Your usual recap and review guy around these parts, Marcus, went off to propose to his lovely lady (she said yes!) so you’re stuck with me.
NXT hit San Antonio, Texas for its Deadline premium live event
last night (Sat., Dec. 6, 2025) and they delivered on a mostly fun show with a few surprise results and a big return to top it all off.
Daddy is home
It was just two weeks ago that Oba Femi showed up at NXT Gold Rush and confronted Ricky Saints with a promo I quite honestly didn’t expect he was capable of cutting. He stood in the ring, told Saints he went off to become the man Ricky could not defeat, and then told him “your Daddy is home” with the kind of fire I want out of a monster who had just finally shown himself to have some vulnerabilities.
It was perfect.
He followed that up with yet another strong performance in the opening match of the evening, though in something of a different role than he’s used to. Normally, he’s the aggressor and it’s his opponents who are trying to survive him. Here, it was a bit more about Saints throwing the kitchen sink at him and Femi proving that he actually did go off and become the guy Ricky could not defeat.
So while Saints could kick out of one Fall from Grace, he damn sure couldn’t kick out of two.
The title heads back to an even better version of a man who maybe shouldn’t have ever lost it, and it’s even better because Femi will now get a spotlight he could only dream of not so long ago — a major match against WWE Champion Cody Rhodes on John Cena’s retirement card, Saturday Night’s Main Event next weekend. Here’s how good Femi has become: I don’t think it’s unreasonable to consider at least the possibility that WWE should flirt with having him win that match.
Hey, it’s an exhibition, no titles are on the line, and the entire point of the show is to promote the future. Oba damn sure looks like he’s just that.
Daddy is home indeed.
Iron Survivors
The men’s and women’s Iron Survivor Challenge matches largely followed the same playbook. An early pinfall, a rush to even things out in the middle, a mad dash at the end with a few surprise spots sprinkled in there.
On the women’s side, I was baffled at the decision to take Sol Ruca out early with an injury spot, then have her rush right back into the match barely selling the injury, not really make it a focal point from there, and then just lose in the end anyway.
That’s how she’s heading into her big match against Bayley next week. I’m not sure I would have co-signed this one.
Meanwhile, Kendal Grey gets the surprise victory because I guess they felt she was the next best option? Jacy Jayne vs. Grey is an underwhelming sell for New Year’s Evil, and feels every bit like a way to promote Evolve more than the match itself.
Over on the men’s side, Je’Von Evans nearly went the distance last year and actually went all the way with it this year. This wasn’t the strongest effort for this match type — in fact, I would say it was the weakest of the four they’ve had in the men’s division. But it will surely serve its purpose of spring boarding Evans into the main event as a featured player who should be a top star on the main roster within the next three-to-five years.
As a side note to all that, Tony D’Angelo made his return to lay Evans out following his big win. They didn’t do much with this just yet, so there simply isn’t much to say about it. He looks different in that his beard is longer but that’s really all we know right now.
I’m intrigued enough to want to hear an explanation on this coming week’s episode of NXT TV.
The rest
- Tatum Paxley certainly didn’t lose any part of the fan base when she lost the women’s championship on account of Izzi Dame and the rest of The Culling turning against her. In fact, she may have even more support. She was an emotional wreck for this match, literally bleeding her black make up from the eyes. Izzi played the hits, paid homage to John Cena, and tried to beg her way out of the consequences for her own actions. Shawn Spears tried to use two dolls to appeal to Paxley, manipulating her once more. Except this time, she didn’t fall for it, slapping him across the face. Of course, she got back into the ring and was pinned after a big boot anyway. It’s clear where they see Tatum at this point, and if they think Dame has more upside — and I wouldn’t fault them for thinking that, by the way — this was probably the right call.
- Ethan Page successfully defended the North American championship by defeating AAA’s Mr. Iguana in a glorified comedy match. I did enjoy Iguana playing dead to avoid taking any damage, but beyond that they could have skipped this altogether and no one would have noticed it wasn’t on the card.
Some ups and downs here, but a solid show overall.
Grade: B-
Your turn.
