Fresh off having been invaded by TNA this past Tuesday, "WWE NXT" invades Fort Lauderdale, Florida this coming Saturday for No Mercy, the latest six-match PLE card for the developmental brand! On the line: four championships and a lot of pride, with the likes of Oba Femi, JacyJayne, and SolRuca defending their titles while Je'Von Evans looks to score a win over JoshBriggs and Jordynne Grace hopes to end her war with Blake Monroe.
Here at WINC, we like to have something at stake during these PLEs too, which is why we try to figure out ahead of time who's going to win! Will any new champions be crowned? Will the TNA roster appear? Will there by any blood inWWE's version ofa Weaponized Steel Cage match? Let's get to the picks!
Josh Briggs is a tall, hard-hitting cornfed country boy who is built like a brick sh**house. To be very blunt: if he was going to be WWE NXT Champion, he would've been NXT Champion by now. Like Baron Corbin before him, Briggs has clearly hit his ceiling. Meanwhile, Je'Von Evans has been approached by a cavalcade of WWE Hall of Famers from Rob Van Dam to the Undertaker, who have all seemingly said, "Hey kid, the future is yours," and a whopping 94% of the staff think he will beat Briggs.
I am not a betting man, but if Iwere, Je'Von Evans would feel like a pretty sure thing. Six percent of the staff might disagree with me, but there's a reason they are in the minority on this one. Evans' ascension is not a matter of "if," but "when," and it would seem that the time is now. He came within inches of dethroning Oba Femi, and there is little doubt that the rise, which likely ends with Evan dethroning Femi at Stand & Deliver, begins at No Mercy. Briggs is a fairly good stand-in for Femi; a way for Evans to show off his ability to topple the big man without actually facing the real article. Like I said, it's possible that Briggs finds a way to overpower Evans, and 6% of the staff believe he will, but the chances feel slim.
Written by Ross Berman IV
Blake Monroe is about to debut her "Woman From Hell" character in the ring in a weaponized steel cage match atNo Mercy and 53% of us believe Jordynne Grace doesn't stand a chance. Monroe got the first victory between the pair in a normal singles match at Heatwave last month, but when she attacked Grace a few weeks ago and left with a bloody mouth, the tide of their feud changed.
While Monroe was already a serious heel in WWE, now, she's out for blood, and more than half of us believe she's going to win this match to really prove what the "Woman From Hell" is all about. It doesn't exactly match sense to debut a darker version of "The Glamour" without putting some effort behind it, including giving her a victory. While we don't think there will be more anymore (planned) blood in this feud, we know this match is going to be brutal with how excellent the former Mariah May is with extreme stipulations.
Some of us are holding out hope for Grace, however, as it doesn't exactly seem like she's hit the ground running in "NXT" and could use a big victory. Giving her a win here would also tie them at 1-1 in their feud, and it would be interesting to see what WWE comes up with as a stipulation for a potential rubber match. Knowing WWE, however, there can always be a third match between these women even if Monroe gets the victory here.
This has the potential to be the match of the night, but we just don't think it'll be Grace's night. Here at WINC, 53% of us believe Monroe is going to really establish herself as a serious competitor on "NXT" here, one who has apenchant for more extreme stipulations.
Written by Daisy Ruth
Lainey Reid doesn't have a Wikipedia page. She's a solid talent who is developing at a steady pace, but she does not have a Wikipedia page. She's beaten some serious competitors to get to No Mercy, and she'll have 5 minutes to dethrone Sol Ruca, and Lainey Reid doesn't have a Wikipedia page. Her name on Wikipedia is black. There is no blue hyperlink embedded; why? Because she doesn't have a Wikipedia page.
I would love to believe, as would a minority of the Wrestling Inc. Staff, that Lainey Reid will find a way to upset the champion. Every star has to start somewhere. But Sol Ruca has been a pretty dominant Speed Champion, as well as a standout talent on "WWE NXT," and she also has a Wikipedia page. Lainey Reid does not.
I really hate to keep harping on this point, but it kind of sums up the entire case against Reid. Much like Hangman Page looking at Kyle Fletcher, 65% of the staff looked at Lainey Reid and said, "You're not ready," or possibly even, "I don't know who you are; you aren't on Wikipedia."
