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NXT TV REPORT
AUGUST 19, 2025
PHILADELPHIA, PA. AT THE MET
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): Sarah Schreiber
[HOUR ONE]
-Trick Williams, Je’Von Evans, Fatal Influence, and Ethan Page with Chelsea Green and her Secret Hervice were shown entering the building.
-As Vic Joseph was doing his introduction, a camera abrupty cut to the back, where Josh Briggs and Yoshiki Inamura were beating the hell out of each other. I thought Briggs’s ring jacket caught fire somehow, but he apparently had some kind of smoke device on the shoulder. They fought their way into the arena and the bell rang to start the match.
(1) JOSH BRIGGS vs. YOSHIKI INAMURA – Philadelphia Street Fight
Briggs rushed Inamura, but ate the ring steps when Inamura moved. The ring was on an elevated platform, and Inamura threw Briggs off of it and to the floor, then got a running start and dove off the platform onto Briggs. Inamura wound up in the ring while Briggs threw chairs into the ring, a couple of which smacked Inamura as they flew into the ring.
They were throwing ham hocks and trading very stiff offense. Both men took brutal slams on top of chairs. Inamura dug out a baseball bat from under the ring. He was getting ready to hit a home run on Briggs’s head, but instead got kneecapped with a chair before they cut to a split-screen commercial break. [c]
Bounty, Olive Garden, and the usual suspects hogged the right side of the screen while the action continued on a microscopic rectangle on the left. When they returned to full-screen, Briggs superplexed Inamura onto a security railing that had been set up on four chairs. That looked incredibly painful. He threw a kendo stick into the ring like a spear right into Inamura’s ribs.
Briggs found some tape and bound his opponent’s hands to the top rope and caned the living daylights out of him. A furious Inamura tore himself loose and karate chopped the kendo stick in half as Briggs held it. It would have been cool to hear, but The CW muted it so we didn’t hear any bad words from the crowd. Inamura put a trash can over Briggs’s head and slammed it with a baseball bat.
Inamura brought a table into the ring as Briggs wrapped his arm in a chain. Briggs very carefully laid himself back on the table that was set up and Inamura splashed him through it, but it only resulted in a two-count. They fought over another table before Briggs nearly decapitated Inamura with a lariat. He set him up on a table and and then hit a top rope moonsault onto Inamura and through the table for the pinfall.
WINNER: Josh Briggs at 15:56
(Miller’s Take: Wow, this was really brutal! Interesting setup with the ring being perched on an elevated platform about four feet high. Briggs got bloodied up a little, and Inamura took a hell of a beating with that kendo stick. These two certainly didn’t hold anything back and I guarantee you they are going to be moving pretty slowly tomorrow.)
-A social media video was shown of Masha Slamovich on a three-way video call with Ava and Santino Marella. She asked to be the special referee for the tag team match in Philadelphia. Santino warned her to call it down the middle as he and Ava agreed to it.
-As Ricky Saints made his ring entrance, he brushed shoulders with Briggs, who was making his way to the back. [c]
-Sarah Schreiber congratulated Trick Williams on his successful TNA title defense against Moose at Emergence. He cut a promo about his upcoming match for a shot at the NXT championship.
(2) RICKY SAINTS vs. JASPER TROY
Saints tried using his speed, and then hopped on Troy’s back and brought him down with a sleeper. Troy tried backing Saints into the corner to break the hold, and succeeded after a few attempts. [c]
Back from the second split-screen commercial break of the night, Troy was firmly in control of his much smaller opponent. Saints threw some good kicks at Troy’s legs, but went down to a Vader pounce. Incredibly, he was able to execute a Samoan drop on Troy, who recovered quickly to continue his decimation of Saints.
On the outside of the ring, Troy laid Saints on the ring steps and went for an elevated senton, but Saints moved out of the way and Troy crashed hard into the steps. A tornado DDT on the outside and another one on the inside for good measure secured the victory for Saints.
WINNER: Ricky Saints at 9:17.
(Miller’s Take: This was about what I thought it would be, with the exception of the finish. I think Saints could handle a loss much better than Troy at this point. Despite his size and fierceness, Troy hasn’t won a match since I don’t know when, so it’s getting hard to take him as a serious threat.)
