SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
NXT TV REPORT
APRIL 29, 2025
ORLANDO, FLA. AT THE WWE PERFORMANCE CENTER
AIRED LIVE ON THE CW
REPORT BY DAVID MILLER, PWTORCH CONTRIBUTOR
Commentators: Corey Graves, Vic Joseph, Booker T
Ring Announcer: Mike Rome
Backstage Correspondent(s): Kelly Kincaid
[HOUR ONE]
-They recapped the events of last week with Joe Hendry and Trick Williams on NXT and then Williams showing up at TNA Rebellion to attack Hendry.
-TNA World Champion Joe Hendry made his ring entrance. The NXT crowd chanted “we believe”. He talked about wrestling Randy Orton at WrestleMania and successfully defending his TNA World title at Rebellion. He said Trick Williams couldn’t stand that they were talking about Joe Hendry instead of him. He called him entitled and arrogant, saying he wants to blame everyone for losing the NXT Championship. He called Williams out.
The lights went down, and Darkstate hit the ring to attack Hendry as strobe lights flashed. They laid him out and stood over him.
-“Earlier today”, Ava welcomed Iyo Sky back to NXT. She asked Sky if she had a partner to go against Roxanne Perez & Giulia. Jordynne Grace approached her and offered to be her partner, setting up tonight’s main event tag team match. [c]
-Back from the break, they recapped Liv Morgan & Raquel Rodriguez retaining their titles last week. Gigi Dolan & Tatum Paxley were talking to Karmen Petrovic in the back. Ashante “Thee” Adonis came up and told Petrovic he got her a match against Sol Ruca tonight. She seemed annoyed.
(1) RICKY SAINTS (c) vs. LEXIS KING – NXT North American Title match
King attacked Saints at the bell, but Saints quickly took over with a dropkick and some stiff chops. Lexis ate a Saints elbow coming off the ropes. They traded quick, high-flying offense. [c]
After a series of uninteresting commercials, Saints and King collided mid-ring with a double cross body block. King recovered to hit a swanton off the top turnbuckle. He missed a superkick, allowing Saints to take over briefly. King went for a coronation, but Saints came back with a tornado DDT, followed by the Roshambo for the three-count.
WINNER: Ricky Saints at 8:28 to retain the NXT North American Title.
(Miller’s Take: Very good opening match. King seemed to take it up a notch or two and was keeping up with Saints (that name is hard for me to get used to). Although Saints is a bit higher on the food chain, King isn’t very far below him.)
-In a dark area with no walls, ceiling, or floor, Shawn Spears gave a pep talk to The Culling. It looked like something out of The Twilight Zone. [c]
-Tony D’Angelo came to the ring alone. He talked of betrayal. He said he expected he and Stacks to have a conversation, man to man, but he didn’t expect what happened at Stand & Deliver. He said he always had his back because that’s what loyalty is all about. D’Angelo appeared to get a little emotional as he spoke of how Stacks deserved to be the underboss, but he didn’t understand that he made the decisions, not Stacks.
He said nobody’s heard from Luca, and Rizzo is in hiding. Stacks appeared on the big screen. It looked like he was standing on the walkway of a bridge at night. He told Tony that he was sick of taking orders. He said he was getting soft and couldn’t lead the family anymore. He told Tony he didn’t know whom he could trust anymore. A couple of security members who had surrounded the ring to protect Tony attacked him, but he made quick work of them and called out Stacks. [c]
-A recap of Noam Dar winning the Heritage Cup Title last week was shown. In the back, there was a Meta Four reunion. After a few smiles and patting each other on the back, Lash Legend said they needed to talk. She told Dar a lot had changed since he was gone. She suggested it was time for them all to go their separate ways and pursue single careers. Dar agreed as they hugged and left him alone on the couch. He looked at the cup and said, “Well, it’s just you and me.”
