Ricky Saints Wins NXT Title At No Mercy (WWE News)

Ricky Saints is your new NXT Champion.

by Andrew Pollard
Article lead image
WWE

With NXT No Mercy 2025 now in the books, Ricky Saints is your new NXT Champion.

In the No Mercy main event, Saints did the unthinkable and beat the mammoth Oba Femi after hitting two DDTs - his third and fourth DDTs of the match - to get the 1-2-3, which came shortly after Absolute had kicked out of Oba's Fall From Grace, then reversed his way out of a second attempt at that powerbomb.

For Femi, this brings an end to one of the most dominant NXT Title reigns in the brand's history, with him taking the gold from Trick Williams at New Year's Evil back in January, then holding onto it for an impressive 263 days. No Mercy was also the first time Oba Femi has lost a one-on-one match for nearly a year, which was a loss to Tony D'Angelo in a Tables, Ladders, and Scares match back at NXT Halloween Havoc last October.

In the case of Ricky Saints, this continues the momentum that the Stroke Daddy has had since arriving in NXT in February, with Ricky winning the NXT North American Championship barely a month into his time under the WWE banner. He'd lose that title to Ethan Page in May, but Saints now finds himself at the top of the NXT mountain as the new NXT Champion.

Advertisement

Of course, this also throws up plentiful questions about a main roster move for Oba Femi, as the Nigerian powerhouse realistically doesn't have much left to do in NXT. Oba has already won the North American Title, has been such a force of nature as the NXT Champion, and it seems likely that it won't be too long before we'll see him appear on Raw or SmackDown. Up first, however, is another match against Trick Williams on the NXT x TNA Invasion special on October 7, where Oba and Trick Willy will do battle once more, with everybody banned from ringside for this one.

Advertisement

Get 76% off and three months for free when you sign up to NordVPN here: https://go.nordvpn.net/aff_c?offer_id=704&aff_id=3013&source=WCWRE

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.