-Hank & Tank were pestering Ava in her office about which members of DarkState they were going to face. Ava said she didn’t know yet. They left and the Personal Concierge introduced Ava to TNA Knockouts Tag Team Champions The Elegance Brand. Masha Slamovich came in wearing her referee shirt as the TNA ladies looked disgusted and ran off to call their lawyer in protest.
-Jordynne Grace was shown walking in a back area. [c]
-Jordynne Grace made her ring entrance. She said she came to NXT thinking she would win championships, but it hasn’t happened. She said she never expected to be set back by a friendship. She said she’s been wrestling for 15 years and knows how wrestling friendships pan out, but she thought this was going to be an exception. As she was saying what she was going to do to Blake, guess who came out?
-Flanked by four beefy security men who are probably destined to be humiliated by Grace, Monroe entered the ring. She had a contract drawn up saying that Grace couldn’t touch or or the match at Heatwave was off. Grace claimed Monroe was jealous because she was in the ring at Evolution while Blake was standing on the outside.
-Monroe tried to goad Grace into attack mode, but Grace said she didn’t have to touch her to show her what was going to happen at Heatwave. So, she beat up three of the security guys and the fourth one ran for his life, which was pretty funny. Grace told Monroe she’d show her who the ugly one really is at Heatwave.
-Fatal Influence were warming up in the back when they were approached by Sol Ruca and Zaria. Jacy Jayne said, “Oh look, it’s the other double champ and her shadow.” Ruca held Zaria back as the heel trio walked off. Lainey Reid walked up and told Ruca that at least Jayne defends both her titles. Ruca said she felt the need for speed. [c]
-Sarah Schreiber interviewed Je’Von Evans in the Progressive NXT Spotlight. He talked about his upcoming match with Trick Williams to see who would face Oba Femi.
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]
(3) THE ELEGANCE BRAND (Ash & Heather & M w/their Personal Concierge) vs. FATAL INFLUENCE (Fallon Henley & Jacy Jayne & Jazmyn Nyx)
Special Referee Masha Slamovich called for the bell. Henley started out against the statuesque M. Lots of quick tags ensued and both teams seemed pretty evenly matched. The Concierge got caught grabbing Henley’s leg as she was coming off the ropes by Slamovich, who promptly ejected him from ringside. [c]
After a split-screen commercial break featuring blue and white bears who use toilet paper, they returned to full-screen to find Henley battling Ash. M kicked Henley in the head, drive-by style on the ring apron. A hot tag was made to Jayne, who seemed to be taking on the role of babyface cleaning house against the invading TNA Knockouts. Jayne hit a senton off the second turnbuckle on M for a two-count.
Fatal Influence showed off some impressive teamwork until the Elegance Brand threw Jayne and Henley to the outside. Heather hit a top rope stomp into the midsection of Nyx as she was caught in a bow and arrow by M. Ash covered, but nearly got her head kicked off by Jayne. M dragged Henley out of the ring, only to get backed into the announce desk and pummeled by multiple stiff forearms.
Ash hit a top rope senton onto Nyx and covered her, but Masha was distracted by the shenanigans going on outside the ring and was late getting into position for the count, with Nyx kicking out at two. Ash took exception to the officiating and was arguing with the referee when Nyx crawled over and tagged Jayne. Ash turned around just in time to take a rolling encore to the teeth and take the three-count.
WINNERS: Fatal Influence at 10:51.
(Miller’s Take: This was pretty good. It was interesting seeing Fatal Influence in more or less the babyface role, as they worked that way and were kind of received that way by the crowd. Slamovich was a non-factor in the match, other than The Elegance Brand being upset with her after the match for not being in place for the pin earlier.)
-In the back, Charlie Dempsey was giving Kendal Grey advice on how to properly apply an armbar. Wren Sinclair walked up and apologized to her for Dempsey. Grey exited, stage left, as The Culling strolled by. Izzi Dame said there might as well only be one member of No Quarter Catch Crew left considering Wren’s record. Dempsey took offense and said she could beat both Dame and Tatum Paxley at the same time. Sinclair started to say “yeah”, but then realized what Dempsey had just gotten her into and looked at him like he had two heads.
