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NXT TV REPORT
SEPTEMBER 16, 2025
WINTER PARK, FLA. AT FULL SAIL UNIVERSITY
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]
-An excellent video package was shown of NXT’s history at Full Sail University, featuring a ton of main roster talent who cut their teeth in NXT.
-The strains of Lemmy growling for us to bow down to the king preceded the appearance of the man who made NXT what it is today, Paul “Triple H” Levesque. He said it felt good to come home. He put the fans over for making NXT what it is today. Shawn Michaels came out to his “Sexy Boy” music. He said he and his NXT superstars are ready to steer the ship into the future. Trips put him over, then asked him what if he wanted to come back. Michaels got in his face and said he’d have a problem with that. William Regal’s music hit to a big ovation from the crown. Regal said the only way to settle this was WarGames.
-At that, Charlotte Flair entered to her old music, followed by Alexa Bliss. Bliss said she thought Triple H and Shawn argued more than they do. Flair said neither of them run NXT, the women do. She mentioned Four Horsewomen, Paige, Asuka, Carmella. Bliss mentioned Ember (bit of a surprise there), and several more. Then she said they had a tag team title defense to get on with.
-As The Culling were walking down the hallway, Lyra Valkyria gave Tatum Paxley a big hug. Dame wasn’t thrilled with that and pulled her along. [c]
(1) CHARLOTTE FLAIR & ALEXA BLISS (c) vs. IZZI DAME & TATUM PAXLEY (w/Shawn Spears & Niko Vance) – WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship Match
Flair patted Bliss on the head as she exited to the apron. Paxley and Bliss, dolls in hand tried to psyche each other out. They both showed off some spectacular moves in a game of one-upmanship. They each tagged out. Flair offered a handshake to Dame, which she slapped away. The champs showed excellent teamwork as they dispatched of The Culling, who rolled to the floor to confer with their male counterparts. [c]
Back from the break, The Culling had Flair on the ropes. She tried fighting her way back with chops to both women but got cut short. Dame started bullying Flair before they both delivered boots to the face at the same time. A double hot tag to Bliss and Paxley let to Bliss getting the better of Tatum. Paxley almost got the three count on Bliss after she raised her knees for a Twisted Bliss. Spears and Vance briefly distracted the champs, but they ultimately got the victory after Bliss delivered a Sister Abigail to Paxley.
WINNERS: Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss at 11:10 to retain the WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles.
(Miller’s Take: This was a very good opening match that I, personally, would have enjoyed seeing another five minutes of. Paxley and Dame have really gelled as a team and are very similar to the champs. Each team has a larger, athletic woman paired with a smaller, slightly twisted tag team partner. I enjoyed the opening starefest between Bliss and Paxley. Both teams showed what they’ve got. It was nice to see the straps defended on NXT.)
-In the back, Sol Ruca and Zaria were bickering over last week’s miscue. Lainey Reid and Candice LeRae came up for no apparent reason and started trash-talking each other. Shayna Baszler, about the last person I expected to see at Homecoming, walked up and scared off Reid and LeRae. She then told Ruca and Zaria that they have something together and they need to fix it. Ruca asked if they were okay, and Zaria, rather unconvincingly, said they were. [c]
(2) TRICK WILLIAMS & CARMELO HAYES vs. DIY (Tomasso Ciampa & Johnny Gargano)
DIY each came out to their classic entrance music, Ciampa with his face painted black and gold. Hayes and Gargano started out by trying to out-quick the other. With Williams and Hayes on the floor, Gargano dove through the ropes, driving both of them into the announce table. DIY sat on the desk and applauded themselves before the commercial break. [c]
Back from the break, Gargano took the hot tag and cleaned house. The announcers mentioned that there seemed to be a social media uproar among TNA wrestlers during the show. Gargano nearly took out his partner with a kick, but they put on the brakes. Williams was getting ready to deliver a Trick Shot, but Hayes tagged himself in. The two stared down each other, then smiled and embraced. As Hayes turned around, Trick’s face dropped to a scowl and it looked like he was getting ready to attack his partner. He ran toward Hayes, who ducked as Williams hit Gargano. Hard telling if that was intentional or not.
All hell broke loose for a bit, then Miz sneaked up behind Gargano on the floor and delivered a skull-crushing finale on him, then rolled him back into the ring where Hayes finished him off with Nothing But Net. Miz and Hayes celebrated on the ramp while Williams looked on disapprovingly.
