NXT Stand & Deliver 2025

A modern tradition, NXTs biggest show of the year kicks off WrestleMania weekend in style, and this year's card looked to produce more memorable moments and high quality wresting for WWE's third brand. NXT almost always delivers something spectacular, especially on big nights like this. I couldn't wait to see what the wrestlers could showcase in a bigger arena with high stakes all around.

Stand & Deliver actually began on the 'Countdown' show, with a four team elimination tag team match to determine the number one contenders for the WWE Women's Tag Team Championships. The match started off a little slow, but got progressively quicker and better as the minutes went on. It wasn't an especially long match, considering its time constraints, but I thought all eight women did a good job of displaying good tag team wrestling. I was very pleased by the winners - they're a favourite team of mine.

The main show opened up with the first defence of Ricky Saints NXT North American Championship against former AEW colleague "All Ego" Ethan Page. These men both have tremendous amounts of charisma and talent, so this felt like a very strong way to start the night. Saints and Page told a great story of fighting through adversity, as both men looked to hit their best moves. The chemistry wasn't quite as strong as I had hoped, and the result never really felt in doubt, but this was still a decent match to start the event.

This was followed by Fraxiom's defence of the NXT Tag Team Championships, with the challengers being Hank and Tank. Over the course of their reign, Axiom and Nathan Frazer have proved themselves to be both extremely talented wrestlers and versatile teammates - they proved as much again tonight. Their moves are so fast and fluid - it's so impressive to watch. Hank and Tank are a little more raw, but have developed some entertaining personas, which have helped them build momentum as a team. There were some brilliant team spots in this match, particularly from Fraxiom. The result was both surprising and not, but fun either way.

The third PLE match of the evening was the NXT Women's North American Championship ladder match - one of the matches I was most looking forward to on the card. This was a great opportunity for some of the women of the midcard to really take their opportunity and make a huge name for themselves. Like most ladder matches, this was as chaotic as they come. I really appreciated that every woman got a chance to showcase their talents and moves, and nobody looked out of place. Even better, the woman who most deserved to win, and I think they majority of the crowd was behind, took the title home at the end of the match.

Match four of the main card saw The Family face Dark State in tag team action. There were some intriguing narrative dynamics that made the prospect of this six-man tag match very appealing. The way things played put continued in that vain, as I'd hoped, with a thoroughly interesting and unique in-match story focused around The Family. This was an impossible match to look away from because of how well they worked this story, and the finish left a large portion of the crowd genuinely shocked. I for one really liked it - it had been coming for some time, and now felt like a good time to pull the trigger.

Next came the NXT Women's Championship fatal-4-way match, which saw Stephanie Vaquer defend against Guilia, Jordynne Grace and Jaida Parker. This was another exceedingly fun and exciting match, which had me smiling the whole way through, particularly with the antics of the champion and Grace. There was one spot which irritated me a little because of a continuity issue, in that, one wrestler who was supposedly in a hold was the one keeping the hold on. If it doesn't make sense to read, it's because it didn't make sense to see either. I digress, I was a big fan of the rest of the match, and thought that the right woman won.

Finally, it came time for the main event; the triple-threat match for Oba Femi's NXT Championship, with Trick Williams and Je'Von Evans as the pretenders to the Ruler's throne. I loved watching these three athletes go head to head. Their styles mixed tremendously, particularly with Evans' immense speed against the other two's power. Femi continued to look like a beast among men - he is a genetic freak in the best way. The match was phenomenal, despite a small mixup with a false finish, which, in fairness, the three men styled out beautifully. The ending looked a little rushed, probably because of time constraints, but all-in-all this was one hell of a championship match.

Overall, I thought that this was a super exhibition of the various and growing talents of NXT. Every Premium Live Event from this brand reaffirms why I have been drawn back into watching the weekly product, and why it continues to keep me hooked. The future looks bright for the WWE, particularly if even a few of the names on this card can make it on Raw and Smackdown. What an appetiser for WrestleMania, and for the future. Roll on the rest of 2025 in NXT.