the future. The post-match angle with Fatal Influence confronting and attacking Sinclair and Gray was well done. Gray still has some work to do on the mic, but she's making the most of her aggressive push and is improving at a rapid rate.

NXT Champion Oba Femi def. Je'Von Evans

I was looking forward to this being built up over the next month going into the New Year's Evil episode, and perhaps we'll still get it on that show or soon after, but I understand why they rushed into it with Starks turning on Evans at the end and costing him the title. What we got prior to that was a blast as expected and Starks should do well as a heel in however much time he has left in NXT before getting called up to the main roster.

Overall Show

This was a better-than-usual edition of NXT emanating from the Performance Center with some Deadline follow-up as well as build for New Year's Evil. I can't say I was a fan of them rushing through Femi vs. Evans, but hopefully they'll run it back eventually with Evans winning. Hill's debut was also notable and the rest of the show was enjoyable on the whole.

SEE MORE: NXT Reviews