WWE NXT returns to Peacock and Netflix with tonight’s Vengeance Day from the CareFirst Arena in Washington, DC, with a six-match card featuring nearly every title being defended.
NXT Champion Oba Femi will defend against partners Grayson Waller and Austin Theory in a triple threat match.
NXT Women’s Champion Giulia will defend her title for the first time as she faces Bayley, former champion Roxanne Perez and Cora Jade in a four-way.
Fallon Henley will put her women’s North American title on the line for the fourth time as she faces Stephanie Vaquer.
NXT Tag Team Champions Fraxiom will defend against the hard-hitting Josh Briggs & Yoshiki Inamura who are looking for their first run with the gold.
The card is rounded out by a strap match between former NXT Champion Trick Williams and Eddy Thorpe, and a grudge match between the returning Je’Von Evans and former NXT Champion Ethan Page.
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Countdown Show
– From the WWE Studios at Stamford, CT, Sam Roberts & Megan Morant welcomed us to the Countdown show as they ran down the current goings-on in NXT. They also talked about the six-match card that’s set to take place tonight at Vengeance Day. We then got a recap of the leadup to the NXT Women’s Championship Fatal Four-Way match.
– We got a sitdown interview with Corey Graves talking to Bayley where she was asked about why she decided to vie for the NXT Women’s Championship. Bayley said that being on NXT was her way of giving back to the future so she could see if they were ready for Raw or SmackDown.
– The story of how Josh Briggs & Yoshiki Inamura won their shot at Fraxiom was shown before we got a promo from the NXT Tag Team Champions.
– A recap of Je’von Evans and Ethan Page’s feud was shown before we got an interview with Evans and Vic Joseph ahead of the former’s match tonight on Vengeance Day. Morant and Roberts talked about Evans’ demeanor heading into tonight’s match, noting that tonight could see a different Je’von Evans going up against All Ego.
– Trick Williams vs. Eddy Thorpe in the Strap Match was the next match to be recapped by our esteemed panel.
– Next up was a recap of Stephanie Vaquer versus Fallon Henley for the Women’s North American Championship set to take place tonight, focusing mainly on Vaquer talking about how she’d take the gold from Henley.
– An interview with Austin Theory & Grayson Waller was shown, as the topic of their impending triple threat NXT Title match against current champ Oba Femi came up. Morant and Roberts wrapped things up afterwards with a final rundown of the card as it was time for Vengeance Day to kick off at the top of the hour.
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NXT Vengeance Day 2025
– Following the WWE signature open, we were welcomed to tonight’s show by Vic Joseph over shots of the Washington skyline. Shots of Oba Femi, A-Town Down Under, Bayley, Roxanne Perez, Cora Jade, and Giulia were shown before we went inside the CareFirst Arena and the cold open got our show started.
Women’s North American Championship Match: Stephanie Vaquer defeated Fallon Henley (c) (w/ Fatal Influence)
Jaida Parker, Kelani Jordan, and Karmen Petrovic were shown separately watching this upcoming match in the crowd before the bell rang.
Vaquer & Henley started things off with a lockup in the middle of the ring as chain wrestling action between the two got things going. After a stalemate, Vaquer and Henley stared each other down before another lockup exchange took place. Vaquer applied the STF on Henley, but was forced to break the hold after Henly made it to the bottom rope.
Vaquer answered with a kick to the chest of Henley and an attempt at her signature scissors roll. Henley, however, managed to escape by rolling into the ropes. Vaquer applied another submission and stopped a Henley pin reversal with a pin of her own, but the Women’s North American Champion kicked out at two. Henley countered a move attempt by Vaquer into an armbar, but had to break it up after Vaquer turned it into a pin attempt.
In the corner, Vaquer trapped Henley with a hanging triangle choke. Jazmyn Nyx provided a distraction, which allowed for Jacy Jayne to hit Vaquer with a pump kick at ringside. This gave Henley the advantage back in the ring. Vaquer attempted to mount a comeback, but Henley stopped that with a series of hard elbows to the face of her challenger. Once again, Henley had the upper hand as she hit a modified Blockbuster on Vaquer for the near-fall.
Henley applied a chinlock on Vaquer, but the challenger broke free from it. Vaquer rolled under a Henley clothesline, but got pulled down by the hair. Henley was caught on the backfoot as Vaquer blasted her with a faint kick across middle rope, followed by the springboard crossbody. This opened up Henley to be trapped in Vaquer’s trademark headscissors pounding for ten times the pain.
