NXT New Year's Evil 2025

NXT's first special event of the year emanated from Los Angeles, California, and featured a stacked matchcard, including three title matches. Honestly, this felt like it could be a very early contender for NXT event of the year, and I could not wait to see what would transpire.

The opening match of the night saw Giulia challenge Roxanne Perez for the NXT Women's Championship. This was an epic way to start the night, as these two women went hell for leather, back and forth, in the name of entertainment and championship glory. I loved every minute of it. It was fast-paced and smooth, and gave the crowd a lot to shout about early. I loved the match ending, and the choice of winner, as did the live crowd.

This was followed by a 'fatal-4-way' number one contender's match to determine the next challenger for the NXT Women's North American Champion. This was a fun and high octane match, with a lot going on in it. The winner felt a little predictable, but that didn't take away from the match quality. On the contrary, it was very enjoyable.

The third match of the evening was a six-woman tag team match between 'Fatal Influence' and Gigi Dolan, Tatum Paxley, and Shotzi. This match featured some great moments, with some of my favourite women's wrestlers, who showed out in what was an exciting and chaotic tag team affair. The match ending came a little out of nowhere, but I liked it, and it set up a future rivalry very nicely.

Following this was a Heritage Cup 'sudden death rules' match for the most unique Championship in the WWE, with champion Charlie Dempsey defending against Lexis King. As expected, this was a neat and competitive worked match, from two smooth operators. That said, the ending was very awkward - it just didn't land well with me. It was weird. However, I didn't mind the match winner.

Finally, we arrived at the main event of the evening; a 'triple-threat' match for the NXT Championship. Trick Williams was the Champion, defending against Oba Femi and Eddie Thorpe. I was looking forward to this one a lot - it had the potential to be a great match. Due to an in-match storyline, the bulk of the action was actually one against one, but it was still very much an exciting match. I loved the result, and it felt like a long-time coming honestly.

The night ended with The Rock making a special appearance. He didn't really say anything of importance, but the crowd loved it, and sent people home happy. I don't think the show needed him there, but no doubt it boosted the numbers a bit, so it definitely didn't hurt.

Overall, this was a great event, full of fun matches and cool moments. The crowd were into it all night long, and boy were they rewarded well for it. I stopped watching NXT for a little while, but these special episodes have been bringing me back bit by bit, and I find myself more and more intrigued by the product they are putting out week-to-week.