This is what "NXT" is truly about: giving developing talents like Reid a 5-minute spotlight to show what they can do, what they've learned, and what they can be. I'm not even sure the staff think Reid will necessarily "lose" the match against Ruca, we just think she's gonna need more than five minutes to beat her.
Though if she does win, that's the kind of thing that earns you a Wikipedia page.
Written by Ross Berman IV
Preparing to take on Ethan Page for the NXT North American Championship, challenger Tavion Heights disguised himself as AAA's El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. to set up a quick impromptu victory over Page on the latest episode of "WWE NXT." Come to find out, Wrestling Inc's panel of experts likely would give the real Wagner a better shot at taking the North American Championship than Heights at No Mercy, with most one of us predicting that "All Ego" will remain champion. And we suspect that's not just on the heels of Wagner retaining his AAA Latin American Championship over Page, Dragon Lee, and JD McDonagh at Worlds Collide a few weeks ago.
Heights is impressive and Heights is legit; a United States Olympian at the 2020 Summer Games in Greco-Roman wrestling, and a multi-time medalist at the highest levels of international competition, including Pan American gold in 2021. But Heights has only recently been thrust into the North American title picture in NXT, escaping the doldrums of the No Quarter Catch Crew in July and starting his push toward Page less than a month later. It seems like this is the pattern in NXT, when an up-and-comer reaches at least the secondary title scene relatively quickly, only to put the incumbent champion over and fade back into a more middle tier. It's great experience, and a feather in the cap, as is Heights being entrusted to compete outside of NXT, representing the company in all of Pro Wrestling NOAH, TNA, GCW Bloodsport, and Reality of Wrestling, just in the last year alone. But it's just not his time. (Besides, that flag match victory in early September surely served as a consolation prize, right?)
In total, 88% of us believe Page's reign of annoyance and achievement will endure here, with a few more challengers to come before an eventual main roster call-up at some point either late this year or in 2026.
Written by Jon Jordan
Lola Vice won the opportunity to challenge Jacy Jayne for the NXT Women's Championship back at Heatwave when she defeated Kelani Jordan and Jaida Parker, and now that Vice is staring that title opportunity in the face, 65% of us think she's winning.
Jayne shockingly won the title from Stephanie Vaquer, thanks to interference from Fatal Influence stablemate Fallon Henley, at the end of May. She's had a solid run with the gold, especially when you consider the fact she was a double champion with the TNA Knockouts Championship for a time there, as well, but we think it's time for "NXT" to move on. Vice is incredibly over with crowds both in and outside of the Performance Center, and WWE has committed a lot of time on "NXT" to telling her backstory through various video packages involving her family in Miami.
No Mercy is live from Fort Lauderdale on Saturday, so the match will take place close enough to Vice's home turf. In her promo on the go-home episode of "NXT," Jayne sounded resigned to the fact Vice was going to beat her up. Vice also left Jayne laying in the middle of the ring with the title held high to end the segment, and that visual is what's partially giving the rest of us hesitation about a Vice victory here.
However if Vice gets the title around her waist, she can also take it to defend on AAA shows, where she's also immensely over with fans. It doesn't seem like WWE will want to pass up that opportunity with her, and with the current dynamics and changes in Fatal Influence as a stable, Jayne might not have as much backup as she normally would. Jayne's title run was fine while it lasted, but nearly two-thirds of us predict Vice is winning here.
Written by Daisy Ruth
Oba Femi will be making his eleventh defense of the NXT Championship during this weekend's No Mercy event, facing former North American Champion and AEW Tag Team Champion Ricky Saints for the first time on Saturday.
Femi has been the champion for 262 days since dethroning Trick Williams for the title, and it was just this week that he was in action for his tenth defense in a Title-for-Title match with Williams as TNA World Champion. Femi was potentially robbed of a second title when the TNA roster invaded the bout, and the show closed with a final stand-off between Saints and Femi as the former had his eyes drawn to the NXT title belt.
For his part, Saints earned number one contendership in August with a win over Josh Briggs, having defeated Jasper Troy to close their feud the week before. But the majority of Wrestling Inc.'s staff doesn't think he has it in him to extend that record over "The Ruler" at No Mercy, with 76% backing the champion to retain the title when all is said and done. That does, of course, indicate a 24% contingent with belief he will become the new champion; that would put him in an esteemed class of those to win the NXT and North American titles, including Femi, Carmelo Hayes, Johnny Gargano, and Adam Cole.
Written by Max Everett