Vaquer and Henley traded running strikes, but the former avoided a Shining Wizard for a cover on the Women’s North American Champion. Only a two there. Vaquer caught Henley with Eat Defeat, which sent her foe scurrying in the corner. Running Meteora by Vaquer on a prone Henley wasn’t enough to put the champ away. Henley responded with a pumphandle exploder on Vaquer. Jacy Jayne once again got involved as she struck Vaquer behind the referee’s back. That wasn’t enough to keep the challenger down, though.
Henley was forcibly sent outside by a strike from Vaquer as the action spilled out at ringside. Vaquer turned her attention to Jayne and Nyx and took both down. On the apron, Vaquer hit a modified piledriver before she took down all of Fatal Influence with a dive onto all three members. In the ring, Vaquer finally hit the SVB on her third attempt as she finished things off with a Spiral Tap. One, two, three. Stephanie Vaquer is your new NXT Women’s North American Champion.
A solid way to open our six-match card tonight. Vaquer and Henley were more than up to the task of kicking things off the right way and the crowd got suitably invested in the action as a result. They certainly proved why NXT’s Women’s Division is at the level as it is right now as one of the top women’s divisions in North American wrestling.
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– Josh Briggs gifted his partner Yoshiki Inamura with a leather vest of her own as they discussed their battle plan for the NXT Tag Team Champions.
NXT Tag Team Championship Match: Fraxiom (Nathan Frazer & Axiom) (c) defeated Yoshiki Inamura & Josh Briggs
Inamura and Axiom started things off for their respective teams. Frazer quickly tagged in as they used their fast and furious tandem offense to momentarily leave the challengers flatfooted. Frazer blasted Inamura with a kick before Axiom reentered the match. Inamura created separation with a hard chop on Axiom before he tagged Briggs in. The big man took down both champions with separate big boots before he tagged Inamura. Briggs hit Axiom with a chokeslam onto the knees of Inamura, but that certainly was not enough to put the champs away.
Briggs maintained momentum for his team with that most powerful hold, a chinlock on Axiom. Inamura tagged in and assumed a sumo stance before he crushed Axiom with strikes in the corner. The Pro Wrestling NOAH star continued the onslaught in the corner as he obliterated Axiom with repeated chops to the chest.
Axiom’s own attempt at a chop was met with yet another Inamura chop that kept the masked man down. As Axiom recovered, he mustered enough strength to take Inamura down with the Golden Ratio. Both men down as they tagged in their respective partners.
Frazer used his explosive offense to hit Briggs with a DDT and a kick. Briggs managed to heat himself back up as he hit Frazer with a powerbomb. Briggs and Inamura hit an amazing double team toss into a powerbomb on Axiom, but Frazer broke the pin up at two. The fans came alive with.
As Inamura headed up the top rope, Axiom met him there as he hit an avalanche Spanish Fly. Frazer tried to head up top for the Phoenix Splash, but Briggs caught him and hit an avalanche clotheslam that sent Frazer colliding into Axiom on the comedown. Inamura caught Frazer with a fallaway slam as Axiom took Briggs out with a Poisonrana. Inamura had Frazer and Axiom and spun them around before he hit an Death Valley Driver on Axiom that sent him onto Frazer. That didn’t end the match.
Inamura tried to go up top, but Axiom & Frazer avoided calamity at the last second. At ringside, Axiom took down Briggs with a moonsault. Back in the ring, Axiom and Frazer put an end to Briggs & Inamura’s championship aspirations with an amazing modified Total Elimination (with Axiom going up high on the missile dropkick, and Frazer going down low). The champs retained after a fantastic match.
As Both teams showed respect to one another, they were attacked by four men — Saqoun Shugars (fka Lucky Ali), Cutler James, Osiris Griffin (fka Josh Black), and Dion Lennox — in matching black clothes, who laid everyone out with a sudden assault filled with nothing but retribution. The commentators speculated that these were the four men in the quick teasers on past episodes of NXT making their mark at the expense of the NXT Tag Team Championships. The quartet left bodies in their wake, proving that they were ready to shut it down.
