If you’ve paid NXT any attention in 2026, or followed it here on Cageside, you know the developmental brand’s crown jewel (pun intended) has been the women’s division. Maybe the ladies down in Orlando are just more talented than their male counterparts, or maybe Raw and SmackDown haven’t raided their division as much.
Either way, the men’s division has had a hard time keeping up this year.
With so many of NXT’s top male stars getting promoted this year, there’s been an influx of new talent (including
the return of an old talent) trying to stand out in a crowded field of meh. If we can make one complaint about NXT, it’s not that they’re not trying. Between the leader of a nepo-baby faction dropping diss tracks and a toothless LFG winner hallucinating talking raccoons, they are certainly throwing anything they can against the wall to see what sticks.
Through all of that, NXT advanced two of its top current men’s feuds by returning to basics this week. In one, a champion and his challenger revisited their history to build up their title match at Halloween Havoc. In the other, two newer rivals made their beef even more personal.
Without further ado, let’s talk about what went down tonight!
Dion Lennox masterfully manipulates Montana
As NXT went on the air tonight, we saw a stellar video package detailing the recent rivalry between Dion Lennox and Cruz Montana and hyping us up for tonight’s main event. After an in-ring promo battle a few weeks ago and an exchange of pre-packaged promos the week after, the tension between them ratcheted up last week when Dion attacked Cruz as Montana was getting off the phone with his mother. After laying Cruz out, Dion hit redial and had his own conversation with Momma Montana.
About an hour before meeting Cruz in the ring, Dion paced backstage as Osiris Griffin and Cutler James watched a cell phone video Montana made last week, vowing to beat Lennox’s ass tonight. Dion made a few cryptic threats about taking Cruz back to that dark place, and the DarkState trio walked off to plan how.
Later, just moments before the match, Emily Agard was waiting outside the locker room for a few final words from Cruz, but Griffin and James tried to help and barged in. Montana fought off a 2-on-1 attack until some Evolve guys raced in to break it up.
Cruz made his usual entrance through the crowd, and it looked as if a Performance Center hallway has been painted to resemble a Bronx subway tunnel. Both guys brought the heat out of the gate, with Montana especially channeling the guy who carried TNA as their World Champion not too long ago. For their part, the PC crowd seemed pretty firmly behind Cruz as well. After Dion took control, he decided to channel his inner Roman Reigns, talking some mid-match smack with Montana about his mom and, eventually, his daughter. Montana then snapped and took the fight outside. After he tackled Dion through the LED barricade, neither man could answer the 10-count, so the match ended in a double countout. Officials, security, and the other two-thirds of DarkState came out to break up the post-match brawl, which saw Cruz slam Dion onto some exposed concrete. With the crowd voicing their support, Montana stomped Dion’s head into that same concrete and almost sandwiched him with the steel ring steps, but Cutler James laid on top of his comrade and took the impact for him.
As the dust cleared and Cruz surveyed the damage, two supposed police officers came out and tackled him to the ground. The show closed with Montana pinned to the ground being restrained, while Dion looked on, seemingly satisfied that he had pushed his rival to return to “that dark place”.
Reaction: While the cliché of Cruz Montana “returning to that dark place” is almost as overplayed as the Bloodline “running the play” on Monday nights, I thought the story they told tonight with Montana and DarkState was pretty well done. One complaint about DarkState since their inception is that they’ve been a generic heel faction with very little depth. To this writer and wrestling fan, they’ve always been pretty one-dimensional and never very interesting. Tonight, though, they felt more dynamic than they’ve ever been. It also seemed to unlock a version of Cruz Montana that we haven’t really seen much of since he ‘crossed the line’ from TNA to NXT. It’s pretty clear there’s more story to tell here, but NXT made it clear, not only in their opening video package but also in how much they sold the hatred between Dion and Cruz, that we should view this feud as main-event adjacent.
Kendal Grey becomes collateral damage
A few weeks after making a surprise return to NXT and winning a #1 Contender’s Battle Royal, Wren Sinclair met NXT Women’s Champion Kelani Jordan in the ring to sign their contract for Halloween Havoc. On her way, Wren got last-minute motivation from Kendal Grey after the WrenQCC crossed paths with an irate Birth Right (find out why they were mad by scrolling down a bit!) and Chantel Monroe (more on her below!).
NXT put a different (and refreshing) spin on the contract-signing gimmick by sending the challenger out with the contract and calling the champion out to sign it. No authority figure or table in the ring.
