WWE NXT Review - November 4, 2025

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Fatal Influence (Jacy Jane, Fallon Henley and Lainey Reid) def. The Culling (Izzi Dame and NXT Women's Champion Tatum Paxley) and Lola Vice

Jane and Henley are still in the process of developing chemistry with Reid as the newest addition of Fatal Influence, but they're off to a solid start. Not only was this a well-worked six-woman tag team match, it was effective in furthering Paxley and Dame's story with Dame sacrificing herself for Paxley and Jane getting her heat back by picking up the win for her team.

TNA Knockouts World Champion Kelani Jordan Explained Her Actions

Jordan's mic skills have always been her biggest weakness in my opinion, but I think the heel turn could really help her in that respect. She did a nice job explaining her actions from last week and justifying turning heel. I would've preferred to see this saved for before or after her match later on, but that's merely nitpicking, and I understand they needed her backstage segment to set that up, anyway.

WWE Speed Champion El Grande Americano def. Josh Briggs (Non-Title)

It's hilarious how Americano being WWE Speed Champion only seems to be canon on NXT, as he was not acknowledged as being champ on Monday's Raw when he faced Penta. As a match, this was decent, but it made no sense to me. What purpose was this supposed to serve? Both guys are heels and Briggs is booked to win every other match he has it feels like. Plus, Americano wasn't going to lose before he defends against Jasper Troy next week.

Trick Williams Attacked NXT Champion Ricky Saints

This started out as a split-screen interview that descended into a backstage brawl with Williams getting the better of Saints. The talking between the two was good and hyped up their Last Man Standing match next week (I mistakenly thought it was happening on either Night 1 or Night 2 of Gold Rush). Surely that has to be Williams' NXT swan song, right? What more can he possibly do on the brand?

Zaria def. Wren Sinclair in a WWE Women's Speed Championship No. 1 Contender's Tournament First-Round Match

I assume this will be an eight-woman tournament (making this a quarterfinal match), but I don't think that's been confirmed. Doing a third Speed tournament in under two months is excessive and doesn't make me care about the crappy concept at all. This was fine for as long as it lasted, but similar to most Speed matches, they could only do so much in the three minutes they were allotted.

TNA Knockouts World Champion Kelani Jordan def. Tyra Mae Steele (Non-Title)

Steele completely disappeared from NXT TV following her feud with Chelsea Green, so I can't say I was shocked to see her utilized as an enhancement talent here for Jordan. The outcome was never in doubt, but it was the showcase that it needed to be for Jordan. Santino Marella popped up on the big screen afterward to announce that Jordan will defend her TNA Knockouts World Championship in a Triple Threat at Gold Rush against Jordynne Grace and Lei Ying Lee. I guess we know who's eating the pin in that one.

Je'Von Evans def. Saquon Shugars

All of DarkState was at ringside, but Evans managed to overcome the odds and secure the win, regardless. That was refreshing. I believe this marked the first time Sugars has wrestled on his own and I thought he had an impressive outing. It definitely looks like we're headed for Evans and Leon Slater challenging DarkState for the NXT Tag Team Championship and potentially winning the belts.

Joe Hendry and Thea Hail Crashed Chelsea Green and NXT North American Champion Ethan Page's AAA World Mixed Tag Team Championship Championship Celebration

Outside of Dominik Mysterio as the AAA Mega Champion, anyone from WWE or NXT winning titles from AAA doesn't mean much, but it's pretty cool that Green and Page captured AAA's mixed tag titles together, especially since that means they're going to be appearing together more often for a little while. This was a fun segment to set up their first challengers in Hendry and Hail for Gold Rush.

Overall Show

The issue with putting so much focus on the two-week Gold Rush special (and even next week's episode featuring Saints vs. Williams for the NXT Championship) is that it doesn't leave a whole lot left for Deadline in early December. The build for that is going to be extremely rushed as a result. As for this edition of NXT, it was an adequate show that successfully moved stuff forward.

SEE MORE: NXT Reviews