NXT Great American Bash 2025

I have been loving the NXT premium live events in 2025 - it has been a very strong year thus far for the developmental brand of WWE. As such, I was very excited for this, the annual summer showdown for the NXT talent. The match card was solid, albeit perhaps not the most stacked one of the year so far. Regardless, I was more than motivated to see what entertainment the stars of WWE's third brand would provide before 'Saturday Night's Main Event' later in the evening.

It was Je'Von Evans and relative newcomer Jasper Troy who kicked off the event. This match mixed the classic David versus Goliath type of narrative with another classic injured body part narrative, which added extra jeopardy to the efforts of the babyfaced Evans. I liked the way the match developed, and I thought Troy continued to prove himself worthy of his recently acquired contract. The match's finish was done really well, and kept both men looking pretty strong.

The second match of the evening saw The Culling's Izzy Dame take on Sol Ruca for the NXT Women's North American Championship. I was looking forward to this one a lot, because of Ruca's immense in-ring talent and Dame's ever improving character work. I loved the urgent start to the match, which created tension and excitement instantly. From there, the two women settled into a really enthralling title match. I was thoroughly entertained, not only by the action inside the ropes, but also by the occasional shenanigans involving the women at ringside. This was an extremely fun match, which really shone a light on how good both women are becoming.

Match three was the NXT North American Championship 'Falls Count Anywhere' match between 'All Ego' Ethan Page and Ricky Saints. As expected, the match started in chaotic fashion, and quickly left the ring and went into the crowd. The crowd was very up for this one, and the wrestlers seemed to feed upon it. There was some very physical looking spots in this one, which is exactly what you want in a match like this. There was a chair spot that was especially gnarly, and made me physically convulse. The match-ending spot was also really cool and shocking - it was great. This was a killer match.

Next up was, a little unusually, a contract signing segment to promote TNA Slammiversary, and the TNA World Championship triple-threat match between NXT wrestler and TNA World Champion Trick Williams, and TNA's Joe Hendry and Mike Santana. This was one last opportunity for the three men to sell their match, and one of TNA's biggest events of the year, as well as an opportunity to showcase all three men's smooth promo ability. For a contract signing, this was good television.

It was now time for the NXT Championship match, which saw challenger Yoshiki Inamura take on 'The Ruler' Oba Femi for the latter's title. This match can be described as a 'Big E Special', which is to say; 'big meaty men slapping meat'. This was as physical as anticipated, with the added storyline additions I was hoping would be present too. I'm looking forward to the fallout from this match, because it looks like it could be a lot of fun. In the meantime, this was a solid title match, but perhaps not quite to the level of an NXT premium live event championship match.

Finally, it was time for the main event, the tag team match pitting Fatal Attraction against Jordynne Grace and NXT's newest major signing Blake Monroe. The match started steady and picked up some decent pace and momentum as it progressed. I thought there were some creative spots and sequences here, particularly involving the ever-unique Grace. The inevitable shenanigans didn't take away from the in-ring action, and helped set up a really solid finish, which in turn looks to create some tantalising story threads for the future of NXT.

Overall, I'd say this was yet another very strong showing for NXT, even with what was admittedly one of their weaker match cards. It wasn't the best NXT event of the year, but it was absolutely worth the watch, especially for the 'Falls Count Anywhere' match, which blew me away. The show was slightly built around other events, like tomorrow's 'Evolution' PLE and 'TNA Slammiversary', which distracted a little, and perhaps diminished the event's own standing, but the in-ring product was still to a high standard.