Ring Of Honor had their final pay-per-view event of 2025 yesterday. Today, it’s NXT’s turn to have their final pay-per-view event of the year.
The Boeing Center at Tech Port in San Antonio, Texas is the host for tonight’s event, and WrestleTix is reporting that a shade under 2,000 fans will be in attendance.
This show has the potential to shake things up in the short term (the winner of Ricky Saints vs Oba Femi will not only be the NXT Champion, but will also face Cody Rhodes next week on Saturday Night’s Main Event) and the long term (the men’s and women’s Iron Survivor Challenge winners will challenge for the NXT Title and NXT Women’s Title, respectively, on the New Year’s Evil episode of NXT on January 6th.
It’s a five-match card, but there’s a lot on the line.
Let’s have some fun.
Ricky Saints vs Oba Femi – NXT Title Match (Winner will face Cody Rhodes on next week’s episode of Saturday Night’s Main Event)
They say this is the first time that the NXT Title has been defended in the opening match of a pay-per-view, and I’ll just go ahead and take their word for it. Either way, it’s an interesting booking decision, probably done to get it out of the way before the huge Ohio State vs Indiana college football game begins in about 50 minutes. I would have to assume that the men’s Iron Survivor Challenge gets the main event spot, but at the same time, it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest if the women’s Iron Survivor gets the nod.
A bit of a mixed reaction for both men here, with cheers and boos for both, as well as dueling chants of “Ricky” and “Oba” for a bit.
Oba is such a ridiculously impressive physical specimen, and his power game is special. On one hand, he needs to be on Raw or Smackdown immediately, but on the other hand, that would require him to lose here and “graduate,” but that would also mean he loses two consecutive non-house show matches. In his albeit brief career, he has never lost two consecutive non-house show matches. That makes this match even more intriguing to me.
I like that Ricky is hitting a little harder and throwing bigger bombs here. He’s wrestling like someone who knows he needs to wrestle an almost perfect match to pick up the win.
Oba hits Fall From Grace, but Ricky kicks out at a 2.99 count. Unfortunately, the Referee was dumb enough to choreograph the kickout by counting one, then two, and then adjusting his entire body and arm to dramatically go for three before stopping short.
It didn’t matter, though, because a second Fall From Grace took place mere seconds later, and this time, it was enough to get the win. Oba Femi is the NXT Champion for the second time, making him the eighth man in history to hold the title on more than one occasion. He will defend his title on January 6th against the winner of the men’s Iron Survivor Challenge, but perhaps more importantly, he will face Cody Rhodes next week on Saturday Night’s Main Event. That could be something special.
This was a fun match. It fell just short of the “great” tier, but it was entertaining and hard-hitting, getting the crowd involved from the start. 3.75 Stars
Sol Ruca vs Kelani Jordan vs Kendal Grey vs Jordynne Grace vs Lola Vice – Women’s Iron Survivor Challenge (Winner earns an NXT Women’s Title shot at NXT New Year’s Evil)
Two women start the match, with another woman joining the match every five minutes. The match will last 25 minutes, and the woman with the most falls at the 25-minute mark wins. When a woman loses the fall, she must enter the ringside penalty box and remain there for 60 seconds before returning to the match.
Kelani Jordan is the first entrant, and Kendal Grey is the second entrant. They have to wrestle for the entire 25 minutes, but at the same time, they also have more time to earn falls than anyone else in the match.
We’re starting things off with a frantic pace. Both women are trying to take advantage of the extra time they’ll spend in the match by trying to get some early falls, but they aren’t successful yet.
With seconds before the next entrant arrives, Kendal picks up a pin to go up 1-0 on everyone. As Kelani heads to the penalty box, Jordynne Grace comes out as the next entrant in the match. She hits the ring and starts beating the hell out of Ms. Grey.
No falls happen while Kelani is in the penalty box, and her 60 seconds end. She runs into the ring and breaks up a submission attempt by Jordynne.
Kelani uses her momentum by earning a pin on Kendal, sending the Evolve Women’s Champion to the penalty box. We’re approximately 7:30 deep here, and both Kendal and Kelani have one fall each.
