TJRWrestling WWE NXT Great American Bash 2025 Preview
It’s WWE NXT Great American Bash featuring Oba Femi, Ethan Page, and Sol Ruca defending their titles, a women’s tag team match, and even a contract signing.
The Great American Bash name goes back 40 years to when Dusty Rhodes created it in the NWA. It carried over to WCW, then to WWE and now it’s part of NXT. Frankly, I think the Great American Bash name is excellent for a summer show, and WWE should use it on the main roster. It’s not up to me, pal!
You can watch NXT Great American Bash on Saturday, July 12th, streaming live at 3 p.m. ET/12 p.m. PT on Peacock in the United States and on Netflix for many of us internationally, including me in Canada. It’s an early start time going head-to-head with AEW All In Texas. I’m guessing the runtime for this show is 2.5 hours long, with 3 hours maximum. Let’s get to it.
===
TNA World Championship Contract Signing with Trick Williams, Joe Hendry and Mike Santana
The TNA World Title will be on the line at their Slammiversary PPV on July 20, so this is a way to promote that. A contract signing usually ends with somebody standing tall. Since I think Trick will lose the TNA World Title at Slammiversary, I think Trick will be in control during this segment, possibly due to the help of TNA’s First Class group and maybe even Wes Lee’s High Ryze group. My feeling is that Joe Hendry is going to sign with WWE later this year, whenever his deal is done, so I think Santana is going to win the TNA World Title at Slammiversary next week. Check out Kristian’s Thompson’s TNA Impact review this week to catch up on everything that they did to build up to Slammiversary.
===
Je’Von Evans vs. Jasper Troy
This will be Troy’s first NXT PLE match. He has been booked strongly as a newcomer on the NXT brand after winning the first season of the WWE LFG show. Troy nearly beat Oba Femi for the NXT Title while his opponent in this match, Je’Von Evans, is the man who I think will beat Femi for the NXT Title at some point this year. I don’t know when, but I think Evans is the guy to do it. The story for this should be pretty simple with Troy using his power, Evans bumping all around for him and Evans finding a way to come back. I’m going with Evans for the win, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Troy got the victory. Tough match to call.
Winner: Je’Von Evans
===
NXT Women’s North American Championship: Sol Ruca (c) vs. Izzi Dame
The story with Ruca is that she is best friends with Zaria, but they have had some minor issues when Zaria accidentally hit a Spear on Ruca to cost them a tag team match, which set up this match. I assume Zaria will be with Ruca and Tatum Paxley will be with Dame, so does that mean Zaria will accidentally cost Ruca the match? Could happen.
I think what’s more likely is that at some point soon, Zaria is going to be jealous of Ruca as the champion and Zaria is going to turn heel on Ruca. Zaria as a babyface is okay, but I think she has a bright future as a heel. I wouldn’t mind seeing Dame holding the second biggest women’s title in NXT at some point. I just think it’s more likely that a heel Zaria beats Ruca for it within a few months. That means I’ll go with Ruca here.
Winner: Sol Ruca
===
Falls Count Anywhere Match for the NXT North American Championship: Ethan Page (c) vs. Ricky Saints
When Ethan Page beat Ricky Saints for the NXT North American Title on the May 27th episode of NXT, I was genuinely surprised by it. I thought Saints would have a lengthy rain to the title while also thinking that Page would be going to the main roster soon after WrestleMania. Neither of those things happened, so it shows that yes I can be wrong about some predictions. I’m teasing, of course. I am wrong about things all the time, just as we all are.
I like that this is a Falls Count Anywhere Match because it will give it a different feel from the other matches. It will probably have broken tables, chairs, kendo sticks and brawling all around the building. Both guys are main roster ready, but we don’t know when the next WWE Draft will be, so will they be called up at that point or before that? No idea. It’s a tough match to pick. My lean is to go with Saints winning back the title. I think they did the title change to set up this grudge match with a stipulation on PLE show and this feels like the end of the feud with Saints getting the win.