Wren called Kelani out, and Jordan’s music cut her off mid-sentence. Kelani came out wielding a chair and claimed she had a gift for Wren. She went back towards Gorilla and came back with a bloodied Kendal Grey, and dragged her out onto the entryway. Wren immediately left the ring and chased Jordan away to tend to her friend.
Reaction: Okay, so I liked the idea of a non-traditional contract signing at the start, but I’m pretty sure neither gal actually signed the contract. Kelani physically attacking Kendal seemed like a lay-up story arc to book, so no complaints there. But Jordan and Sinclair have been two of the most entertaining characters on Tuesday nights lately, and this segment felt too rushed for my liking. The match at Havoc will undoubtedly be good, and Kendal being back in the fold adds another layer, but I felt like they could’ve done something else with this segment tonight.
The Dusty Cup Semifinals are set!
The quarterfinals of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic continued tonight as AAA Tag Team Champions the Wagner Brothers faced Lexis King and Charlie Dempsey of BirthRight. Even as a AAA fan, Galeno and Wagner III impressed me tonight. A pretty dope sequence happened right before a commercial break when Arianna Grace stood in the way of tandem tope suicidas. As Santino’s daughter read Galeno the Riot Act, Wagner III bounced off the far rope, catapulted himself over his brother, and landed on Dempsey, King, and Uriah Connors on the outside.
The back-and-forth match continued with a spot in the Dusty Cup semifinals hanging in the balance. With King and Dempsey seeming to take control, Zilla “Vanilla” Fatu emerged from the back, his right hand taped up after the vicious attack Birth Right inflicted on him two weeks ago. The Main One made a beeline for Uriah Connors and took a slap from Arianna Grace for his trouble. Fatu’s presence, though, distracted Lexis and Charlie, letting the Wagner Brothers pick up the win after Galeno hit a huge frog splash. Birth Right tried to attack Zilla after the bell, but Fatu got the better of them, punctuating it with a huge pop-up Samoan Drop on Charlie Dempsey.
El Hijo del William Regal later demanded a match with Zilla, and Fatu agreed, doubling down and telling Robert Stone that he wanted to bring back the Halloween Havoc wheel!
The last quarterfinal match featured two pairs of former NXT Tag Team Champions when Hank & Tank took on Julius and Brutus Creed. The Creeds got sort of a fresh coat of paint heading into the PC, with new, equally generic Def Rebel entrance music. The match was physical, and the Creeds controlled it for most of the early proceedings. Hank Walker got a hot tag and turned the tide, putting the Belly Boys on the doorstep of the Dusty Cup semifinals. Brutus saved his brother from the ‘Honk! Honk!’, but ended up falling victim to it himself outside the ring.
The closing sequence was bizarre. As Julius brawled with Tank, Brutus slid into the ring, briefly drawing the referee’s attention away, and the distraction let Hank Walker slide in for a finishing double-team move on Julius. After they hit it, Brutus just sort of fell out of the ring, and Tank pinned Julius to advance to the Dusty Cup semis.
Reaction: Another great night of tag team wrestling at the Dusty Classic. Almost every match in the tournament delivered solid in-ring action, and tonight was no different outside of whatever Brutus Creed was doing at the end of the second match. I remain impressed by the Wagner Brothers and glad they have advanced this far. On the other hand, Hank & Tank winning was a bit of a surprise. A Wagners/Creeds battle in the semifinals would’ve been the better play in my opinion, but the Belly Boys moving on isn’t the worst thing. I’ll be curious to see if both sets of champs meet in the finals or if one of them gets upset next week.
Quick Hits
- Tony D’Angelo opened tonight’s show fresh off earning a match for the NXT Championship at Halloween Havoc and wasted no time calling out the champ, Grayson Waller. Together, champion and challenger provided us with a history lesson that added a much-needed layer to their title match in 11 nights. Both guys spoke about how they were signed to the company around the same time and represented NXT 2.0 in War Games against the Black & Gold crew. For Grayson, he resented D’Angelo for knowing so little about the business yet still getting opportunities ahead of him. And for Tony, he resented Waller for caring more about viral moments than championships. Both guys have been spending too much time with Booker T. because they both said they are going to take the other into the deep waters at Halloween Havoc. Grayson wants to see if Tony can swim, while Tony wants to see if Grayson can survive with a shark circling. If their job was to make the title match at Havoc more interesting, I think this was a step in the right direction, but they could probably use some physicality on the go-home show next week.
