Following up on Giulia’s win of the NXT Women’s Championship, we also have a new leader of the men’s division as Oba Femi dethroned Trick Williams by defeating him and Eddy Thorpe in a Triple Threat match to capture the NXT Championship at WWE New Year’s Evil 2025.
Earlier in the night, Eddy Thorpe claimed he had been attacked backstage. NXT General Manager Ava wasn’t buying it at all, continually saying she thought Thorpe was faking it and the match was still on. Oba Femi made it a point to say that no matter what, whether Thorpe was in the match as scheduled or not, the end result would be the same, and he sure made good on that notion!
This was as definitive of a win as you could get, as even though Thorpe did make his way into the match eventually, Femi scored the winning pinfall victory over Williams, leaving no doubt that he was the most dominant person in this match and would have walked out with the title under any circumstance.
Williams’ reign comes to an end at 99 days, following up on his previous 74 day reign that was interrupted by Ethan Page (who himself held it for 86 days). Will Oba Femi hold it longer than that average as of late? Considering his status as the longest-reigning NXT North American champion (at 272 days), it is a safe bet he’ll be holding that gold for quite some time.
THE GAME HAS CHANGED. 🤯
OBA FEMI IS THE NEW #WWENXT CHAMPION!!! #NewYearsEvil pic.twitter.com/QfzKztVC1t
— WWE (@WWE) January 8, 2025
This is clearly a reset time in WWE with what happened yesterday on Monday Night Raw, but these two title changes tonight, and yours truly is surprised at this title change in particular, given how frequently WWE has been having people fail their first shots at a championship and how Eddy Thorpe was the perfect fall guy to stretch this out. Could that be a sign that Trick Williams is moving up to the main roster sooner, rather than later? We’ll have to see!
What do you think of Oba Femi winning the NXT Championship? Who should be next in line to challenge her? Drop your thoughts in the comments below!