WINNERS: Trick Williams & Carmelo Hayes at 8:48.
(Miller’s Take: Again, a good match that I could have stood another five minutes of. It made sense for Miz to interfere, given his desire to convince Hayes that they are better together than Hayes is individually.)
-Tyler Breeze was shown preparing for his upcoming match. [c]
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]
-Kelly Kincaid interviewed U.S. Champion Sami Zayn, who talked of the memories at Full Sail. When asked if anyone there reminded him of himself, he said Je’Von Evans. With that, Josh Briggs confronted Zayn but was quickly attacked by Evans. Amazingly, Briggs’s glasses never fell off his face during the melee. Officials and Zayn pulled them apart. Zayn told Evans he had a lot of heart and the sky is the limit for him.
(3) ETHAN PAGE (c) vs. TYLER BREEZE – NXT North American Championship Match
Before the match, they showed highlights of Page losing at Worlds Collide, then showed AAA Latin American Champion El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. at ringside. Page mocked Breeze by lounging on the top turnbuckle at the beginning of the match, but Breeze took out Page and did some turnbuckle lounging himself. Page put him down and screamed at him, asking him if he was happy to be home now. Split-screen commercial break. [c]
After the Progressive dude was tried to teach kids to not act like their clueless, obnoxious parents, a sludgy orange bowel-moving aid was touted, and the ever-present blue bear shilled toilet paper, they returned to full-screen, where Page had been dominating. Breeze shot back with a dropkick and a flying forearm. Breeze got a few near-falls before falling to a high Ego’s Edge for a two-count. Page was very distracted by Wagner and kept turning his attention to him.
Breeze eventually took advantage of that and applied a figure four around the ringpost. Breeze hit a bodyscissors takedown into a half-crab. He planted his foot firmly in Page’s cheek for a believable near fall. He hit a spinning heel kick for another two-count. With Breeze perched on the top turnbuckle, Page crotched him and then hit an elevated Twisted Grin for the pin.
WINNER: Ethan Page at 10:34 to retain the NXT North American Championship.
(Miller’s Take: Very serviceable title match, but nothing I think will evolve or go beyond this. With tonight’s Homecoming having a high nostalgia factor, I get the feeling Breeze’s appearance was just a one-off. That being said, Breeze still has it for sure and looks like he could go on a regular basis.)
-In the back, Damien Priest approached Tavion Heights. He told Heights he was so close to making it to the next level. He talked of his own North American title victory and said he saw the same for Heights. He said he spoke to Ava and hot him a title match against Page next week. Heights was elated and extremely thankful to Priest.
-Grayson Waller was shown making his way to the ring. [c]
-The Grayson Waller Effect was up next, with Oba Femi and Ricky Saints already in the ring with him. He referred to Femi as Obarated and Saints as Ricky Soft. Femi said he was underwhelmed to Saints and said all he was waiting for was his call-up to the main roster so he could carry Cody Rhodes’s bags. Saints called Femi a pampered athlete. Saints cut a passionate promo until he was interrupted by TNA World Champion Trick Williams. He told Saints to shut up while grown men were talking.
-Waller said he would talk to Ava and Santino Marella and set up Williams vs. Femi, title for title, and the winner would face Saints at No Mercy. He said he could already hear all the TNA wrestlers crying about the TNA title needing to come home, but those three letters were only relevant because he just said them. Femi, of course, predicted victory.
-The Progressive NXT Spotlight was on Charlie Dempsey and Wren Sinclair, who was telling Dempsey they needed to switch things up a bit. Dempsey said he was going to go to Japan for a month and she needed to hold down the fort. She said it would be…..glorious. At that word, Bobby Roode appeared. Roode looked like he was soaking in cheers, but you could hear crickets chirping because it sounded like the crowd noise was not edited in or something. She asked if he could do the thing, so he raised his arms and the “glorious” music played briefly. As Dempsey wondered where the music came from, Sinclair said it was so cool, just like Joe Hendry. She said his name, and he appeared, through a door this time. Roode put over Hendry and said he hoped he’d win the NXT title soon. [c]
-Lexis King, whose hairline was so defined it looked like he was wearing a flesh-colored bandage on his forehead, was mid-ring talking about how the black and gold brand was no big deal and the stars from that era didn’t care about them because they had moved on. He turned his attention to Myles Borne and said they had a lights-out match scheduled for next week. At that, Finn Balor came out to his old music to a sizeable pop from the crowd. A distracted King turned around to get taken down by a zig zag from Myles Borne. He inched over into place to received a perfect coup de gras from Balor, who then happily celebrated with Borne.
