WWE NXT Notes: Carmelo Hayes, Tyler Breeze, Stephanie Vaquer, Tiffany Stratton, & Rhea Ripley Surprise Returns, Lainey Reid Advances in WWE Speed Women’s Title #1 Contender Tourn., Joe Hendry Pulls a “Kool Aid Man” for Appearance, NXT Homecoming Show Card

Indie / Misc
Sep 9, 2025

Carmelo Hayes Makes Surprise NXT Return

Tuesday’s WWE NXT show at the Performance Center featured Carmelo Hayes making a surprise return to the NXT brand.

Melo’s surprise return was setup following last week’s show over DIY’s Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa interrupting TNA World Champion Trick Williams and getting into a brawl that led with DIY laying out Williams. During tonight’s show, DIY came out to the ring to talk about their return last week and how it is special whenever they are in NXT. Ciampa brought up Williams’ name leading to Williams’ music playing to interrupt and him coming out. After some insults by Williams, Gargano asked for Williams to come into the ring and Williams responding bringing up what happened last week when he was in a 2-on-1 situation with DIY. Williams stated that he did not come alone, which led to Hayes’ music playing and him coming out to the ring to cheers from the crowd.

After some banter between Williams and Hayes over their past issues and Hayes berating Williams for being nothing more than just a squatter in the house DIY built and he renovated, Ciampa interrupted saying he wants to know what is the issue between them.

Hayes responded telling Ciampa to shut up and brought up how him and Gargano were the two biggest backstabbers in NXT history. This led to Gargano responding and issued a challenge to Hayes and Williams for a tag team match against DIY at NXT Homecoming.

Lainey Reid Advances in WWE Speed Women’s Title #1 Contender Tournament

Tuesday’s WWE NXT show also featured one WWE Speed Women’s Championship #1 Contender’s tournament match.

This match was Lainey Reid defeating Faby Apache.

As a result of her victory, Reid will be facing off against Candice LeRae in the Finals of the WWE Speed Women’s Championship #1 Contender tournament.

Joe Hendry Pulls a “Kool Aid Man” for Surprise Appearance

Tuesday’s WWE NXT show also featured TNA talent Joe Hendry making another surprise appearance.

During the NXT Tag Team Championship match between Hank & Tank (Hank Walker & Tank Ledger) and DarkState (Dion Lennox & Osiris Griffin), Saquon Shugars got on the apron to distract the referee. This led to Cutler James pulling Walker out of the ring and was about to attack him but made the mistake of invoking Hendry’s name. This led to Hendry pulling a “Kool Aid Man” and crashed through the the balcony wall for his surprise appearance.

Hendry’s distraction ended up being for nothing as DarkState was still able to secure the victory over Hank & Tank to retain their NXT Tag Team Championship.

Tyler Breeze Makes Surprise NXT Return

Tuesday’s WWE NXT show also featured former WWE wrestler Tyler Breeze making his surprise return to NXT.

Following Tavion Heights’ victory over “All Ego” Ethan Page in a Flag match, Heights grabbed the Canadian flag and placed it over Page’s body in the ring. This led to Breeze’s music playing and him coming out with his selfie camera on a stick to ringside. Breeze then got into the ring and posed besides the fall Page for a selfie.

This was Breeze’s first appearance in WWE since

Stephanie Vaquer, Tiffany Stratton, & Rhea Ripley Makes Surprise Return Appearance

Tuesday’s WWE NXT show also featured Stephanie Vaquer, Tiffany Stratton, and Rhea Ripley making a surprise return to NXT.

Following Fatal Influence’s loss in a #1 Contender Triple Threat match for the WWE Women’s Championship, NXT Women’s Champion Jacy Jayne got into the ring and proceeded to berate Fallon Henley and Jazmyn Nyx over their loss. This led to a video showing on the big screen of three black SUVs pulling up in the parking lot.

In a follow-up segment, Fatal Influence were still in the ring and Jayne continued her rant about Henley and Nyx and how she was not going to miss out on next week’s NXT Homecoming show because of them. Jayne then proceeded to boast about her accolades and claimed she was the greatest ever NXT Women’s Champion. This led to Vaquer’s music playing to interrupt and her coming out to the stage. Vaquer responded talking about how she was the first woman in NXT history to hold the NXT Women’s North American title and NXT Women’s title at the same time and she did it on her own.

Jayne responded telling Vaquer that there are three of them and only one of her, which Vaquer responded back stating that she has a question for Jayne. This led to Tiffany Stratton’s music playing and her coming out to the stage.

After some banter between Stratton and Jayne, Ripley’s music played and her came out to the stage. Ripley responded to the insults Jayne made about her and other former women in NXT and stated that if Jayne wants to be at NXT Homecoming, well there are three of you and three of us. Ripley then issued a challenge for a Six-Women match at Homecoming leading to a brawl breaking out and Ripley, Stratton, and Vaquer sending Fatal Influence out of the ring.

Afterwards, it was announced that this match was made official for Homecoming.

Current Card for Next Week’s NXT Homecoming Show

Tuesday’s WWE NXT show also featured three new matches and one new segment announced for the card of next week’s NXT Homecoming show on September 16th at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida.

These new matches and segment were setup following promos, storyline angles, and match card graphics throughout the show.

Current card for September 16th WWE NXT Homecoming show:

  • NXT North American Championship – Tyler Breeze vs. “All Ego” Ethan Page
  • Six-Woman Tag Team match – Stephanie Vaquer, Tiffany Stratton, & Rhea Ripley vs. Fatal Influence (Jazmyn Nyx, Fallon Henley, & Jacy Jayne)
  • DIY (Tommaso Ciampa & Johnny Gargano) vs. Carmelo Hayes & Trick Williams
  • Grayson Waller Effect with Oba Femi and Ricky Saints
  • WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque to appear

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