(2) SOL RUCA (w/Zaria) vs. KARMEN PETROVIC
The announcers talked up Ruca’s accomplishments as Speed and North American Champion. The ladies started the match with quick, exciting offense. It’s nearly impossible to call a Sol Ruca match because there’s always so much going on. Not much rhyme or reason to this match. Petrovic held her own for a while, but Ruca hit the Sol Snatcher for a relatively quick win. After the match, Adonis tried talking to Petrovic, but she answered him with a boot to the head.
WINNER: Sol Ruca at 3:45 [c]
(Miller’s Take: This match was about a 2 on a scale of 1-10 of importance, but it was an 8 on an excitement level. Ruca is just so good. It’s hard to really describe her matches because you can’t keep up with everything she does. Petrovic is no slouch, and I wouldn’t have minded seeing this one go another 3 or 4 minutes.)
-Trick Williams made his way to the ring. The fans chanted “whoop that trick” , so he’s still getting a pretty positive crowd response. He said he’s been calling Joe Hendry’s name all week and his ass done left the building. He said he bought a first-class ticket to L.A. to Rebellion to whoop his ass. He then plugged some random show he’s appearing on that I’ve never heard of. He said he and Hendry aren’t on the same level.
He called Hendry a local talent. He compared himself to The Rock and John Cena and talked of wanting his NXT title back. Ava stepped onto the ramp, talked about having to put him in a timeout last week because of the huge temper tantrum he threw, and asked him what he was thinking going to another promotion to attack their champion. He said he’s the biggest superstar in NXT and TNA. Ava announced that next week, there would be a 25-man battle royal for the number one contender to the NXT title. Williams looked about as happy as a cat eating mustard.
ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW…
Check out the latest episode of “PWT Talks NXT” with Kelly Wells and Nate Lindberg, part of the PWTorch Dailycast line-up: CLICK HERE to stream (or search “pwtorch” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any other iOS or Android app to subscribe free)
[HOUR TWO]
-In the locker room, Roxanne Perez told Giulia she wasn’t crazy about her at first, taking her championship and all. Giulia said Roxanne was a great champion, and she got it now. She said The Prodigy and The Beautiful Madness together were unstoppable. I’m glad they addressed the elephant in the room instead of pretending nothing had happened between them. [c]
-A promo aired for Backlash.
Kelly Kincaid interviewed NXT Champion Oba Femi in the back. Femi said it didn’t matter how many times he faced him; the title would stay on his shoulders. The Undertaker walked up to Femi and told him this was his yard now, but he has some LFG guys who are going to be coming for him. Shiloh Hill, Anthony Luke, and Jasper Troy stepped up behind Femi. He gave them a once-over and said he’d look forward to it. It’s always great to see a legend appear on NXT, and the LFG guys got a little bit of exposure here.
(3) HANK WALKER & TANK LEDGER (c) vs. YOSHIKI INAMURA & JOSH BRIGGS – NXT Tag Team Title match
There are four very large men in this match who can go. After some quick opening action, Inamura battled with Hank, getting the better of him, but Inamura hit some quick strikes in the corner to turn the tide. [c]
Back from the break, Briggs took the tag and cleaned house with some heavy hitting. Inamura got a near fall after a high kick from Briggs into a German suplex by Inamura. A lot of big bodies were flying around the ring and colliding with each other here. Inamura lifted his opponent for a bodyslam, but in doing so, he swung his opponent’s feet into Briggs’s jaw, which led to Hank & Tank gaining the victory. Inamura apologized profusely to Briggs after the match.
WINNERS: Hank Walker & Tank Ledger at 10:50 to retain the NXT Tag Team Titles.
(Miller’s Take: This was really good, and I wouldn’t mind seeing a rematch. All of these guys are so incredibly agile for their size. The ten minutes this match lasted seemed to go a lot faster because of the pace.)
