WWE opened its NXT Deadline premium live event tonight (Sat., Dec. 6, 2025) in San Antonio, Texas, with its top stars in the promotion, Ricky Saints and Oba Femi, duking it out for the NXT championship. But not just that. No, they were also fighting for a chance to score a booking one of the biggest TV cards in company history.
Indeed, on Friday Night SmackDown this week, it was revealed the winner of this match would go on to face WWE Champion Cody Rhodes at Saturday Night’s Main Event, the same show John Cena will retire on. The stakes, needless to say, were high.
It made things a bit more interesting, considering Saints’ history and friendship with Rhodes and Femi getting his rematch for the NXT title he lost at No Mercy while talk only gets louder that he’s main roster bound sooner rather than later.
They delivered a match befitting of what was on the line. The champion threw everything at the challenger, who kept fighting through it like he has so many times in the past. Saints got more and more frustrated as the bout wore on, while fans chanted “holy shit” after yet another near fall.
Saints kicked out of the first Fall from Grace, and it looked like perhaps he would win the day through sheer volume. But he could not kick out of the second, and Femi is now a two-time NXT champion with a date with the WWE champion one week from today.
Get complete Deadline results and coverage of the entire show by clicking here.