-Fatal Influence made their ring entrance. [c]
-Kelly Kincaid interviewed DarkState. Montez Ford walked into the picture and talked about the NXT Tag Team titles. He said they needed to worry about the target on their backs. They took him literally and started checking each other’s backs, then stormed off.
-Bianca Belair was shown in the crowd.
(4) FATAL INFLUENCE (Jacy Jayne & Fallon Henley & Jazmyn Nyx) vs. LYRA VALKYRIA & STEPHANIE VAQUER & RHEA RIPLEY – 6-Woman Tag Team Match
The announcers didn’t mention the reason for Valkyria replacing WWE Women’s Champion Tiffany Stratton in this match, but word is that she was not medically cleared to compete tonight, possibly due an injury suffered in her recent title defense against Jade Cargill.
Fatal Influence went on the attack before the bell, taking out Ripley on the floor. Inside the ring, they quickly took control of Vaquer. Again, the announcers mentioned that many TNA wrestlers were expressing anger on social media over the TNA title match announcement. Nxy thought she was going to be all big and bad on Ripley, then realized the error of her ways as terror showed on her face. She turned around to eat a kick from Vaquer. Ripley through Nxy over the top rope and onto her partners on the ramp before they cut to another split-screen commercial break.
After the screen was dominated by a dandruff commercial, the Liberty ostrich, and a NASCAR plug, Nxy was shown dominating Valkyria as Jayne furiously chewed on her gum in the corner. Fatal Influence showed their excellent teamwork in keeping Lyra down. The hot tag was finally made to Vaquer, who hit a pair of meteoras before being stopped cold. They kept the Dark Angel in the corner for a bit, but she finally made the tag to Ripley, who went on a rampage once in the ring. She and Vaquer hit stereo slams on Jayne and Henley, then grabbed their seated opponents by the hair, gave each other the nod, and did a double Devil’s Kiss as Booker T nearly fainted.
Jayne tried to bolt, saying she’d had enough. However, she was met mid-ramp by her future challenger, Lola Vice. As she turned back toward the ring, Ripley stared her down. She turned back to Vice just in time to get back-fisted back into the ring, where she was met by Ripley and the best Riptide I’ve ever seen her deliver. Three seconds later, Fatal Influence were on the floor, beaten and battered.
WINNERS: Lyra Valkyria & Stephanie Vaquer & Rhea Ripley at 10:26
(Miller’s Take: Fantastic main event! Lyra was a very acceptable replacement for the injured Stratton, as she had a storied rising through the ranks of NXT on her way to the main roster. Of course, Vaquer and Ripley were welcomed by the NXT crowd with open arms. Vaquer and Ripley looked like they had a blast doing the double Devil’s Kiss. Booker T most certainly enjoyed it. So much so, he might not be medically cleared to announce next week.)
-In Ava’s office, NXT Champion Oba Femi was staring down TNA Champion Trick Williams. Ava was flanked by William Regal, Stevie Turner, and Robert Stone. Ava commented to Regal that her phone has been blowing up from TNA people since the title match was announced. Regal told her he didn’t envy her job and it looked like she has trouble on her hands next week. Oba said, “May the best man win.”, to which Trick replied, “He will.”
FINAL THOUGHTS: Very little in the way of storyline progression this week, but that wasn’t what Homecoming was all about. It was about a celebration of the history of the black and gold brand at Full Sail University, and celebrate, they did. The most surprising appearance of the night for me was Baszler, who I thought had been released from WWE, but may be in a producer role from what Nate Lindberg and I discussed earlier. With the big deal being made of angry TNA wrestlers on social media, I would bet the farm that next week’s title match will end with a beatdown of both men by an angry TNA invasion. We shall see. I apologize for the tardiness of this report, but apparently, the hamster that runs on the little wheel that provides power to my area got tired or something and I sat in total darkness until 9:30 pm. Unless I fall completely off the grid, I’ll see you all for Evolve tomorrow night!
FOR ANOTHER PERSPECTIVE: John Moore’s NXT HOMECOMOING report at ProWrestling.net.
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