You can count on Fraxiom to deliver an exciting NXT Tag Title defense and this was no exception. Credit to Briggs and Inamura for stepping up as credible challengers in this match. The post-match with the mystery group is interesting and it’s quite clear that they might be going after the NXT Tag Titles. That said, it’s not a promising sign when the crowd was left chanting “who are you?” upon the quartet’s arrival.
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– Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo talked about how he was going to get revenge on Shawn Spears and his group for what they did to Tony D’Angelo. He said he was challenging Spears for a match on Tuesday’s NXT, stating that payback wasn’t going to be pretty.
Strap Match: Eddy Thorpe defeated Trick Williams
Thorpe got a cheap shot on Williams before the strap could be tied by the official. Williams fought back and sent Thorpe to the outside with a clothesline. Williams whooped that Trick early as the official finally managed to get Williams tied to the strap. Thorpe tried to beg for mercy, but he found himself tied to the strap as the match finally got underway.
Williams seized the early momentum with a series of clotheslines on Thorpe, which sent him out the ring again. Williams used the strap to send Thorpe crashing into the ringpost at ringside before the action returned to the ring. Williams headed up the top rope, but got thrown to the mat by Thorpe using the strap as momentum. Thorpe tied Williams by the legs with the strap and stomped away on his foe. The crowd booed loudly at Thorpe gaining the advantage.
Williams took over and tried for a strap whipping, but missed out. Thorpe avoided a boot from Williams and hit Williams with the strap to the back. Thorpe continued to hit Williams with the strap, but the former NXT Champion fired himself back up and hit Thorpe with strikes.
Thorpe regained the advantage by sending Williams into the ringpost as he used the strap to tie Williams into the ringpost. More whips from Thorpe to Williams. In the ring, Thorpe continued to command the match with a Randy Orton-style backbreaker to Williams. Using the strap, Thorpe threw Williams into the middle turnbuckle across two different corners.
Williams rose up and tried to take advantage, but Thorpe hit his foe by the legs and managed to ground Trick once again. Williams launched a counter-offensive with a strap-enhanced submission hold that Thorpe tried to break free from by grabbing the ropes, to no avail. Williams finally had control as he looked to take out some frustrations on Thorpe with some strap strikes of his own. Thorpe could not escape the fate as leather met the flesh with precision.
Williams crushed Thorpe with a Trickshot Knee that sent his rival flying outside the ring. Back in the ring, Thorpe went low with a strap low blow, followed by a dropkick for the win.
I’ll be honest, it was kinda hard to fully get invested in this match given the rather unfortunate optics on a match involving a Black wrestler getting whipped with a leather strap during Black History Month, especially since said match largely just consisted of the wrestler in question taking the abuse. Eddy getting the win was nice, but I do wish it was in a different match, though.
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– The commentators recapped Ricky Starks’ surprise appearance on last Tuesday’s NXT, as we got remarks from Starks himself. He said he’d be signing his official NXT contract on Tuesday as he was still not yet mentioned by name on-screen.
Ethan Page defeated Je’von Evans
Evans started off hot as he went on the offense against Page, who ran out ouf the ring. Evans responded with a dive that he partially overshot as he flew into Page and sent him flying over the announce table. Evans continued his assault on Page with a dive from the announce table as the action went back into the ring.
Evans maintained his advantage as he caught Page with the Blue Thunder Bomb for a near-fall. Page was unable to find any sort of refuge early on until a kick to the gut of Evans briefly created some breathing room. That was a fleeting moment as Evans soared with a springboard clothesline on Page for another two-count.
An attempted springboard cutter was caught by Page, but Evans answered back with a superkick, followed by the springboard cutter on the apron. With Page stunned, Evans placed his head against the steel steps as tried to stomp Page’s head in. Page managed to avoid a grisly fate at the last second as Evans found his leg trapped between the ringpost and steel steps. Page then kicked at the steps to finally get the advantage.
A bloodied Page began to sadistically target that injured leg of Evans with stomps, followed by a submission to the leg. After a brief reprieve, Page applied an ankle lock, but Evans escaped. Page lifted Evans up for the powerslam, but that wasn’t enough to get the victory. Page once again had the ankle lock firmly cinched in with a grapevine hold. Evans finally managed to get to the bottom rope to force a break. Page tried for another ankle lock, but Evans escaped and struck down Ego with a Superman Punch.