-In the bank, Tavion Heights told Myles Borne that Charlie was still pissed at him for teaming with Je’Von Evans last week. Borne shrugged it off and said he’d get over it. He said he wanted in the battle royal next week. Heights said he did, too. Wren Sinclair babbled something about Dempsey being a complex man with complex thoughts. Heights looked confused. So did Sinclair. [c]
-Outside building, Darkstate bragged about taking out Joe Hendry.
-A silly segment aired with Andre Chase in a classroom full of new “students”, talking about the return of Chase U. When an unknown student called out Chase’s two star pupils, Kale Dixon and Uriah Connors, for showing up late to class, Chase chastised him with a (censored) profanity-laced rant, and said that felt good. He exclaimed, “Chase U is back, baby!” Yeah, I could have lived without seeing this nonsense.
-Kelani Jordan walked in on Sol Ruca and Zaria in the locker room. She called her out on her previous match being a non-title match and said she did so much better as North American champion. She challenged Ruca, but Zaria stepped up and told Jordan she’d have to go through her first.
-In the trainer’s room, a sore Joe Hendry was being tended to when Hank & Tank approached him. They offered their assistance in dealing with Darkstate, to which Hendry readily accepted.
-Roxanne Perez & Giulia made separate ring entrances before the break.
(4) ROXANNE PEREZ & GIULIA vs. JORDYNNE GRACE & IYO SKY
The crowd went nuts for WWE Women’s World Champion Iyo Sky. The match went to the outside early as Perez tried to escape from Sky. The champ caught up to her in the ring and hit an incredible double dropkick on both opponents. Grace launched Sky off her shoulders onto Perez. Grace overpowered Giulia and hit an inverted gutbuster for a two. She was throwing Giulia around like she was light as a feather. Perez got the tag and took over on Grace with her speed. Grace hit a double suplex on Perez and Giulia.
After a tag, Sky hit an amazing springboard dropkick onto Giulia. Grace hoisted Sky on her shoulders again on the ring apron, but was pulled off, sending Grace and especially Sky tumbling to the floor. Split-screen commercial break. [c]
Back to full screen, Sky was pulled into a modified surfboard by Giulia, then ate the mat as Giulia kicked her down. A hot tag was made as Grace and Giulia entered the ring. Grace hit an impressive double German suplex on Giulia and Perez. Eventually, all four women wiped each other out in the middle of the ring. Sky went to the top turnbuckle and leaped off onto Giulia, but Perez made the save.
Grace broke up a pin as the crowd chanted, “This is awesome”. On the outside, Grace and Giulia rolled around on the floor and up the ramp as Sky and Perez traded quick pin attempts inside the ring. Perez went for Pop Rox, but Iyo flipped through it and landed on her feet. She nailed Perez with a superkick, followed by an Over The Moonsault for the win.
WINNERS: Jordynne Grace & Iyo Sky at 14:25
(Miller’s Take: This was excellent. All four of these women are top-notch wrestlers who can work their tails off. Iyo Sky is about as over as anyone can be, and rightly so. Grace continues to shine, even without a really big win yet. I’m still on the fence about Giulia’s new heel persona, but time will tell. Perez is immensely talented and one of those personalities who can eat a pin like she did tonight and it won’t hurt her a bit.)
-In Ava’s office, Stephanie Vaquer asked who her next challenger would be. Ava said Giulia and Jordynne Grace would square off against each other next week to determine the number one contender.
-The show ended with Iyo Sky celebrating in the ring, with the crowd celebrating with her.
FINAL THOUGHTS: There were only four matches on tonight’s show that didn’t total up to a whole lot of wrestling time, but there was still very little fluff, except the Chase U nonsense. I actually thought Hank & Tank might lose on their first defense, but it looks like they may have used that match to tease some dissension between Briggs and Inamura. I wouldn’t mind seeing those two bulls fight. I’m really hoping they feature their new Women’s North American champion a bit more prominently soon. I’m rooting for Kelani Jordan to beat Zaria just so we can see Jordan vs. Ruca II. Strong showing from the NXT crew tonight.
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