The longest-running tradition in wrestling history… fans not being smart enough to count… continues on. They’re trying to chant along with the ten-second countdown until Kendal Grey leaves the penalty box, and they reach zero while there’s almost two seconds left on the clock. Incredible.
Lola Vice is our next entrant, and she is throwing strikes left and right, picking up a pin on Kendal right away. Kendal heads back to the penalty box, and now we have three women who have one fall each.
Kendal leaves the penalty box and hits the ring with extra motivation. She gets a flurry of offense on Jordynne, and it culminates in a pin. Jordynne heads to the penalty box, and now Kendal has two falls, putting her in the lead at the halfway point of the match.
Kelani hits Jordynne with a big crossbody off the top, but Jordynne rolls through and gets a pin, finally putting her on the board just as Sol Ruca makes her entrance. Before Kelani goes to the penalty box, she attacks Sol during her entrance, working on Sol’s already injured knee. The fans are really upset as medics come out and escort Sol to the back before she could even officially enter the match.
With seven-and-a-half minutes to go, Kendal is up with two falls, and the crowd pops as Sol runs back to the ring. She gets in and gets two back-to-back falls, one on Kelani and one on Lola. The Sol Snatcher was doubly effective there. Sol is now tied with Kendal for the lead here with two falls, while the other three women have one fall each.
Good Lord, the pace is lightning quick here. All five women are going nuts here. As I type that, Kelani is able to get a pin on Jordynne, giving her a second fall. We have a three-way tie for first place with just about four minutes to go.
Jordynne returns to the ring from the penalty box and immediately gets a pin on Kelani, but that’s followed by Lola getting a pin on Kendal. There are less than two minutes in the match, but all five women are tied with two falls each.
We’re going down to the last second. Kendal Grey leaves the penalty box, and with seconds to spare, she spikes Lola to pin her. It’s over! Kendal Grey wins the match, and the 24-year-old Evolve Women’s Champion will face Jacy Jayne for the NXT Women’s Title at New Year’s Evil.
What a match. That was a blast to watch. From start to finish, it was non-stop action, and all five women got the opportunity to shine. Kendal Grey winning is a surprise move, but I think she’s ready for a bigger spot. She is already a better in-ring performer than a lot of the women in NXT… including Jacy Jayne herself.
Really, really fun stuff here. I could do without so many falls taking place in the match, but with five people involved, the chaos makes a lot of sense. We’re not talking about 11 falls in a 25-minute singles match, so it’s not quite as big a deal. 4.25 Stars
“All Ego” Ethan Page vs Mr. Iguana – NXT North American Title Match
We’re starting things off with the comedic stylings of Mr. Iguana. The San Antonio crowd is very appreciative of him and his sense of humor, but on commentary, Booker T is upset. Book is ranting and raving, almost non-stop, about how Mr. Iguana doesn’t deserve a title shot here and how everything he’s doing is unfair.
All Ego gets hold of La Yesca, and he has the audacity… the unmitigated gall… to spit on everyone’s favorite iguana plush. You son of a bitch!
A lot of Mr. Iguana’s face paint has come off on Page’s arm and torso. The man looks like he was on a casting couch with Slimer.
Twisted Grin gets the pin and the win for the champion. There wasn’t much to the match. We had a comedy spot or two in the beginning, but not a lot beyond that. I’m not 100% sure of the match length, but it was in the vicinity of the six or seven-minute mark. It was designed to give the crowd a bit of a cooldown after the 25 minutes of chaos that was the Iron Survivor Challenge, but outside of that, it didn’t really belong on pay-per-view. I’ll just give this 2.5 Stars, and we’ll move on.
Tatum Paxley vs Izzi Dame
Welp. Shawn Spears is on my screen, immediately bringing my mood down. I’m bored just watching him walk to the ring behind Izzi Dame.
We’re only a couple minutes in here, and Izzi has already tricked Tatum TWICE by pretending to be her friend again. My God, Tatum, take the hint, girlfriend.