Page caught Evans for the Ego’s Edge and connected. One, two… Evans kicked out at the last possible second to prolong the match. Evans blocked a stomp from Page and rose up back to the feet as he unleashed his own combo on Page. He finished it off with an acrobatic rolling kick on Page. Ego was left at the mercy of Evans, who stomped at Page’s jaw. One more attempt at a springboard cutter was blocked by Page, who punched away at the jaw of Evans, which sent the mouthguard flying. Page connectedwith the Twisted Grin cutter, which got him the pin and the win in this grudge match.
Good match here, though all signs seem to point to Evans getting the win here, so it was a curious choice for Page to go over here. That said, it didn’t take away from how good the match and the story behind it was.
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– Sarah Schreiber interviewed Stephanie Vaquer after her successful Women’s North American Championship win. Vaquer said that she wasn’t done yet and that she’d be watching tonight’s main event, the fatal four-way for the NXT Women’s Championship.
Triple Threat Match for the NXT Championship: Oba Femi defeated Austin Theory and Grayson Waller
Waller hit Femi with a superkick, as he and Theory began to double team the NXT Champion, clearly on the same page for the time being. Femi blocked a double Irish whip attempt as he then threw both men down with a double chokeslam. A-Town Down Under found themselves the victims of a one-man double suplex from Femi. Theory tried for a roll, but got caught by Femi, who threw him into Waller with relative ease.
A double clothesline from Theory and Waller took Femi out of the equation as the two partners stared each other down now. Waller and Theory shoved one another, but Femi pulled Waller out of the ring before the partners could come to blows. Femi absolutely lit Theory’s chest up with a hard chop as the announce table was rearranged by the NXT Champion.
Waller was thrown into the stairs by Femi, who took the top half of the steel stairs and threw it right into Theory’s face. Waller stopped Femi’s momentum with a drop toehold that sent his face into the steel steps. The Aussie pulled out a chair from underneath the ring as he then began to work over Femi with knees and elbows to the head.
Femi got himself back up, only to be struck down with a chair to the chest and bakc by Waller. With the chair opened up, Femi was placed in position as Waller went up top. Femi caught Waller as he then sent him right into the chair with a sidewalk slam that completely destroyed it. Theory reemerged to break up the count as he stunned Femi with the rolling dropkick.
A-Town Down Under looked to team up on Femi once more, but the champion fought out momentarily. On the top rope, Theory had Femi on his shoulders as we got a Tower of Doom Suplex spot from the three competitors. Theory tried to get the pin with his partner out cold, but Femi managed to kick out. At ringside, Femi gave the fans what they wanted as he introduced the table into the proceedings. Theory and Waller once again launched a two-on-one assault on Femi as they set the table up and placed Femi across it. Waller went up to and hit a diving elbow on Femi through the table.
Theory entered the ring and tried to steal the pin for himself, but Femi kicked out and Waller saw it all unfold. Waller yelled at Theory, as Femi caught the Atlanta native with a powerful spinebuster. With a full head of steam, Femi ran into Theory in the corner as he turned his attention to Waller at ringside. He threw Waller into the announce table to take him out of the equation. Femi punched the steel chair out of Theory’s hand and tried for the Fall from Grace. Theory reversed it and hit A-Town Down instead. Will we have a new NXT Champion? No! Waller pulled out the referee at the very last second to stop the count.
Theory took notifce and yelled at Waller at ringside. Femi had Theory set up for Fall From Grace, but he noticed Waller rolling into the ring for the Rolling Thunder Stunner and got out of the way. Waller ended up hitting his (former?) partner with his finisher, which opened him up for the Fall From Grace by Femi. That’s it, over. Femi retained the NXT Championship.
The lights went out as we saw the four masked men appear in the crowd once again. The group stormed the ring and launched an assault on Femi, as two of the group threw Femi into their cohorts for an assisted powerbomb. This mystery group left the NXT Champion laying, having made an impact once more.
The triple threat match was a fun one, and the added drama on whether or not A-Town Down Under’s selfish ambitions would be their downfall made for an interesting underlying story in this title defense for Oba Femi. What was more interesting was the arrival of the mysterious quartet earlier and them laying out Femi, which raises a lot of questions on what their plans will be.
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– Ava was backstage with Sarah Schreiber, as she talked about Roadblock on March 11th. Arianna Grace dropped by for a visit, as she thanked her for making her NXT’s liason to TNA Wrestling. She introduced her father Santino Marella (TNA’s Director of Authority) to a huge reaction from the crowd. Santino said that he hadn’t seen Arianna since she was a little girl, which elicited a confused reaction from Ava. Soon after, Ava and Santino left to discuss future plans.
