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NXT once again emanates from the Performance Center in Orlando tonight in the second of two weeks of Revenge. On the docket for the evening are both of NXT’s North American Champions defending their gold, a match to crown a new Men’s Speed Champion, plus a Last Woman Standing match between former best friends. 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 the Last Woman Standing?
One of the surprises on the “Raw After Mania” last night was NXT standout Sol Ruca interrupting Liv Morgan’s celebratory World Title promo and ending up competing in a match with the 3-time Women’s Champion. Sol put on a good showing and had seemed to neutralize the Judgment Day numbers game until her fiercest rival from Tuesday nights came in through the crowd and viciously attacked her. Looking to get the final shots in before their Last Woman Standing match tonight, Zaria laid Sol out and ruined any chances she had of upsetting the World Women’s Champion on her first night on Raw.
Now, before becoming a full-time member of the red brand, Ruca will look across the ring at her former best friend and write her final chapter on Tuesday nights. After months of tension seeming to simmer underneath the surface, Zaria finally had enough and attacked Sol during introductions for the latter’s NXT Women’s Title match a few months ago. After Sol was victorious over Zaria at Stand & Deliver, the former gymnast was looking to move on last week, and found herself in a match with Izzi Dame. Zaria had other plans though, and nailed her former friend with a vicious spear, allowing Izzi to pick up a huge win, and setting up a Last Woman Standing match for tonight.
One of the beauties of this amazingly unique artform of professional wrestling is that there are always shades of gray and that even characters who do despicable things are rarely ever totally irredeemable. No matter which camp you’re in with the ZaRuca feud, it’s clear tonight could be the one that decides it and allows both women to move on to whatever’s next.
To hear Sol tell it, she felt betrayed after trying her damnedest to share some of her well-deserved and hard earned shine with her partner. In Ruca’s eyes, she tried for months to elevate Zaria to her level so they could be there together. She graciously gave up a TNA Knockouts Title match so Zaria could have it. She trusted Zaria enough to defend the North American Championship on her behalf when Sol was unable to due to injury. In Sol’s mind, she tried.
Now, from Zaria’s perspective, Sol was just holding her back the whole time. They were supposed to be a team, but the ratio of opportunities that they received over the past year or so skewed heavily in Ruca’s favor. The opportunities Zaria got to shine? Patronizing gifts….. from Sol. Defending a championship….. for Sol. Tag team title matches….. with Sol. Zaria wanted her own spotlight and she realized that spotlights don’t shine in her partner’s shadow.
So who will be the last woman standing tonight? Will it be Sol who prevails and puts a cherry on top of her NXT career? Or will Zaria come up with the biggest win of her career to set herself up as one of the top contenders for Lola Vice’s NXT Women’s Championship?
Casket Match in NXT for 3rd time ever
Elsewhere in the NXT women’s division, North American Champion Tatum Paxley will defend her championship tonight against the woman who was recently gifted a personalized version of the title.
Blake Monroe has been palling around with the Vanity Project in recent weeks and despite coming up short in her attempt to acquire the gold at Stand & Deliver, she still is insisting on carrying around her own version of the North American Championship. The true champ, Tatum Paxley is looking to come up with a definitive victory and was allowed to pick a stipulation for their match on Revenge this week.
For weeks, Tatum has been playing the Daffney to Shiloh Hill’s Crowbar and the duo has been featured in some of the more entertaining segments on NXT. Last week, Shiloh was showing off his carpentry skills and feverishly building something for Tatum. Towards the end of the night, Hill’s work was done and he wheeled a brand new casket over to Tatum to show off his carpentry.
Now tonight, Tatum and Blake will settle the score once and for all when they compete in a Casket Match. This will be the third casket match in NXT history, and coincidentally, Tatum was victorious in the most recent one, closing the lid on Wendy Choo in October of 2024. (In a random bit of trivia, Apollo Crews defeated Grayson Waller in the first one at Halloween Havoc back in 2022.)
The dark state of DarkState
Since arriving on the scene over a year ago, the faction known as DarkState has run roughshod over NXT, pretty much attacking anyone they want to, whenever they want to. Last summer, Dion Lennox and Osiris Griffin brought gold to the group when they defeated Hank & Tank to become NXT Tag Team Champions. After losing them to and eventually regaining them from the Hardy Boyz, Lennox started to emerge as the member of the group with the brightest future as a singles star. When John Cena chose the participants in the Iron Survivor Match at Deadline last winter, Dion made the cut. To focus on that match and acquiring singles gold, he gave up his half of the tag team titles to Saquon Shugars.
Now, with the tag team championships long gone, Dion has been setting his sights on singles gold once again, but his stablemates have been questioning his motivation. If you ask Dion, he wants to beat Myles Borne and bring gold back to the group in the form of the NXT North American Championship. But the others, namely Saquon Shugars, aren’t convinced.
Last week, Myles Borne was cutting a promo when DarkState appeared in the crowd. When it looked like a 4-on-1 attack was about to ensue, Borne stopped Dion in his tracks when he said that if they attacked him then, it would put their match tonight in serious jeopardy. With Saquon urging his group to attack Myles anyway, Dion wouldn’t let them go through with it, keeping his title match for this week intact.
Will Lennox and Shugars get on the same page long enough to actually bring some gold back to DarkState? Or will Dion have to go it alone in his match with Myles Borne on NXT tonight?
Quick Hits
- Before the Joe Hendry Concert Tour resumes on Raw next week, Joe Hendry will have his hands full with upstart powerhouse Keanu Carver tonight. After interrupting what could be Hendry’s last Tuesday night concert, Carver shrugged off a guitar shot and proceeded to destroy the viral star. Now, they will square off in a match this week. Will Hendry put one in the win column on what may be his last night on NXT? Or will Carver send him off to the main roster with another brutal beating?
- Lexis King and
Eli KnightEK Prosper will compete tonight to crown a new Men’s Speed Champion after defeating Chazz Starboy Hall and Dorian Van Dux respectively in qualifiers. Will the Birth Right front man add to Arianna’s TNA Knockouts Title and bring more gold to the group? - Tony D’Angelo survived his first title defense last week after winning the brand’s top prize at Stand & Deliver. With Ethan Page in his rearview and officially on the Raw roster, who will be the next to step up to Tony D?
- Lola Vice also survived her first title defense, defeating Jacy Jayne last week, but the Cuban-American star barely had time to catch her breath before new contenders started lining up. Izzi Dame, Kendal Grey, and recent Evolve callup Kali Armstrong all made their presences felt last week, letting Lola know that she was in their crosshairs. Is one of those women next for a title shot, or will someone else in NXT’s deep women’s division emerge this week?
- After Ethan Page and Sol Ruca made big splashes in their Raw debuts last night and Joe Hendry’s debut was announced for next week, will any of NXT’s other brightest stars be getting the call to the main roster in the coming weeks?
All this and more on NXT on the CW tonight for the conclusion of Revenge. Let us know what you’re most excited for on tonight’s episode in the comments below, and be sure to follow along with the live coverage here on Cageside tonight, starting at 8 PM Eastern!
