WWE NXT Review - June 23, 2026

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Evolve Men's Champion Aaron Rourke def. Tristian Angels

As I've said before, I don't follow Evolve from week to week, so I haven't seen much of Rourke (other than him serving as a judge for the Mr. NXT contest between Angels and Shiloh Hill), but I dig his vibe and I like how he stands out from everyone else we've seen come over from Evolve. He's skilled in the ring to boot as I was impressed from the showing he had here. I wasn't a fan of Rourke needing an assist from Hill to retain his title, but I understand it was designed to further that feud between Hill and Angels. All in all, a good opener.

Saquon Shugars and Dion Lennox Faced Off

The DarkState stuff doesn't do much for me, and I definitely think the group is worse off without Shugars in it, but this could be a big opportunity for Shugars to show what he can do as a singles star. I maintain he has a higher ceiling than anyone in the group and this segment backed that up with the quality promo he cut. It was a solid segment on the whole and Lennox held his own on the mic, but Shugars simply stood out to me more.

Hank Walker and Tank Ledger def. Birth Right (Channing "Stacks" Lorenzo and Uriah Connors)

If it wasn't already evident that Birth Right are cooked, this pretty much sealed their fate. Sure, Hank and Tank are former NXT Tag Team Champions, but there's really no reason for them to be beating Birth Right at this point. The match was decent, but I can't say this did anything to make me any more interested in NXT's (largely lifeless) tag team division.

EK Prosper def. Keanu Carver

Like most people, I assumed this would be another standard squash for Carver as he continues to rack up victories, so I was shocked when he lost clean to Prosper. It was framed as a huge upset and Prosper is the perfect underdog for Carver to be working with right now. I would have preferred to see Carver stay dominant, but he should be fine (depending on how they follow it up) and this should keep him busy if he's not challenging for a championship anytime soon.

Arianna Grace def. Izzi Dame in the Finals of the WWE Women's Speed Championship No. 1 Contender's Tournament

The constant Speed tournaments on this show are exhausting, but on the bright side, the time limits usually guarantee that the matches will be short and sweet. That was the case here as the match itself was whatever, but at least it was quick and painless. The top takeaway was that Shawn Spears accidentally cost Dame the win, which played into what happened in the subsequent tag team bout.

Dorian Van Dux and Shawn Legacy def. The Culling (Shawn Spears and Niko Vance)

Elio Lefleur is injured and Prosper now appears to be busy with Carver, so Van Dux will probably be Legacy's new tag partner going forward. They work well together, so no complaints. The match lasted longer than I figured it would and it was enjoyable, though the focus was entirely on the post-match attack with Vance turning on Spears. They've been teasing tension for weeks (maybe months), so that was an overdue development.

Mason Rook Chased Off The Vanity Project; NXT Champion Tony D'Angelo Attacked Naraku

The show started with D'Angelo getting hit in the face with a fireball from Naraku, leading to talk throughout the night of the NXT Championship match at The Great American Bash having to be changed. I never actually bought into that possibility, but I applaud them for trying. This ended exactly the way I expected it to, so it did establish that D'Angelo will be at a disadvantage going into this weekend, not to mention that Rook and Jackson Drake are both waiting in the wings for a title shot on the other side.

Overall Show

As a go-home show for The Great American Bash, this was an adequate edition of NXT. The storyline surrounding the NXT Championship wasn't as intriguing as what they were seemingly going for, but the build for that bout between D'Angelo and Naraku was well done, and the rest of the card for Sunday also got some shine. You didn't miss much if you didn't tune into this episode, but it accomplished what it needed to.

SEE MORE: NXT Reviews