NXT once again emanates from the Performance Center in Orlando tonight. Four matches have been announced for tonight, including the NXT debut of a former IWGP Heavyweight Champion and the return of a certain Scottish Supernova. Be sure to tune into the action on the CW starting at 8 PM ET, and follow along with all the action right here on Cageside!
An EVIL Debut
When NXT hit the reset button two weeks ago, all of their singles champions, both male and female, were confronted by a new batch of hungry challengers,
including multiple returns to the roster and a few NXT debuts. One of the more memorable debuts from that night was the first Performance Center appearance of former IWGP Heavyweight Champion, EVIL. The week before he had a gift delivered to NXT Champion Tony D’Angelo, and then the following week, he cut out the middle man and confronted Tony D in the ring himself with another delivery, this time a cloak of some sort.
Then, last week on NXT, they played the video linked above of EVIL explaining his actions and motives, before revealing that he will now go by Naraku under the WWE umbrella. With his sights set on the top prize of WWE’s developmental brand, Naraku will look to show the United States crowd what he’s capable of in the ring. As of this writing, his opponent hasn’t been announced, making it clear that the focus will be on Naraku as he looks to establish himself as Tony D’Angelo’s next challenger.
Another impactful debut the last few weeks has been made by the British wrestler formerly known as Will Kroos. For the last two weeks, the big man landed vicious moonsaults on Tony D and as NXT left the air last week, he announced to the world that he would be going by Mason Rook and he was officially on the NXT roster.
With both of these newcomers setting their immediate sights on the NXT Champion, will they need to cross paths first to determine who’s next to step up to Tony D? Will anybody else return or debut this week with intentions of challenging for the NXT Championship?
Stuck in Another Tag Team
After winning a brutal Last Woman Standing match against Sol Ruca a few weeks back and seeing Sol take her talents to Raw, it appeared as though Zaria was in the clear to start pursuing success as a singles wrestler. In her first appearance back in the Performance Center last week, Zaria got some mic time to talk about what was next for her, but she was interrupted by North American Champion, Tatum Paxley.
As Zaria and Tatum exchanged barbs, it was newcomer Lizzy Rain and Nikkita Lyons, recently returning from a stint on Evolve that would interject themselves into the conversation. At the end of the day, a brawl broke out between the three of them with Zaria, Rain, and Lyons all setting their sights on Paxley’s championship gold.
Some sort of Fatal 4 Way or maybe at the very least a #1 contenders match seemed to be forthcoming, but instead, NXT GM Robert Stone decided to book the four women in a tag team match. So this week on NXT, Tatum will team up with the Maiden of Metal, Lizzy Rain to take on Zaria and Nikkita Lyons.
Just a few months removed from the dissolution of her previous tag team, Zaria was none too thrilled to find herself seeking singles gold and winding up in a tag team match. Robert Stone seemed to threaten Zaria, telling her if she ever wants to get a title match, she better play nice and go through with the tag team match first. Will the Aussie powerhouse play nice and go through with tagging with Lyons tonight? And which contender will have the strongest showing, probably putting them one step closer to an eventual shot at Tatum?
A Supernova Returns
Before last week, it had been over a calendar year since we last saw the Scottish Supernova, Noam Dar on NXT television. In April of 2025, Dar returned from an eleven month hiatus after suffering a serious leg injury to defeat Lexis King to become the NXT Heritage Cup Champion for a record 4th time. Not even two months after his return, Dar was sidelined by yet another injury, and was out for another 10-month stint.
After returning to the NXT house show circuit a few weeks ago, the former Meta-Four front man made his return to NXT in a backstage segment with newcomer, Romeo Moreno last week. Dar and Moreno were confronted by the Vanity Project, who were coming off of Jackson Drake’s victory over Jasper Troy. A brief verbal exchange later and Noam was scheduled for his on-screen return match against Jackson Drake on this week’s show. Will Noam’s return to in-ring competition be a successful one? Or will Myka Lockwood, Baylor, and Smokes get involved to help Drake get the upper hand and continue building momentum for the Vanity Project?
Quick Hits
- Izzi Dame led The Culling to a big victory last week when she and Niko Vance defeated the AAA Mixed Tag Team Champions, Mr. Iguana and the NXT Women’s Champion Lola Vice in tag team action. Is Lola’s title still Izzi’s main focus or will her and Niko stake their claim to AAA gold this week, now that they have a win over the champs?
- Kendal Grey and Kelani Jordan will square off in one-on-one action this week, two weeks after Jordan knocked off Grey’s tag team partner, Wren Sinclair. Can the Standout come up with another win to continue standing out on NXT? Or will Kendal avenge her friends loss from last week and get the WrenQCC back in the win column?
- Jackson Drake defeated Jasper Troy last week with the help of Myka Lockwood, who powerslammed Troy on the floor while the ref was distracted, allowing Drake to take control and eventually hit a 450 splash for the win. Will Troy enlist someone from NXT’s deep women’s locker room to help him? Or is NXT potentially setting up an intergender match between the two former LFG stars?
- Osiris Griffin and Cutler James got DarkState back on track last week by beating former NXT Tag Team Champs Hank & Tank in tag team action. Is the tension and discord of the past few months behind DarkState now and is a tag team title shot in their future? Or was this simply a brief rest stop on the road to the group completely falling apart?
- Kali Armstrong came up with a big win over Jaida Parker last week, leading the latter to destroying the locker room. After a string of recent losses, Miss Parker seemed to be reaching a breaking point until Nattie walked in. Is a stint in the Hart Dungeon in Jaida’s future?
- Cam Hendrix made his NXT debut recently after a stint on Evolve and seemed to immediately set his sights on gold. After attacking Tony D’Angelo two weeks ago, North American Champion Myles Borne was his target last week. Will Hendrix be given a title shot against Borne in the coming weeks or will he….ya know…. have to actually wrestle and win a match or two before getting an opportunity at gold?
All this and more on NXT on the CW tonight for as WWE’s developmental brand tries to continue building up their new crop of stars. Let us know what you’re most excited for on tonight’s show in the comments below, and be sure to follow along with the live coverage here on Cageside tonight, starting at 8 PM Eastern!
