NXT will emanate from the Performance Center in Orlando once again tonight, as we continue to head towards Heatwave later this summer. This week’s show will feature two championship matches and a huge #1 contenders Triple Threat. 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!
Who will be next to enter the Grey Area?
Just a week after successfully defending the NXT Women’s Championship against Nattie and less than three weeks after winning the gold in the first place,
Kendal Grey will waste no time learning who the next woman to challenge her will be when Lola Vice, Kelani Jordan, and Kali Armstrong collide in a #1 contenders match that will likely main event tonight’s show.
After winning the title at Stand & Deliver, Lola’s title reign came to an end at the Great American Bash. Now, she’s looking to make it back to the top of the NXT mountain, but to do so, she’ll first have to make it through two other impressive contenders.
Kelani Jordan has been on the doorstep of the NXT Women’s Championship for months now, falling short in a #1 contenders match to eventual champion Kendal Grey in early June. Earlier this year, though, Kelani beat several of the NXT brand’s top women, coming up with victories over the likes of Jaida Parker, Wren Sinclair, Thea Hail, and both of the last two champions (Vice and Grey) before their reigns had started. It might now be time for the Standout to get surprisingly her first ever televised, one-on-one match for the NXT Title.
However, former Evolve Women’s Champion, Kali Armstrong will have something to say about either of those stories continuing. After laying low for her first few months on NXT, Kali came around looking to make an impact. She decided to shoot her shot a few weeks back when she attacked Kendal Grey, while the new champ sat in on commentary during Kelani Jordan’s match with Tatum Paxley. Then, last week, after Lola and Kelani both staked their claim to being the next to face Kendal for the gold, Armstrong laid them both out in the middle of the ring.
All three of these women make intriguing next challengers for Kendal, and their triple threat match tonight should most definitely close the show. Will Lola earn a rematch and an opportunity to join Flair, Baszler, Perez, and Jayne as the only 2-time NXT Women’s Champions in history? Will Kelani finally earn a shot at the title and get a chance to put on another banger with Kendal Grey? Or will the upstart Armstrong shake the whole division up and pick up the biggest win of her young career?
Zaria defends her gold…
Zaria has been on quite a roll on NXT in the past few months. Since winning her Last Woman Standing match against Sol Ruca at the end of April, the only blemish on her record was a tag team match in May where Zaria walked out on her tag team partner, Nikkita Lyons. Other than that, Zaria has looked dominant on her way to winning her first championship in WWE. After dethroning fan favorite Tatum Paxley and becoming North American Champion, Zaria defeated Tatum in their rematch at the Great American Bash just over two weeks ago. Then, she watched on last week as her next challenger was decided in a Fatal 4 Way on NXT.
Emerging from that match as #1 contender was newcomer Layla Diggs. After signing a WWE developmental deal in 2023, Diggs had spent most of her time appearing on LvL Up and Evolve, until recently becoming a fixture on NXT. At some point, she linked up with Nattie as she appeared to gather several ladies looking to get a rub from the Low Key Legend. Unlike Nikkita and Karmen Petrovic, who have been loyal soldiers for Nattie on Tuesday nights, Layla has been noticeably hesitant to truly buy into what Ms. Neidhart is selling.
Last week, prior to her Fatal 4 Way, Nattie let Layla know that she and her posse would accompany Diggs to the ring to stack the deck in her favor and hopefully help her earn a title match. Layla, to her credit, said she wanted to handle her business on her own and declined the help. After a chaotic match left Thea Hail flat on her back in the middle of the ring, Layla hit a beautiful moonsault and pinned the former Chase U student and earned a shot at Zaria’s North American Championship.
That title match goes down tonight on NXT. Will Layla continue to reject Nattie’s help and shock to the world to become champ? Or will Zaria’s path of destruction through the NXT women’s locker room continue?
… and so does Swipe Right
It’s hard to believe that the Vanity Project duo of Ricky Smokes and Brad Baylor, better known as Swipe Right, have held the NXT Tag Team Championships for almost 5 months now. Since winning the gold back in February, Smokes and Baylor have only defended their championships three times, most recently knocking off Dr. Wagner Jr. and Galeno from AAA on a recent episode of NXT. This week, they will take on the newly formed duo of Sean Legacy and Dorian Van Dux.
Since the end of May, Legacy and Van Dux had been toying with the idea of teaming up after fighting each other to a time-limit draw in a recent Speed tournament. Injured French luchador, Elio LeFleur, encouraged them to join forces and try their hands in the tag team division. They called their shot and defeated The Culling at the end of June before finding themselves in the #1 contenders Fatal 4 Way last week on NXT. Once the dust settled after a chaotic match, it was Legacy and Van Dux that came up with the win and will now challenge for the titles on this week’s show.
Will Legacy and DVD’s quick rise to the top of NXT’s tag team division continue? Or will Jackson Drake and Myka Lockwood tip the scales in Swipe Right’s favor to allow Smokes and Baylor to retain their titles?
Quick Hits
- Dumbass daredevil Tate Wilder decided he wanted to face Naraku this week after watching the former IWGP Champion’s warning to Tony D’Angelo on last week’s episode. The outcome of that match is likely not in question, but will the NXT Champion find a way to get his hands on his most recent challenger after getting hit in the face with a fireball and red mist in recent weeks? What will Naraku use to try to blind Tony D with next?
- Birth Right and OTM brawled all the way out of the Performance Center during the tag team Fatal 4 Way last week. Will the nepo-babies stay out the mud this week, or will OTM take them out and lower their stock even further?
- Also, during that Fatal 4 Way last week, Saquon Shugars sauntered in through the crowd, baseball bat in hand, looking to attack his former DarkState buddies. Before he could become a factor, Dion Lennox cut him off, but Griffin and James still came up short in the match. Later, Shugars admitted that he wasn’t going to be able to take down his former faction on his own and suggested he needed backup. Will we learn who the Shuga Man has enlisted to help him this week?
- Keanu Carver took down Tank Ledger last week and continues to carve a path of destruction through the NXT locker room. Will he barge into Robert Stone’s office and demand another victim tonight? If so, who will just happen to walk into the office and become Carver’s next victim?
- Niko Vance defeated Shiloh Hill on last week’s show thanks to a distraction from Tristan Angels. As Vance and Izzi Dame celebrated, Shawn Spears struck Niko with a steel chair shot to the spine. Will we see Hill and Spears square off with Angels and Vance, respectively, in singles matches? Or will Robert Stone pull his best Teddy Long and put them all in a tag team match this week?
- After losing her NXT Women’s Title match to Kendal Grey last week, Nattie was confronted by Jaida Parker at the end of the show. After knocking Nattie’s henchwomen on their asses, Miss Parker made sure the B.O.A.T. knew that she wasn’t finished with her yet. Will Jaida and Nattie go at it this week, or is it more likely that Parker has to go through Lyons and Petrovic first before getting another match with the Low Key Legend?
All this and more on NXT on the CW tonight as the developmental brand looks to heat up heading into Heatwave at the end of August. 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!
