NXT Stand & Deliver (2025) -- Results & Afterthoughts

Kick-Off Match: Fatal Four-Way Tag Team Elimination Match to determine the #1 contenders for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship

Gigi Dolin and Tatum Paxley (with Shotzi) def. Cora Jade and Roxanne Perez, Fatal Influence (Fallon Henley and Jacy Jayne) (with Jazmyn Nyx), and Meta-Four (Lash Legend and Jakara Jackson)

If the Meta Girls keep improving as well as they have been doing over the past year, I could see them getting called up promptly following Roxanne Perez's departure post-Mania. That being said, I was shocked to see them get eliminated here first. Roxanne walking out on Cora Jade made absolutely NO sense to me when it was Cora who came to help her out when she desperately needed a partner to be in this match from the rip. This match turned into a highlight reel when it came down to Fatal Influence against Gigi & Tatum though. It's crazy to me that this wasn't on the main card. I would've taken this over that Darkstate vs. D'Angelo Family match.

Singles Match for the NXT North American Championship

Ricky Saints (c) def. Ethan Page by pinfall

For their first encounter(s) in this company, this felt like it could have been a TV match on your typical weekly NXT programming on The CW, which was the problem with the vast majority of this show. From the start of this show to most of the card, except for the main event, this notion/vibe made this show feel mostly like a huge nothing burger. I know that we are YEARS past the glory days of the gold and black brand when they were in their hay day firing on all cylinders, but I can't help but feeling that this show left me wanting more on several fronts. 

I can't even say that Ricky and Page "played it safe" when on one hand, this match was a by the books match with the psychology/narrative going with the babyface fighting from underneath, but boy did Page put Ricky into a lot of unnecessary risks. Ricky is a guy who had some pretty gnarly neck injuries that sidelined him for a lot of his time in AEW prior to making the jump to NXT. That being said, it was wild to see Ethan Page tossing this guy NECK first onto the ropes out to the floor and through the commentary table, only for Ricky to hit ONE lackluster spear and his finish to retain. HUGE meh reaction from me and not a good way to start this show, even though I was fine with Ricky retaining. Why couldn't they have saved Ricky's title win for this show instead of doing it a few weeks ago against Shawn Spears (another former AEW alumni who returned to NXT/WWE) on free TV?

Tag Team Match for the NXT Tag Team Championship

Hank and Tank (Hank Walker and Tank Ledger) def. Fraxiom (Nathan Frazer and Axiom) (c) by pinfall

Let's be clear. I don't watch NXT's weekly programming, so I don't know who in the blue hell are Hank and Tank nor do I care about Frazer and Axiom's endless tag team title reign. I thought those two were going to lose the titles when they lost to the Hardyz a few months ago in TNA, but nope. Seeing them lose them here was more of a "Glad that's over" rather than a "FINALLY" reaction. I'm just ready to see anyone but these guys have them. It sucks feeling that way when I think both Frazer and Axiom are good - no, AMAZING workers. I'm just tired of NXT booking them as the only team with a pulse in that tag team division, especially when WWE's tag team divisions as a whole need an overhaul and resurgence. This was one of those matches where I didn't give a damn when it started to the point where I was feeling it by the time it was over, but still don't feel like it was something that they couldn't have done on free TV otherwise.

Ladder Match for the vacant NXT Women's North American Championship

Sol Ruca def. Izzi Dame, Kelani Jordan, Lola Vice, Thea Hail, and Zaria

Six-man Tag Team Match

DarkState (Dion Lennox, Osiris Griffin, and Saquon Shugars) (with Cutler James) defeated The D'Angelo Family (Tony D'Angelo, Channing "Stacks" Lorenzo, and Luca Crusifino) (with Adriana Rizzo) by pinfall

This was another nothing match where I was painstakingly waiting for the turn from Stacks before I invested myself into anything that was going on. It killed me that this match dragged on as long as it did before the turn/betrayal happened. The only takeaway from this match was that Stacks betrayed the D'Angelo Family. I need someone to explain to me that how is this gimmick and faction still a thing even after the whole NXT 2.0 reboot was deemed a failure? I still don’t care about anything remotely with this Great Value brand Shield mixed with the Retribution faction called DarkState either.

Fatal Four-Way Match for the NXT Women's Championship

Stephanie Vaquer (c) def. Giulia, Jaida Parker, and Jordynne Grace by pinfall

Going into this show, this was the only match that I was remotely interested in. Boy did this match let me down. I'm all for Vaquer retaining but this match was a clusterfuck in terms of quality. I can't even blame one person but it felt like no one was on the same page in terms of chemistry at various points of the match with the biggest offender being the finishing sequence. I honestly busted out laughing at Booker and Graves' exchange at the start of the match where Graves was stating that this match was "do or die/make it or break it" for Jordynne Grace. What show has he been watching? Grace has been a star on WWE programming since she showed up as a surprise entrant in the Royal Rumble two years ago. Has her booking been the best since coming to NXT? No, not really but it's not like she can't bounce back from that. I say Jaida Parker has more to prove before she falls off into being another wannabe Bianca Belair clone. She looked lost like a deer in headlights with these women on multiple occasions - at least where she wasn't doing some rough as hell looking moves. Giulia might have benefited from taking more time off as she came off as she was off a few steps as her moves looked VERY sloppy on execution. I was entertained watching this but man, this was tough to watch and let me down in terms of quality. I hold my opinion that they should have had Vaquer defend this match against any of these women 1v1 - preferably against Giulia since their title for title match felt VERY rushed on free television a month ago.

Triple Threat Match for the NXT Championship

Oba Femi (c) def. Je'Von Evans and Trick Williams by pinfall

I'll be honest. Going into this PLE, I had NO idea who Oba Femi was defending his title against in the main event and honestly didn't care as NXT's main event picture has been on life support for a while now. It really didn't matter either as Oba should have a conga line of geeks to beat the sin out of until HBK and HHH are ready to call the guy up. I was pleasantly surprised to see that he was defending in this triple threat against Trick and Evans. I can't knock Trick too much being a fellow SC native and Evans is a Carolina boy too even though he's from NC, so this could be fun. What I didn't expect was that Oba would be bumping so much for BOTH of these guys left and right. Don't get me wrong, there's a LOT of upside for Je'Von Evans, but man, they had him doing FAR too much in terms of bringing it to Oba Femi who should have been flipping these guys like pancakes from bell to bell. Oba was bumping his ass off for Evans and Trick, even more so for Evans that bordered on insanity to me at points. 

I don't get why they had Oba do next to anything in this match, especially when he's the goddamn champion and not really being proactive to keep his title until the final portions of this match. Je'Von should've stayed at ringside left for dead after being put through the barricade but a few seconds later he's back inside the ring for a few more spots. I was reeling and cringing watching this live, thinking that they were setting him up to win from that level of abuse. I was relieved that they booked this for Oba to retain because he shouldn't be losing to anyone right now, but man, they made this far too close than it should have been. That being said, this was the best thing on the entire show if I'm being perfectly honest. 

As someone who was going to pay out of the ass to attend WrestleMania in Las Vegas this year, I'm glad I refunded my hotel and flight plans a month or so ago. I would have been THOROUGHLY pissed to have paid to see this entire PLE live. I need NXT to go harder than this for WrestleMania weekend.