WWE NXT Review - July 15, 2025

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

TNA Knockouts World Champion Masha Slamovich, NXT Women's North American Champion Sol Ruca and Zaria Attacked Fatal Influence

This was every talking segment you tend to see on NXT TV in that we had a group starting the show talking and more people interrupting them with promos. It was an extremely basic segment, but it served to set up the six-woman tag team match in the night's main event. By the way, Fatal Influence being back on the same page after teasing tension for months is pretty silly, but the continued teases of tension between Ruca and Zaria are at least interesting.

TNA World Champion Trick Williams, Mike Santana and Joe Hendry vs. DarkState (Osiris Griffin, Saqon Shugars and Dion Lennox) Ended in a No Contest

Does anyone else find it odd that DarkState has four members, yet they only ever have six-man tag team matches? They've been unstoppable for months, but their biggest issue is that they've lacked direction. I'm actually shocked they haven't set their sights on the NXT Tag Team Championship. Nonetheless, this was a well-worked match, though it was silly for the three men involved in the Slammiversary main event to have to team up just because. The non-finish was lame, but The System from TNA making an appearance to brawl with DarkState was cool.

Evolve Women's Champion Kali Armstrong def. Karmen Petrovic by Disqualification; Jordynne Grace Attacked Stevie Turner and Robert Stone

I don't watch Evolve and Armstrong hasn't been established on NXT TV at all, so this was a random championship match to throw out there with only a brief backstage segment from earlier in the day to set it up. It didn't end up mattering because the bout was quickly interrupted by Grace, who attacked both women before also getting physical with Turner and Stone after finding out Blake Monroe wasn't in the building. This successfully made Grace look like a badass but made Armstrong and Petrovic look like total afterthoughts.

Tony D'Angelo def. NXT Heritage Cup Champion Channing "Stacks" Lorenzo and Luca Crusifino in a Triple Threat Match (Non-Title)

This was billed as a Family Business Triple Threat match. I haven't cared for this storyline whatsoever, but I appreciated all the video packages that aired throughout the show recapping the history of The D'Angelo Family. Plus, this was a worthy payoff with great work from all three guys. Please let this mean it's over! On a side note, I'll refer to Lorenzo as NXT Heritage Cup Champion, but it's worth noting he didn't bring the cup out with him here. I'd love nothing more for that thing to be done away with forever. It is painfully pointless.

Tensions Boiled Over Between NXT Champion Oba Femi, Josh Briggs and Yoshiki Inamura

Inamura was impressive against Femi at The Great American Bash, but I'm not overly excited about Inamura and Briggs still being involved in the NXT Championship picture and Femi not moving onto other challengers. The focus is Briggs and Inamura being on the brink of breaking up, so we'll see what they do in next week's Triple Threat for the title that furthers that.

TNA Knockouts World Champion Masha Slamovich, NXT Women's North American Champion Sol Ruca and Zaria def. Fatal Influence (NXT Women's Champion Jacy Jane, Fallon Henley and Jazmyn Nyx)

It was weird having a six-woman tag team main event after we already got a six-man tag team match earlier in the show, but this was a nice preview of what to expect in Slamovich vs. Jane when they battle for both of their belts at Slammiversary this Sunday. Slamovich pinning Jane was an awesome moment, but it does have me worried that Jane is avenging that loss and winning at Slammiversary, which would be terrible.

Overall Show

This felt like as much of a go-home show for TNA's Slammiversary pay-per-view as it did a follow-up show for The Great American Bash. I'm happy TNA is getting some much-deserved exposure out of this partnership, though I will have questions if both Williams and Jane leave Slammiversary with TNA's top two titles. But back to this edition of NXT, it was decent on the whole. The in-ring action was average at best and the back-to-back non-finishes weren't ideal, but the Triple Threat exceeded my expectations and they announced a bunch of stuff for next week's episode in Houston.

SEE MORE: NXT Reviews