- Izzi Dame continued her mean-girl crusade against Zaria and was confronted in the locker room by Layla Diggs and Skylar Raye (with Aalyah Mysterio making a cameo in the background!) Because of that conversation, a one-on-one between Diggs and Dame was ‘set in Stone’ for tonight. The match was perfectly cromulent, with both ladies getting a fair share of offense in. Izzi got a nearfall after hitting a slick-looking Crucifix Bomb. Layla showed some resilience, but Dame finished her off with a running knee. As Izzi celebrated, Zaria made her way out, vowing to end whatever games Izzi has been playing by giving her a North American Title match at Havoc. Shockingly, Dame agreed to the match but declined to make it for the title. Hmm. I’d be remiss not to mention that Izzi’s Big-Bird-leg-looking leggings came loose and almost fell off Dame’s legs during the match.
- We got a hype video for Chantel Monroe, who calls herself the “Reflection of Perfection”. After wrestling mostly on Evolve and LFG (plus a recent Main Event appearance), Monroe made her NXT debut two weeks ago in the #1 contender’s battle royal. It looks like she’ll be a regular on Tuesday nights soon.
- Tonight’s Progressive Spotlight featured ‘Showtime’ Kam Hendrix, talking about how he’s got next in NXT. To prove it, he showed us that he can catch footballs with a shirt over his head while dropping a bunch of Gen Z slang. Sure.
- Tavion Heights got some mic time to address his friend-turned-enemy Myles Borne. His promo got off to a rough start as Tavion walked a line between being emotional and raw and forgetting his lines. Once he settled in and called Myles a ‘back-stabbing bum-ass bitch’, it wasn’t long before Borne jumped him from behind. The former tag team champions then brawled right out of the Performance Center and into the ever-dangerous NXT parking lot.
- After running into Chantel Monroe backstage and seeming impressed by her, Vanity Project strolled into GM Stone’s office. The former Robbie E told the VP he planned to book them in a 6-man tag tonight with Mini Vikingo, Chazz Hall, and EK Prosper, but Mini isn’t medically cleared. Ricky Smokes made me lol by saying Vikingo must not have taken his Flintstones vitamins. Stone then announced that, in addition to Smokes and Baylor competing in the Dusty Cup semifinals next week, Jackson Drake will be defending his North American Championship against EK Prosper!
- Some members of the NXT men’s division commiserated in the locker room. Sean Legacy gave an injury update on Dorian Van Dux, saying he’ll bounce back in two months. Chazz Hall mentioned that Mini Vikingo will bounce back too. Then Romeo Moreno said EK Prosper will bounce back next week and become the North American Champion. Totally casual and natural conversation. Off to the side, Saquon Shugars was rewatching his match with Tristan Angels from last week. Legacy tried to talk to him, the Shuga Man got defensive, and the tense moment ended with Shugars threatening to put Legacy on the injured list with his tag team partner. Shugars and Legacy will square off next week!
- Another pre-recorded video from Naraku, who will apparently be facing Shiloh Hill at Halloween Havoc. After discussing the different effects of the different mist colors, the former IWGP Champion vowed to spray Shiloh with black mist at Havoc. After watching the video, Hill got a pep talk from Lizzy Rain until the duo was approached by… you guessed it… Chantel Monroe! Hill headed back to the lab to continue his poison mist research, and Lizzy stood up to Chantel, saying she had annoyed everyone tonight. Lizzy and Chantel square off on next week’s Havoc go-home show.
Match Results
- The Wagner Brothers def. Lexis King & Charlie Dempsey to advance to the Dusty Cup semifinals
- Izzi Dame def. Layla Diggs
- Hank & Tank def. The Creed Brothers to advance to the Dusty Cup semifinals
- Cruz Montana & Dion Lennox ended in a double count-out
Final Thoughts
NXT remains somewhat of a mixed bag for me. The Dusty Cup continues to carry the show from an in-ring perspective, but on the storyline side, it almost feels like they are trying to jam too much into a two-hour broadcast, so some segments (like tonight’s Kelani/Wren contract signing) don’t get enough room to breathe. They’re doing a decent job building several of their top stories, but there are still certain things each week that don’t really click for me. Overall, this was a pretty good two-hour show tonight, and they have a few interesting stories cooking as we head into Halloween Havoc next weekend.
Now it’s your turn, Cagesiders! Think the NXT men’s division is headed in the right direction? Who ya got moving on to the Dusty Cup Finals? Let us know in the comments below!
