WWE: Ricky Saints on His NXT Title Victory, WWE Accidentally Uses Samantha Irvin Graphic for NXT No Mercy Broadcast Team Graphic, Backstage Update on Pin Count Botch in WWE Women’s Title Mach on 9/26 WWE SmackDown Show

Ricky Saints Comments on His NXT Title Victory at NXT No Mercy 2025

As noted before, Saturday’s WWE NXT No Mercy 2025 event in Fort Lauderdale, Florida featured Ricky Saints defeating Oba Femi to become the new NXT Champion.

Following the show, WWE released a digital exclusive backstage video featuring Saints reflecting on his NXT Championship victory.

“What a wild ride so far, and you know, I’m not one to be at a loss for words but, tonight’s different. Tonight is very, very special. So tonight is a culmination of things that I didn’t think was possible, but I made it so, and not just me; people who supported me, people who believed in me, fans, everybody, and now, the Absolute Era truly begins.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com


WWE Accidentally Uses Samantha Irvin Graphic for NXT No Mercy Broadcast Team Graphic

Saturday’s WWE NXT No Mercy 2025 event in Fort Lauderdale, Florida also featured a notable production botch during the show.

During the opening match between Josh Briggs and Je’Von Evans, a graphic was shown on the screen featuring the broadcast team for the event. This graphic featured Vic Joseph, Booker T, Kelly Kincard, and Mike Rome’s names being shown but instead of Kincard’s photo being shown, it was former WWE ring announcer Samantha Irvin’s photo being shown by mistake.

Irvin departed from WWE in October of 2024 due to issues related to the her and the company not being able to come to terms for outside music projects and Irvin wanting to do more than just be a ring announcer in the company.


Backstage Update on Pin Count Botch in WWE Women’s Title Mach on September 26th WWE SmackDown Show

This past Friday’s WWE SmackDown show in Orlando, Florida featured Tiffany Stratton defeating Nia Jax and Jade Cargill in a Triple Threat match to retain her WWE Women’s Championship.

This match was notable for the ending involving a botched pinfall sequence over Stratton breaking up Cargill’s pinfall on Jax and attempted her own pinfall on Jax. This led to referee Daphanie LaShaun visibly stopping her third count and motioning that Jax had kicked out despite Jax didn’t move and her shoulders were still on the mat. After some words between the referee and Jax, Stratton hit a Prettiest Moonsault Ever and pinned Jax for the real finish to the match.

Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that besides Cargill’s busted open head injury, the match’s finish also a subject of conversation backstage at the show.

It was reported that WWE referees used to be instructed to count pins as a “shoot” meaning to continue the count unless a wrestler actually kicked out but this policy has not been used for quite some time.