WWE NXT Review - June 30, 2026

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

NXT Women's Champion Kendal Grey Celebrated with WWE Women's Speed Champion Wren Sinclair; Tatum Paxley Attacked Kelani Jordan

Cutting promos hasn't been Grey's strong suit so far in her NXT run, but she's going to get better with more reps, so I liked how she started this show to not only give her a chance to improve but also to establish that we're entering a new era for the women's division. She did well, and Sinclair is always entertaining. The brawl between Paxley and Jordan was short and sweet and it helped hype their match for later in the night.

NXT Tag Team Champions The Vanity Project (Ricky Smokes and Brad Baylor) def. El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. and Galeno

It was not explained why Wagner Jr. and Galeno would've earned an NXT Tag Team Championship opportunity. Unless it's El Hijo del Vikingo, I don't really care about any of the AAA guys making appearances on NXT, so this match didn't do much for me, but it was well worked. We found out later on that a Fatal 4-Way tag team matchup will be held next week to determine Vanity Project's next challengers.

Jackson Drake def. Mason Rook

I know Drake has won his fair share of matches recently, but I'm still shocked he went over here. I assumed this would be a straightforward win for Rook, who you'd think they'd protect more than they have so far, but evidently not. Rook did have an out with the interference from Vanity Project, so there was that. Take nothing away from the action, though, as this was actually a great match.

EK Prosper def. Keanu Carver

Propser was originally advertised to face El Hijo del Vikingo, but Vikingo was shown attacked backstage by Carver earlier on, so Carver and Prosper faced off in a rematch from last week instead. Reportedly, Vikingo is legitimately hurt, so hopefully he's not out for too long. Anyway, what we got from Prosper and Carver was solid. Carver suffering two straight losses to Prosper is certainly questionable, but at least they're capitalizing on the momentum for Prosper.

Jaida Parker def. Karmen Petrovic

Petrovic is a part of Nattie's new crew, so it was logical for Parker to beat her similar to when she beat Layla Diggs a few weeks ago. There wasn't much to the match, but it was decent while it lasted. The use of Petrovic has been disappointing considering she had some momentum on this show once upon a time, but it's more important to rebuild Parker after all the losses she's taken ahead of an eventual rematch with Nattie.

Naraku Attacked NXT Champion Tony D'Angelo

D'Angelo addressed his win over Naraku at The Great American Bash and made it sound like that rivalry was finished, only for Naraku to attack him while he was walking to the back. If they're going to continue this, Naraku has to take the title in the rematch or risk ruining whatever credibility he has. Maybe that will be where the former Hiromu Takahashi will debut?

Kelani Jordan def. Tatum Paxley

It was interesting that this was positioned as the main event despite nothing significant being at stake. Don't get me wrong, they had a good match and I'm all for the women continuing to get spotlighted on this show, but this did leave me wondering if Paxley is on her way out of NXT considering this was the third big loss she's suffered in the last month. Kali Armstrong attacking Grey at ringside obviously means she's coming for a title shot, and we also got the NXT TV debut of newcomer Nikki Blackheart (or whatever they end up calling her) afterward. In other words, the depth of NXT's women's division isn't at all an issue.

Overall Show

Although I didn't feel The Great American Bash was one of NXT's stronger specials this past weekend, I did think this was a quality edition of the show on the whole as it effectively reset the deck. Okay, maybe not the NXT Championship picture, but we're definitely moving forward in the women's and tag team divisions. This episode had a nice energy to it with the women taking center stage per usual.

SEE MORE: NXT Reviews