Izzi is another in a long line of women in NXT that have anywhere from good-to-great in-ring skills, but also have horrible acting skills. Whenever a lot of these women have to cut promos, use facial expressions, or do anything remotely close to acting, it gets laughably bad. At least she isn’t a racial stereotype and caricature like a lot of the black and Latina women in NXT end up being.
Tatum basically falls for the bullshit AGAIN, this time when Spears hands her the dolls. As she begins to wander back to the ring with the dolls, Spears tears the head off of the “Tatum” doll and gets slapped for it, but the distraction is enough for Izzi to drop Tatum and get the win. That was a deflating finish, taking the air out of the building.
The match was more to continue the story between Tatum and Izzi than to be anything spectacular in the ring, probably setting up a rematch at some point sooner than later. It wasn’t bad, but there wasn’t enough action to really take it to another level. 3 Stars
Je’Von Evans vs Joe Hendry vs Dion Lennox vs Leon Slater vs Myles Borne – Men’s Iron Survivor Challenge (Winner earns an NXT Title shot at NXT New Year’s Evil)
During a pre-match backstage segment, Je’Von tells Ricky Saints that when he wins this match, he isn’t going to wait until New Year’s Evil to beat Oba Femi. He doesn’t clarify what he means by that, but that’s an interesting hook, without a doubt.
Main event time.
Leon Slater is the first entrant, and Je’Von Evans is the second entrant. We’re about to have one helluva start to things.
To the surprise of nobody, these two are flying all over the place, and things are already moving at a crazy pace while we wait for the next entrant.
With 20 seconds to go, Je’Von gets a quick pin. As Leon heads to the penalty box, Myles Borne is the next entrant.
With Je’Von and Leon fighting at ringside, a young fan in the front row is intently watching them and appears to be talking trash to them. She is completely unaware that Myles is about to hit a beautiful dive to the outside, taking both men out. The look on her face, with her jaw nearly on the floor as she looked at the carnage, was priceless.
We hit the ten-minute mark, brining Dion Lennox to the match, and we still only have the one fall for Je’Von on the board. So far, this one has been put together differently than the women’s match, and I appreciate that.
At the 12:40 mark, Dion gets a pin on Je’Von, and he is now tied with The Young OG himself with one fall each.
Je’Von returns from the penalty box and is absolutely on fire, with a flurry of offense on everyone.
Somewhere, someone said his name, and Joe Hendry appears as the fifth and final entrant in the match.
Just after the 17:30 mark, Mr. Hendry pins Myles Borne to become the third man to earn a fall.
At the 20:00 mark, a Swanton 450 on Joe Hendry gets a fall for Myles. The action has been fast and furious, and with under five minutes to go, we have four men tied for the lead with one fall.
Make that five men tied, as Myles pins Dion as I typed the previous sentence. With less than four minutes to go, all five men have one fall each.
After leaving the penalty box, Dion locks both the Referee and Je’Von inside the box, but Je’Von is able to climb out. It wasn’t exactly difficult, but yeah, he made it out.
In a wild scramble during the last few seconds, Je’Von reverses a Myles Borne pin attempt and rolls him up to get a fall. The clock expires, and Je’Von is the winner.
With Je’Von celebrating in the ring, Oba Femi’s music hits and the new NXT Champion walks out on stage. With both men trash talking each other from a distance, the lights in the arena go out, and we get a vignette that shows a blurry-faced man walking towards the camera. The vignette stops, and we then see a returning Tony D’Angelo standing behind Je’Von. His reveal gets almost no reaction from the crowd, which is brutal. He ends up dropping Je’Von and staring Oba down. The crowd still doesn’t really seem to care all that much. Ouch.
The match itself was a lot of fun. It wasn’t quite as entertaining as the women’s match, but still a blast. I think the difference between the two matches is that this one had a couple of “slower” stretches, while the women’s match was pretty much pedal-to-the-floor for an entire 25 minutes. I like that this was laid out differently, though, and I think the right man won, too. 4 Stars
That was a pretty fun show overall. The two Iron Survivor matches were definitely worth watching, and the NXT Title match was fun, too. NXT has a changing landscape now, with a new champion at the top, new #1 Contenders, a returning “Don,” and a bunch of moving puzzle pieces. Exciting times.
