WWE: Kelani Jordan vs. Lola Vice To Kick Off 2/17 WWE NXT Show, Rusev on His Reason for Why He Returned To WWE, Tessa Johnston & Ana Da Silva Confirms WWE Tryout Invitation

Kelani Jordan vs. Lola Vice To Kick Off Feb. 17th WWE NXT Show

WWE announced that the singles match of Kelani Jordan vs. Lola Vice will be kicking off tonight’s WWE NXT show at the Performance Center in Orlando, Florida.

They don't want to wait. 👊@kelani_wwe and @lolavicewwe will battle it out to KICK OFF #WWENXT tonight!

📺 8 ET/7 CT on @TheCW pic.twitter.com/KO2EDH1fsg

— WWE NXT (@WWENXT) February 17, 2026

Current card for February 17th WWE NXT show:

• NXT North American Championship – Shiloh Hill vs. “All Ego” Ethan Page
• NXT Tag Team Championship #1 Contender Fatal Four-way match – Hank & Tank (Hank Walker & Tank Ledger) vs. OTM (Bronco Nima & Lucien Price) vs. The Culling (Nico Vance & Shawn Spears) vs. Vanity Project (Brad Baylor & Ricky Smokes)
• WWE Speed Men’s Championship #1 Contender Tournament Finals – Elio LeFleur vs. Eli Knight
• Tony D’Angelo vs. Cutler James
• Kelani Jordan vs. Lola Vice to kick off show

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Rusev Comments on His Reason for Why He Returned To WWE

A recent episode of the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast featured Rusev as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Rusev’s thoughts about his reason why he returned to WWE in April of 2025.

“I wanted to wrestle. I wanted to mix it up with the best. I know that the roster is stacked. I don’t remember the last time it was this stacked, but I just want to mix it with everybody. I wanted to wrestle more and more, and all these European tours and everything. I love all that, I love the grind. Because when we first started, we were five days on the road, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, you go home Wednesday, you’re out on the road again on Friday. That’s just how life was, as hard as it was, that’s how you get better, just by putting in the work. Because every day you work different towns, you travel. Now the people can only hear about that and be like, Oh, really, that’s what it was. It was so cool. Wrestling, getting beaten up, getting the rental car driving three hours to the next down, getting the hotel, waking up, working out, doing the same thing, makes you feel like a real professional wrestler. I missed the grind.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

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Tessa Johnston & Ana Da Silva Confirms WWE Tryout Invitation

As noted before, WWE is currently scheduled to be holding new talent tryouts this week at their Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. Among those who have been confirmed to be attending these upcoming tryouts includes Notorious Mimi, Airica Demia, Nikki Blackheart, Valentina Rossi, Promise Braxton, Zoe Sager, and the Natural Classics (Stevie Filip & Tome Filip).

Model and actress Tessa Johnston recently confirmed on Instagram that she was also invited to WWE’s upcoming new tryouts and revealed that these tryouts starts today at the Performance Center.

“she’s going to @wwe 👀🤭 camp begins on Tuesday 🤼‍♀️ @wwerecruit

special s/o to @warcorey who gave me a few basics 💪🏽

#wwe #wwenxt #wrestling #wrestlinggirl #wweraw”

Brazilian Olympic track and field athlete Ana Da Silva also recently confirmed on Instagram that she was also invited to WWE’s upcoming tryouts.

“From the Olympic shot put ring to the WWE ring… Soon to be ur fav Brazillian on the WWE tryout ring next week.”