Next week’s NXT at Center Stage Theater in Atlanta, Georgia, is canceled, but the scheduled card remains intact for the Performance Center. Tonight, matches like Sol Ruca versus Jacy Jayne for the NXT Women’s Championship get a closer look.
Lola Vice vs Kehlani Jordan
Jordan jumpstarts the match and targets Vice’s injured right hand. Booker T remains eccentric, possibly more than usual, while shouting out Vice’s AAA Mixed Tag Team Championship partner Mr. Iguana – or “Iggy,” as he repeats. Jordan rips off Vice’s brace, whipping her hand into the steel steps before break. Vice comes back with spinning kicks and hip attacks but misses a backfist into the podium. Jordan capitalizes with an armbar, ultimately forcing her opponent to tap.
Winner: Kehlani Jordan
Tony D’Angelo directs a promo package to DarkState, promising to take everything from them – starting with Cutler James. Leader Dion Lennox tells Saqoun Shugars and Osiris Griffin to handle tonight’s fatal four-way tag team match while they deal with D’Angelo.
NXT Champion Joe Hendry blindsides Ricky Saints in the parking lot, immediately spawning officials to separate. After an abrupt break, Hendry storms the ring to demand Saints, who appears on the podium. Saints labels him a social media star, an everyman and a marketer – with the inclusion of a WWE2K DLC pack. The NXT Champion accepts a title match, having no problem kicking Saints’ “punk ass” at Vengeance Day.
Shiloh Hill is interviewed in the locker room, calling tonight’s North American Championship opportunity “quantumentitlement.” Hank and Tank call the challenger a “good weird.”
Women’s North American Champion Izzi Dame watches last week’s AI-accused vignette of Tatum Paxley. With Dame defending against Paxley at Vengeance Day, The Culling share their championship goals; Niko Vance and Shawn Spears compete in a fatal four-way tag team match to determine the new number-one contenders.
Cutler James vs Tony D’Angelo
D’Angelo competes in his first match since returning, dropping the white beater and wrestling in black jeans. His suplexes and spear return, more intense than ever, followed by a spinebuster for victory. Dion Lennox jumps the winner but eats a body slam onto the steel steps. James saves his partner though, dragging him away from a steel-step ambush to the leg.
Winner: Tony D’Angelo
North American Champion Ethan Page and The Vanity Project’s conversation is interrupted by Myles Borne, who threatens to convince him for another title match. Ricky Saints calls him rude and wishes his new friend “All Ego” luck tonight.
OTM vs The Vanity Project vs The Culling vs Hank and Tank
The winners advance to face DarkState for the NXT Tag Team Championships, and all competitors are eligible to be tagged. OTM wins the meat-off with Niko Vance and chokeslams The Vanity Project onto a ringside mass before break. Hank Walker dives onto Shawn Spears, and Lucien Price throws Brad Baylor into partner Ricky Smokes. Hank and Tank catch Vance with a Honk Honk, and OTM follow with their double-team finisher for an all-team pin break.
OTM and Hank and Tank coordinate four consecutive superplexes, and Walker connects with a Bossman Slam on Baylor. Teams throw each other out to steal the pin, and Jackson Drake interferes to steal Spears’. Hank and Tank send OTM through the announce desk, and Vance spears Drake while Smokes pushes Baylor into the pinfall. The Vanity Project pick up the win, earning a title match against DarkState next week.
Winners: The Vanity Project
Keanu Carver recalls his collegiate football past in a vignette, admitting to getting kicked off the team for pushing back against a coach. “My coach tried to control me, but he couldn’t… NXT can’t control me,” Carver says.
Interim NXT General Manager Robert Stone kicks Joe Hendry out before Sol Ruca passes by. Zaria accuses her of stealing an NXT Women’s Championship match last week and finally says she’s done with their friendship.
Fatal Influence enters the ring, and NXT Women’s Champion Jacy Jayne admits her jealousy of Ruca for her continued spotlight. Jayne tells Ruca she needs to drop friends to get ahead, but the latter says Zaria stands in her own shadow. Ruca vows to prove she’s better than Jayne, Fatal Influence commits a three-on-one attack, and Zaria makes the unexpected save. ZaRuca embraces, and the challenger stands tall.
Elio LeFleur vs Eli Knight – Speed Tournament
In the locker room, Sean Legacy looks forward to the competitor’s match, where LeFleur and Knight fist-bump ahead of the finals. The match is titulary speedy, and they trade moonsault attempts at the two-minute mark. Knight lands on his right foot but recuperates with a springboard leg drop. LeFleur catches another with a powerbomb at the one-minute mark, Knight comes back with a running knee, and the former hits a top-rope dragon suplex for a time-limit draw. Robert Stone appears, rewarding the competitors with a triple threat match for the Speed Championship next week with a seven-minute time limit.
Winner: N/A
Uriah Connors asks Charlie Dempsey to accept Lexis King and their birthright, bringing up childhood memories in Fit Finlay’s personal ring. Dempsey walks away, but King presents Connors with a match next week against former partner Kale Dixon. New TNA Knockouts Champion Arianna Grace tells Connors to prove himself like Stacks has done marrying into birthright.
Robert Stone tells Blake Monroe that Jaida Parker was suspended for attacking security and out with an injury. Stone inserts Monroe into the Women’s Speed Tournament, first competing against Thea Hail.
Saquon Shugars and Osiris Griffin call challengers The Vanity Project the New Kids on the Block, and Zaria rekindles her friendship with Sol Ruca by supporting her climb towards the NXT Women’s Championship.
Shiloh Hill vs Ethan Page (c) – North American Championship
Backstage, Hill asks Myles Borne to stay out, and the latter threatens to not listen – more than usual. “I know exactly what I’m gonna do now,” Borne says past ZaRuca. Page looks to have the most successful North American Championship defenses, attempting to introduce a steel chair early. Hill ragdolls his opponent with an atomic drop and Superman Punch, but The Vanity Project comes out to spectate before break.
Dueling “let’s go Shiloh” and “let’s go Ego” chants split the crowd until Page delivers a second-rope powerslam. The Vanity Project exposes the concrete floor, and Hill exposes his missing tooth (takes the straps down) for a comeback. Hill takes out The Vanity Project ringside, tossing Jackson Drake onto the announce desk. But Page takes advantage with Twisten Grin on the exposed floor, following up in-ring with another for victory.
Winner: Ethan Page
They commence in a post-match assault, and Borne makes the save, demanding a match with Page. Hill slides in a steel chair, and Page accepts for next week to stop his foot from being Pillmanized. “I knew you couldn’t do it!” Page screams before his foot is Pillmanized.