-Team Canada and Team USA were both seen walking toward the entrance in preparation for the peace summit. This is either going to be entertaining or it’s really going to stink. [c]
-Ethan Page, Chelsea Green, and the Secret Hervice came to the ring, which had a table with four chairs set up in it. An American and a Canadian flag were displayed in each corner. To avoid the ultimate outcome of these types of things, the Secret Hervice pitched the table out of the ring. Smart move. Tavion Heights and Tyra Mae Steele came out next and the four sat across from each other. There was the usual Canadian heel vs USA face bickering until Ava came out and announced a mixed tag team match for Heatwave. Green and Page attacked the Americans, but soon got put in tandem ankle locks until the Secret Hervice pulled them both out of the ring. Blech. I love Page and Green as a snarky heel team, but I just don’t buy into this whole Canada vs. USA thing. Patriotic gimmicks and foreign heels just need to go the way of the 8-track tape.
-Ricky Saints was chatting with Myles Borne in the back. As Ricky left, Lexis King walked up to apologize to Borne for being insensitive and being mistaken about his condition. He said he just didn’t know how Borne could wrestle at such a high level being both deaf and blind. Borne told King he is deaf, but he’s not blind. King then squirted some blue liquid into Borne’s eyes and said, “You are now!” [c]
-Kelani Jordan and Lola Vice were trading friendly barbs about who was going to win their match at Heatwave when Lash Legend, who is miraculously alive after being squished flat by Nia Jax last, walked up to trade some no-so-friendly barbs. She said neither one of them could go toe-to-toe with Nia Jax. In the line of the night, Kelani said, “Toe-to-toe? More like ass-to-ribs.” I nearly spit out my coffee on that one!
-Elsewhere in the back, DarkState caught up with Ava to brag about what they did last week. Saquon Shugars said everybody was talking about them, not Nia Jax, Lash Legend, Trick Williams, Je’Von Evans, or Joe Hendry. Say his name and he appears. Yes folks, Joe Hendry appeared out of a cabinet. Ava told them they did this to themselves. Dion Lennox told Hendry, “You either get behind us or we leave you behind.” As they started to walk off, Cutler James leaned in to Hendry and added, “And you don’t want us behind you.” An arm reached into the frame to hook Cutler’s shoulder and pull him away as one of the DarkState members could be heard saying, “Man, why gotta say it like that?” This was the most personality I’ve seen from DarkState. Character development…it’s a beautiful thing.
-The announcers ran down the card for Heatwave before Je’Von Evans made his ring entrance in preparation for the main event. [c]
(4) JE’VON EVANS vs. TRICK WILLIAMS – NXT Championship No. Contender Match
Oba Femi was shown sitting in the balcony as the bell rang. Trick immediately went on the offense with a boot to the head. Evans was shown to be bleeding from the mouth. The two went at it hard to begin with, as the busted lip seemed to energize Evans. Williams took control for a couple of minutes before Evans attempted a comeback. He jumped from the ring apron to the top rope, but Williams aggressively shoved him backwards. Evans flew backwards over the top rope and crashed through the announce table. That was incredible! [c]
Not surprisingly, Trick was dominating coming back from the break. They showed some great angles on the replay of that crash landing. Williams took a moment to point at Femi. A Williams backhand woke Evans up, and he started throwing wild punches. He dove over the top rope and onto Williams on the outside. Back in the ring, Evans utilized his high flying offense to sustain his newfound momentum.
They traded high impact moves mid-ring. Williams amazingly stood up out of a top rope cutter by Evans, and hit a popup uppercut that rocked Evans. Trick was suddenly distracted while looking up toward the balcony. The camera showed that Oba Femi was no longer there, and Mike Santana was in his place, pointing and smiling at Williams. Evans used the distraction to hit another top rope cutter for the three count as the show abruptly went off the air.
WINNER: Je’Von Evans at 14:50 to become the No. 1 contender to the NXT championship.
(Miller’s Take: This was a damn good main event. Evans really took a beating between getting busted open with the first move of the match and then flying backwards 15 feet into the announce desk. I could have seen this going either way, but I was glad to see Evans getting the victory, as I think he needed this win more than Williams.)
FINAL THOUGHTS: This was a really good show with a much different feel to it, largely due to the layout of the arena. Upon further research, I discovered that The Met is a former opera house, so the ring was up on a stage in front of the crowd, which is a unique setup for a wrestling event. The acoustics of the building were such that you could hear someone in the crowd spit their gum to the floor. The fans were pretty far removed from the action. Four longer than normal matches tonight, and all of them were really good. It was nice to finally see DarkState show some personality. I hope nobody ever says Joe Hendry’s name in a bathroom. We never did find out what happened to Tony D’Angelo and who interrupted his fine dining experience. See you all for Evolve!
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