Fatal Four-Way Match for the NXT Women’s Championship: Giulia defeated Roxanne Perez, Bayley, and Cora Jade
The bell rang on the match with Bayley trying to get crowd into it early. Giulia sat on the top rope and watched as the other three women fought each other. She leapt into action with a dropkick to Bayley and Jade.
Jade and Perez tried to hit a double suplex on Giulia, but that was blocked. Action fast and furious here early on. All four women exchanged pins on one another as they looked to get the win, as they then teed of on one another. With Giulia and Jade at ringside, Bayley and Perez took off for stereo suicide dives. In the ring, Perez and Bayley faced off before Jade pulled the latter out and entered the ring. Perez and Jade began to mix it up briefly before Giulia took both down with a dropkick.
On opposite corners, Giulia charged into both Perez and Jade with boots to to the face. Cover attempt by Giulia saw Perez kick out as Bayley slid into the ring and faced off with the NXT Women’s Champion. Bayley and Giulia engaged in a chain wrestling duel as the fans showed their support for both women in the ring at the moment. With Bayley stunned, Giulia tried for a running attack, but was pulled out by the tandem of Perez and Jade. Bayley recovered and helped Giulia out against Perez and Jade at ringside.
In the ring, Giulia and Bayley caught Jade with a double suplex. Perez almost found herself the victim of a double suplex of her own, but Jade saved her at the last second. The two friends put aside their difference as they went after both Giulia and Bayley. With the NXT Women’s Champion isolated, Perez and Jade pounced on Giulia like sharks on their prey. A running knee by Jade led to Perez getting caught in the crossfire, as she as then kicked aside by Jade.
With Giulia and Bayley at ringside, Jade went up top and hit a diving moonsault on the two of them. Jade had Bayley dead to rights for another dive, but Perez stepped in and unleashed hell on her former friend. Bayley recovered to strike Perez with a running knee as Jade caught her with a boot to the face. Bayley hit an unintentional double-team move with Jade’s unwilling help. Bayley was a house of fire, taking out both Jade and Perez with a double stunner from the apron. Giulia caught Bayley with a Northern Lights suplex as she tried to return into the match.
Black Widow submission by Giulia on Bayley was then turned into a crucifix bomb. Pin attempt was broken up by Perez. In the middle of the ring, Giulia’s STF was turned into a crossface by Perez. That was then answered with a suplex by Giulia. Twisting side suplex by Bayley wasn’t enough to get the win. The action spilled into chaos as an attempted Pop Rox by Perez was met with a knee from Jade. DDT by Jade to Bayley. One, two… Perez interrupted the pin at the very last second. Giulia made her presence known with multiple belly-to-belly suplexes on her competitors. Up top, Giulia tried for a suplex on Perez. Bayley and Jade joined in and we got another Tower of Doom suplex/powerbomb sequence.
As all four women got themselves back up to their feet, the slugfest began with Giulia and Jade fighting and Bayley and Perez mixing it up at the same time. At ringside, Jade hit a suplex on Giulia as Perez caught Bayley with two consecutive Pop Roxes. Jade interrupted and caught her friend with the double-arm DDT. Giulia with the last-second Arrivederci knee to break up the pin. And now it’s Perez’s turn to eat an Arrivederci knee from Giulia, as the Northern Lights Bomb put the exclamation point here.
After the match, Giulia’s celebration was interrupted by Stephanie Vaquer, who joined in the celebration. We got a vintage NXT copyright graphic fakeout as Jordynne Grace’s music hit to a huge ovation from the crowd. Grace entered the ring and stared down both Vaquer and Giulia to end our night.
Solid main event, with four very talented women getting their chance to show up and show out as only they can. I enjoyed this one from start to finish and it’ll be interesting to see the fallout from what we saw here. More importantly, the addition of Jordynne Grace certainly makes NXT’s already-stacked women’s division even more of a must see and it’ll be exciting to see where she fits in as the road to Stand & Deliver in April is set to begin in earnest soon.
All in all, another fun show from start to finish as NXT’s track record for PLEs continues to be a great one. The women, as expected, managed to steal the show as they gave us a grand opening and a grand closing in more ways than one.
