WWE NXT Review - October 14, 2025

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

NXT Champion Ricky Saints Called Out Trick Williams

Saints came out demanding a match with Williams after Williams cost them the win in last week's Team NXT vs. Team TNA men's main event and even offered to put the NXT Championship on the line, so that's now official for Halloween Havoc. Williams didn't accept his challenge in person, but he did attack him backstage later in the show. Williams lost his TNA World Championship to Mike Santana at Bound for Glory, so once he loses to Saints, he really should be main roster bound.

Josh Briggs def. Matt Cardona

This stemmed from Cardona costing Briggs a match against Myles Borne two weeks ago. They had a fine match, but it's hard for me to get invested in anything Briggs is involved in these days. He's just boring. I would've much rather seen Cardona go over, but typically, he was booked to lose. Maybe he shouldn't be clamoring to be brought back after all. In nothing else, it was awesome that he got to use his own entrance music and come out as himself as opposed to Zack Ryder.

AAA Latin American Champion El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. def. Lexis King (Non-Title)

King feels the new gatekeeper for NXT at this point, so he was a logical opponent for Dr. Wagner Jr. in his NXT debut. This was essentially an extended squash for him, though King did score some offense. Post-match, it was established that he'll challenge Ethan Page for the NXT North American Championship at Halloween Havoc in a Day of the Dead match. No idea what that means exactly other than it'll be Anything Goes according to Dr. Wagner Jr.

Blake Monroe def. Zaria

Monroe has basically been spinning her wheels since her feud with Jordynne Grace ended, but at least she's keeping busy with Zaria and Sol Ruca. She and Zaria had a decent match here, but it was more about the tension being teased between Zaria and Ruca, so I'm glad Monroe went over. Zaria and Ruca will also be challenging Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship on Friday's SmackDown.

Hank Walker and Tank Ledger vs. The Culling (Shawn Spears and Niko Vance) vs. Chase U (Uriah Connors and Kale Dixon) in a Triple Threat Tag Team Match Ended in a No Contest

This wasn't billed as a number one contender's match for the NXT Tag Team Championship, but it was implied in a backstage segment earlier on that the winners could be in line for a future title shot. It didn't end up mattering anyway with OTM returning and laying everyone out, causing the contest to be thrown out. This didn't last long, so it was fairly forgettable. Doing a disqualification in a Triple Threat match seems lame to me.

Tatum Paxley Won an NXT Women's Championship No. 1 Contender's Battle Royal

If you've seen one Battle Royal in NXT, you've pretty much seen them all. Ruca gave up her spot to Zaria, who ended up willingly eliminating herself when she saw Monroe attack Ruca at ringside. There were some other nice moments, but this was your average Battle Royal otherwise. Paxley winning was a cool surprise, even though I don't at all expect her to win the NXT Women's Championship from Jacy Jane at Halloween Havoc.

Overall Show

If you couldn't already tell, this show was pre-taped, hence why the crowd couldn't be heard during some of the backstage segments. I shockingly wasn't spoiled ahead of time, but it's not like it would've made much of a difference because this was a fairly inconsequential show outside of the main event. New matches were made official for Halloween Havoc (which was obviously necessary with the event being next weekend), but this paled in comparison to last week's newsworthy Showdown special.

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