Winner AND NEW NXT North American Champion: Ricky Saints
===
Fatal Influence – NXT Women’s Champion Jacy Jayne & Fallon Henley v. Jordynne Grace & Blake Monroe
This match is taking place one day before Jacy Jayne defends the NXT Women’s Title against Jordynne Grace at Evolution on Sunday, July 13th. I haven’t written the Evolution preview yet, but I’m probably going to pick Jacy Jayne to retain her title. While I think Grace can certainly be the NXT Women’s Champion at some point, I am hesitant to predict it for this weekend.
There are already rumors that WWE is discussing a Blake Monroe heel turn after bringing her in as a face. While Blake is easy on the eyes, which makes her likable as a face, I enjoyed her in AEW much more as a heel. I think she does an excellent job of being a cocky heel, and that’s the role she should be in. Perhaps they will use this match to have Blake turn on Grace, but I think it might be too soon for something like that.
The Jayne & Henley team works well together as Fatal Influence, despite having had issues in the past. With that said, I’m going with Grace beating Henley in this match to give Grace the momentum going into her title match at Evolution against Jayne.
Winners: Jordynne Grace
===
NXT Championship: Oba Femi (c) vs. Yoshiki Inamura
If you had told me months ago that Yoshiki Inamura would be in an NXT Title match in a PLE and potentially the main event of the show, I would have told you that you’re crazy. It’s not a knock on Yoshi the performer because I think he’s a very good pro wrestler who is fun to watch. It’s merely a comment on the state of the men’s singles division because it shows that it’s really not that strong right now. Guys like Trick Williams, Je’Von Evans, Jasper Troy, Ethan Page, and Ricky Saints are examples of top singles challengers in NXT right now. The last NXT PLE was Battleground with Myles Borne as the wrestler who lost to Femi. It was a good match that was competitive, but it was a reach to put Borne in that spot. For most of the last three years, Shawn Michaels has done a good job of building the NXT Title contenders, but right now, for whatever reason, it’s just not working out that well.
While I have my reservations about this as a title match, I really like Oba Femi as the NXT Champion. That dude is so talented for somebody who has only been wrestling on television for about two years. I think he’d be better off as a cocky heel champion with a big ego, but I think the NXT creative team is holding back on doing that because it might be tough for him to do since he’s more of a quiet, reserved guy. Femi can talk fine on his own, but if he had a manager to put him over as a future WrestleMania main eventer then he’d really get over as a heel. Just saying.
As for this match, I expect Yoshi to put up a fight, come close to winning several times, and I think Femi will ultimately prevail. Femi has held the title for over 180 days, which is over six months. The record is 403 days held by Adam Cole. It wouldn’t shock me if Femi held that title longer than anybody, but there’s a long way to go until we get there. Femi is my pick here.
Winner: Oba Femi
===
BONUS TOPICS FOR WWE NXT GREAT AMERICAN BASH
The Match I’m Looking Forward To The Most
Ethan Page vs. Ricky Starks, because I think being a Falls Count Anywhere match will make it stand out in a good way.
The Match I Care About The Least
Sol Ruca vs. Izzi Dame
Longest Match
Ethan Page vs. Ricky Starks going about 20 minutes.
Shortest Match
Je’Von Evans vs. Jasper Troy going about 12 minutes.
Excitement Level on a Scale of 1-10 (1 being low, 10 being high)
I’m going with a 7 out of 10, and I nearly went lower, but I think the roster works hard and will put on good matches. This is a weaker NXT PLE card. There might be a few matches around the four-star level, but I don’t see any match really standing out that much, at least compared to past NXT PLE shows with outstanding matches. I remember last summer when NXT had that Heatwave show in Toronto, and it was probably their best show of the year (I rated it 8.5 out of 10). This summer isn’t as hot. The product was hotter going into Stand & Deliver this year, but they have lost some names to the main roster, and some of these rivalries just haven’t been that interesting. I hope things get more interesting for NXT soon. It doesn’t feel “hot” right now.
I’ll be back with a review of the WWE NXT Great American Bash on TJRWrestling.net on Sunday, most likely because I’ll be covering AEW All In Texas live. You can also tweet me on X/Twitter at @johnreport as well.
If you want to send an email, send it to me at [email protected]. Thanks for reading.