WWE NXT Review - January 28, 2025

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Bayley and NXT Women's Champion Giulia def. Cora Jade and Roxanne Perez

Bayley last competed in NXT five years ago when she and Sasha Banks successfully defended the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship, and before that, you'd have to go all the way back to 2016. Thus, it was cool to see her back in an NXT ring, especially considering who she was in there with. This was really fun stuff and Bayley pinning Jade was what led to the announcement later on that it will be a Triple Threat with her, Giulia and Perez for the NXT Women's Championship at Vengeance Day.

Chaos Ensued on The Grayson Waller Effect with A-Town Down Under, NXT Champion Oba Femi and Trick Williams

A-Town Down Under are so overdue for a split that it's difficult to care about the duo, especially now that they find themselves in contention for the NXT Championship at Vengeance Day. Does anyone honestly believe they'll beat Oba Femi for the title on that show? I assumed this segment would simply set up the tag team match between A-Town Down Under and the team of Trick Williams and Femi for next week, and although it was good and it accomplished that, I didn't think it'd led to the aforementioned Triple Threat for Vengeance Day. That screams filler to me.

Wes Lee def. Trick Williams by Disqualification

Williams came into this contest at a disadvantage having just been laid out by Williams in the previous segment. Williams also took out his frustration on Lee, Tyriek Igwe, Tyson Dupont and the referee and that was what led to the disqualification finish. As a result, this wasn't what it could have been, but it told a solid story. All signs point to Williams getting his NXT Championship rematch with Femi at Stand & Deliver.

NXT Women's North American Champion Fallon Henley def. Shotzi

While I wasn't high on Shotzi handing Stephanie Vaquer her first singles loss in NXT a week or two ago, I always figured Vaquer was who they were ultimately building to challenging Henley and that turned out to be the case. Shotzi certainly isn't the smoothest in the ring, but this was a perfectly passable match and I liked that Henley won without interference from the rest of Fatal Attraction. Henley vs. Vaquer was subsequently made official for for Vengeance Day.

Ethan Page def. Cedric Alexander

This was a rematch from a few weeks ago and it was much more of a competitive contest this time, which I appreciated. Alexander is excellent and shouldn't only ever be utilized as an enhancement talent. Granted, he lost yet again here, but he scored plenty of offense (and did some strong selling) before eating defeat. Je'Von Evans emerged afterward to target Page and further that feud.

WWE Women's Tag Team Champions Bianca Belair and Naomi def. The Meta-Four (Jakara Jackson and Lash Legend)

Meta-Four unsuccessfully challenged Belair and Jade Cargill for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship last year and at one point I thought there was a chance they'd take the titles here, but that was before Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez beat the champs in non-title action on Monday's Raw. This was enjoyable and one of Meta-Four's one better outings to my memory, but that mistimed referee count toward the end seemed to sour some fans in the crowd on the finish.

Overall Show

The quality of NXT TV is always improved whenever they hit the road. Unlike most editions, everything felt it mattered this week and the intimate atmosphere at Center Stage (a venue Ring of Honor ran many times years ago) added to my enjoyment of the episode. Most importantly, there was a ton of build and hype for Vengeance Day, and although I'm not enamored with the overall card (specifically the main event), not everything feels totally thrown together.

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