Opening tonight's episode of WWE NXT was general manager Ava, who had to address what is going to happen to the NXT Championship following Oba Femi's random relinquishing of the title on last week's show.
The title is indeed vacated, and Ava spoke about how she knows how hungry and talented the roster is, while surrounded by a good number of the NXT Superstars—as well as some newcomers—and how there would be some opportunities to prove themselves.
While Ricky Saints interrupted the promo, assuming he would just be awarded the NXT Championship by default since he's so great, Ava announced that there will instead be a series of qualifying matches to determine who would go on to wrestle for the title in a Six Pack Challenge ladder match on February 3, 2026.
This turned into a big brawl, wherein new EVOLVE to NXT call-up Keanu Carver wrecked a lot of people and stood tall to make a statement, later not being interested in conducting an interview with Blake Howard.
Later in the show, Saints would say that he spoke to Ava and since he was owed a rematch for the title after losing it to Oba Femi, she granted him an automatic spot in the ladder match where he doesn't have to qualify.
He also announced two of the qualifying bouts will be Shiloh Hill against Josh Briggs and "Super" Sean Legacy against Eli Knight, who has also just joined the NXT roster proper.
EVOLVE Champion Jackson Drake, who has joined the NXT roster officially alongside Swipe Right, just assumes he's going to be in a qualifying match, but that has not yet been announced.
We can assume the final three qualifiers will take place February 27th and should likely be some pairing of Drake, Carver, Tony D'Angelo, and two others (maybe Joe Hendry, Dion Lennox, Stacks or Lexis King?)
In any case, here is the full lineup we know for sure of what is advertised for WWE NXT on February 20, 2026:
- NXT North American Championship Match: Ethan Page (c) vs. Elio Lefleur
- No. 1 Contenders Triple Threat Tag Team Match for a TNA Knockouts World Tag Team Championship Title Opportunity: Fatal Influence (Fallon Henley & Lainey Reid) vs. WrenQCC (Kendal Grey & Wren Sinclair) vs ZaRuca (Sol Ruca & Zaria)
- Qualifying Match: Josh Briggs vs. Shiloh Hill
- Qualifying Match: Eli Knight vs. Sean Legacy
- The Vanity Project's Swipe Right (Brad Baylor & Ricky Smokes) vs. Chase U (Kale Dixon & Uriah Connors)
Drop your predictions for next week's card by leaving a comment below!