The final NXT before Stand and Deliver 2025 was a good show. Obviously the go-home show is your most important show on the road to a PLE, and there were some odd booking decisions but for the most part they increased your interest in each match even if just by a little bit. It would’ve been good to have a contract signing or something like that for the NXT Women’s Title match, but the video packages actually did a great job of establishing each woman’s story heading into Saturday. We got our final two participants in the women’s ladder match and they were two great choices. Lola Vice is someone that needs to be on NXT TV consistently and this match on Saturday will be a good way of starting that again. Whereas we also got the return of Thea Hail finally, and I feel like she is probably the favourite to win the ladder match on Saturday now. The Ricky Saints and Ethan Page story has been building for a little while and now that match has been made official. While Hank and Tank are finally getting it right, they will face the best tag team in the world on Saturday. The D’Angelo Family and DarkState rivalry has been a joy to watch the past couple weeks, and the parking lot brawl was a ton of fun. The match on Saturday should be extremely chaotic and I was hoping for some kind of Street Fight stipulation or something. The show lacked depth and interest in parts, but overall it ended up being a nice way to close the chapter on this build before their biggest show of the year on Saturday.
It’s the final NXT before Stand and Deliver this coming Saturday, and the brand looks to head into their biggest show of the year with a bang. We will find out who Ricky Saints will come up against on Saturday, as Ethan Page, Eddy Thorpe, Lexis King and Wes Lee all fight for an opportunity at the North American Champ. The field for the ladder match at Stand and Deliver will be completed, while Fraxiom also find out who their next challengers are. Let’s get into the review!
AMAZING Ethan Page vs Eddy Thorpe vs Lexis King vs Wes Lee
Well this match just took me completely by surprise, in the best way possible. These four stole the show and gave us a PLE-worthy match on free TV. The story they went with was about all competitors not only trying to get a title shot, but also to not be left off the biggest show of the year for NXT. They really sold how desperate each guy was to take this opportunity, which resulted in some insane spots. After the match, Ethan Page celebrated his victory and told everyone he believes that he was the guy Ricky didn’t want to face. Then Saints came into the ring and gave him a Spear for his troubles.
Result: Ethan Page by Pinfall via Twisted Grin on Lexis King
Archie Carter WR Star Rating: 4.25 Stars
GOOD Lola Vice vs Tatum Paxley – Women’s NA Title Qualifier
Lola Vice is finally back wrestling. It seems like NXT remembered they’ve got an awesome wrestler like Lola on their roster this week, and she showed why after Stand and Deliver she should be a regular on NXT TV. Tatum Paxley can share that same praise as well, as they both worked together to put on a respectable and smooth match. There is a small complaint I had, in that if you’re going to target a specific body part during the match then that wrestler should be selling that part, even if it’s just a little bit, throughout the bout. Lola did this with her arm that Tatum targeted, but not for the whole match and it kind of took away from the work they put into that specific aspect of the contest. Lola won this with her Spinning Back Fist which looks as cool as always, and she books her slot into the ladder match this Saturday.
Result: Lola Vice by Pinfall via Spinning Back Fist
Archie Carter WR Star Rating: 3.25 Stars
GOOD Tag Team Gauntlet Match
This is the story they’ve been building towards for weeks now, so in terms of the story, Hank and Tank make the most sense to win this one. The finishes to each match were really smart, and really sold the struggle the new number 1 contenders went through to win this match. However, there were points that the gauntlet got a little stale and it struggled to pick back up. But the winners made sense, and they built up to the climax of this story nicely.
Result: Hank and Tank by Pinfall on Josh Briggs
Archie Carter WR Star Rating: 3.00 Stars
SQUASH Thea Hail vs Karmen Petrovic – Women’s NA Title Qualifier
Finally… Thea Hail is back! She returned to give Mr Chase blessing to start up Chase U again, as she will always be a proud Alumni. But her goal is to qualify for the Women’s NA Title Ladder Match at Stand and Deliver, which she did in quick time. Karmen Petrovic gave her a little bit of competition, but in the end Hail reigned supreme with her Kimura Lock and she will now head to Las Vegas on Saturday.
Result: Thea Hail by Submission via Kimura Lock
Archie Carter WR Star Rating: Too short to rate
GREAT Final Face-Off
The final segment before Stand and Deliver, and it was based around the NXT Championship match which we can safely say will main event the show. All three guys said what they wanted to say, not too much character development here but they sold the match very well and established their character’s goals nicely. Je’Von Evans has such a great promo style because how he talks on the microphone feels genuinely authentic, he finished the segment standing tall over Oba Femi and Trick Williams.
Archie Carter WR Star Rating: 3.75 Stars
Overall…
The final NXT before Stand and Deliver 2025 was a good show. Obviously the go-home show is your most important show on the road to a PLE, and there were some odd booking decisions but for the most part they increased your interest in each match even if just by a little bit. It would’ve been good to have a contract signing or something like that for the NXT Women’s Title match, but the video packages actually did a great job of establishing each woman’s story heading into Saturday. We got our final two participants in the women’s ladder match and they were two great choices. Lola Vice is someone that needs to be on NXT TV consistently and this match on Saturday will be a good way of starting that again. Whereas we also got the return of Thea Hail finally, and I feel like she is probably the favourite to win the ladder match on Saturday now. The Ricky Saints and Ethan Page story has been building for a little while and now that match has been made official. While Hank and Tank are finally getting it right, they will face the best tag team in the world on Saturday. The D’Angelo Family and DarkState rivalry has been a joy to watch the past couple weeks, and the parking lot brawl was a ton of fun. The match on Saturday should be extremely chaotic and I was hoping for some kind of Street Fight stipulation or something. The show lacked depth and interest in parts, but overall it ended up being a nice way to close the chapter on this build before their biggest show of the year on Saturday.
Matches: 0.5/1 Stars
Show Structure: 0.75/1 Stars
Atmosphere/Crowd/Commentary: 0.75/1 Stars
Storytelling: 0.5/1 Stars
Production/Theme: 0.75/1 Stars
Overall Rating: 3.25/5 Stars
Photo Credit: WWE
For inquiries about the rating criteria check out the article announcing the new system here:
