NXT closed out WWE’s Premium Live Event calendar for 2025 with a night that felt less like a developmental showcase and more like a mission statement. From the opening NXT Championship clash to a chaotic double-dose of Iron Survivor drama, Deadline in San Antonio played out under the looming shadow of John Cena’s looming farewell and the promise of NXT talent crashing Saturday Night’s Main Event next week.

The cross-promotional flavor that has defined NXT in 2025 was on full display, with stars from partner promotions TNA and AAA sharing the stage with the brand’s homegrown core.   By the end of the night, Oba Femi stood tall once again as NXT Champion and newly-minted exhibition opponent for Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes, while Je’Von Evans and Kendal Grey punched their tickets to New Year’s Evil as Iron Survivor winners.   And just when the future seemed clear, Tony D’Angelo resurfaced to muddy the waters in vintage mobster fashion.

As the last WWE PLE of the year, Deadline didn’t just tie a bow on NXT’s 2025—it hurled the brand directly into the orbit of Cody Rhodes, Bayley, Gunther and John Cena’s final stand at Saturday Night’s Main Event XLII.

Here are the full results from tonight’s NXT Deadline PLE

• Oba Femi def. Ricky Saints (c) – NXT Championship
  Femi regains the title and secures a non-title exhibition match against Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes at Saturday Night’s Main Event XLII. 
• Kendal Grey wins the Women’s Iron Survivor Challenge
  Grey outlasts Sol Ruca, Jordynne Grace, Kelani Jordan and Lola Vice to earn an NXT Women’s Championship match against Jacy Jayne at New Year’s Evil. 
• Ethan Page (c) def. Mr. Iguana – NXT North American Championship
  “All Ego” retains against the AAA standout after a chaotic, character-driven title defense. 
• Izzi Dame def. Tatum Paxley
  The Culling’s enforcer survives a wild, story-heavy grudge match, aided by Shawn Spears’ mind games. 
• Je’Von Evans wins the Men’s Iron Survivor Challenge
  Evans edges Leon Slater, Joe Hendry, Myles Borne and Dion Lennox with a last-second cradle, earning an NXT Championship shot at New Year’s Evil—only to be ambushed by returning Tony D’Angelo after the final bell. 

Oba Femi mauls his way back to the NXT Championship

Deadline opened with a bout that felt every bit like a main event: Ricky Saints defending the NXT Championship against the man he dethroned, Oba Femi, with not only the title but a coveted exhibition with Cody Rhodes at Saturday Night’s Main Event on the line.

Saints came in wrestling like a man trying to survive a storm, using armbars, guillotines and constant movement to chop down the powerhouse. Femi, though, answered every counter with something heavier—delayed backbreakers, release suplexes, and a relentless barrage that turned the match into a test of Saints’ resilience as much as Femi’s power.

In the closing stretch, Saints emptied the tank—suicide dive into the desk, tornado DDT, a spear and near-fall after near-fall—but Femi simply refused to stay down. One counter to Roshambo led to Fall from Grace, and when that wasn’t enough, a crushing sit-out powerbomb finally kept Saints down for three and restored Femi to the top of the brand.

Post-match, Saints offered a handshake and Femi accepted, a nod of respect before the new champion turns his attention to Cody Rhodes and a high-profile non-title showcase on December 13 in Washington, D.C.—part of a card that will also see Bayley vs. Sol Ruca and John Cena’s retirement clash with Gunther.

Kendal Grey steals the spotlight in a thriller Women’s Iron Survivor

The women’s Iron Survivor Challenge delivered exactly what Deadline promises every year: a 25-minute sprint where the scoreboard never stops moving. John Cena’s hand-picked field of Kelani Jordan, Kendal Grey, Jordynne Grace, Lola Vice and Sol Ruca packed the ring with five very different energies—and somehow, Grey emerged as the heartbeat of the match.

Grey scored the first fall over Kelani, only to immediately eat payback, and spent much of the match fighting from behind while Vice, Grace and a late-arriving Sol racked up points. Sol’s story—banged up, briefly pulled from the match, storming back to hit a double Sol Snatcher for two quick pins—ignited the building and helped create a wild five-way tie as the clock wound down.

With seconds left and everyone swinging for the fences, Grey slipped into perfect position: after a frantic series of dives, suplexes and break-ups, she caught Lola Vice with Shades of Grey and scored her third fall with four seconds on the clock, breaking the tie and punching her ticket to a New Year’s Evil showdown with Jacy Jayne.

The post-match stare-down with Jacy, Fallon Henley and Lainey Reid framed Grey less as a Cinderella and more as a suddenly unavoidable threat—an Evolve champion now standing one win away from adding NXT gold to her resume.

Ethan Page keeps his grip on the North American Title

In a match that leaned hard into personalities as much as athleticism, Ethan Page and AAA’s Mr. Iguana delivered the night’s most eccentric title bout. Iguana threw creativity, the crowd, and even his trademark puppet at “All Ego,” chaining together crucifixes, dives and lucha counters to keep Page off balance.

Page, who already balances NXT’s North American Championship with AAA Mixed Tag Team gold, slowly stripped away the fun—literally tossing Iguana’s puppet up the aisle—before grinding him down and finishing things with Twisted Grin to retain.   It wasn’t pretty, but it reinforced a key point heading into 2026: if you’re chasing Page, you’re fighting not just his talent but his ego and spite.

Izzi Dame outlasts Tatum Paxley in a twisted grudge match

The personal feud between Tatum Paxley and former ally Izzi Dame came to a head in San Antonio, and it felt every bit like the culmination of months of betrayal. Paxley came in fueled by revenge, battering Dame early and even hitting Cemetery Drive through the announce table on the floor.

But The Culling always plays the long game. With Niko Vance and Shawn Spears ejected before the bell, Spears returned at the key moment, using Paxley’s dolls to destabilize her “innocent” persona. That split-second of hesitation was all Dame needed: a big kick and sit-out powerbomb later, and Izzi had both the win and an even deeper psychological edge on her former partner.

Je’Von Evans survives Iron Survivor chaos… then gets buried by a ghost from NXT’s past

The men’s Iron Survivor main event was NXT’s 2025 vision in one match: NXT standouts Je’Von Evans and Myles Borne, powerhouse Dion Lennox, TNA X-Division Champion Leon Slater, and former TNA cult favorite Joe Hendry bringing his first WWE PLE appearance.

Evans struck first, pinning Slater to go up 1–0, but the lead evaporated as Lennox, Hendry, Slater and Borne all joined him on the scoreboard. The final five minutes turned into a scoreboard thriller: Leon’s highlight-reel Swanton 450s, Borne Again bomb after bomb, Hendry’s Standing Ovation, Dion’s raw power—nobody blinked, and with under a minute left, they were locked in a five-way tie.

In the final scramble, Borne appeared to have it won, only for Evans to roll him into a tight inside cradle with seconds remaining, snatching the match and the New Year’s Evil title shot in the most Iron Survivor way possible: last-second drama and pure instinct.

Evans’ celebration, however, was short-lived. After the customary face-to-face with new champion Oba Femi, the lights cut, the “ShawnTron” played a sinister bridge vignette, and Tony D’Angelo made his shocking return—chokeslamming Evans and dumping his mysterious “business” material over the new number one contender.   In one stroke, NXT’s newest made man had both a date with Oba Femi and a target on his back courtesy of NXT’s old don.

What Deadline means heading into Saturday Night’s Main Event and 2026

With Deadline in the books, the road now runs straight through Washington, D.C. and beyond:

• Oba Femi vs. Cody Rhodes – a non-title exhibition that puts NXT’s top champion under the brightest possible main-roster spotlight on the same night John Cena wrestles his final match against Gunther. 
• Bayley vs. Sol Ruca – a cross-brand showcase where Sol can follow up her Iron Survivor performance by testing herself against one of WWE’s most decorated women ever. 
• Je’Von Evans vs. Oba Femi at New Year’s Evil – the official NXT Championship match now framed not just as a clash of a powerhouse champion and a fearless high-flyer, but as a battlefield Tony D’Angelo may be trying to control from the shadows. 
• Kendal Grey vs. Jacy Jayne – a fresh, big-fight women’s title match, with Grey carrying the momentum of an upset Iron Survivor win and dual-brand credibility as Evolve Women’s Champion. 

NXT Deadline 2025 did exactly what a year-ending PLE should do: it paid off months of storytelling, minted new stars in Je’Von Evans and Kendal Grey, rebuilt a monster in Oba Femi, and still found time for one last shocking return to shake everything up again.

As WWE shifts focus to John Cena’s Last Time Is Now at Saturday Night’s Main Event, NXT walks out of San Antonio not as an undercard attraction but as an equal partner in the company’s biggest stories—and Deadline was the night that reality became impossible to ignore.

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