NXT Heatwave (2025)

The 2025 Heatwave, also promoted as Heatwave: Massachusetts, was a professional wrestling livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was the fourth annual Heatwave produced by the company for its developmental brand NXT, and 11th Heatwave overall. The event took place on Sunday, August 24, 2025, at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium in Lowell, Massachusetts, and was the first Heatwave to solely use the WWE logo as well as be broadcast on Netflix in international markets. This event was also the first Heatwave to feature wrestlers from WWE's partner promotion, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA).

Six matches were contested at the event. In the main event, Oba Femi defeated Je'Von Evans to retain the NXT Championship. In other prominent matches, TNA's Ash by Elegance defeated Masha Slamovich, also from TNA, and prior champion, Jacy Jayne from NXT, in a triple threat match to win the TNA Knockouts World Championship, and Blake Monroe defeated Jordynne Grace.

Heatwave was originally the name of a professional wrestling event produced by Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) that took place annually from 1994 to 2000. The 1997 event was an Internet pay-per-view (iPPV), while the 1998 to 2000 iterations of Heatwave aired on traditional pay-per-view (PPV). ECW folded in 2001, and WWE acquired the assets of ECW in 2003. In 2022, WWE revived the event for its developmental brand NXT as an annual television special of the NXT program.

On July 10, 2025, it was reported that the fourth Heatwave under the WWE banner, and 11th overall, would be held on Sunday, August 24, 2025, at the Spartanburg Memorial Auditorium in Spartanburg, South Carolina. However, during The Great American Bash on July 12, Heatwave was announced to take place at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium in Lowell, Massachusetts. In addition to Peacock in the United States, the event was also be available to livestream on Netflix in most international markets and the WWE Network in a select few countries that had not yet transferred to Netflix due to pre-existing contracts. This marked the first Heatwave to livestream on Netflix following the WWE Network's merger under the service in January in those areas. Beginning with Halloween Havoc in 2024, all major NXT events (with the exception of the 2025 Great American Bash event) are branded solely with the WWE logo instead of the NXT logo, marking the first Heatwave to just use the promotion's logo.

The event included six matches that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the NXT brand, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television program, NXT, as well as Total Nonstop Action Wrestling's (TNA) weekly television program, Impact!, following WWE and TNA signing a multi-year partnership in January 2025.

After Blake Monroe's NXT debut, she and Jordynne Grace formed an alliance, and at The Great American Bash on July 12, Grace and Monroe defeated Fatal Influence (NXT Women's Champion Jacy Jayne and Fallon Henley) in a tag team match. The next night at Evolution, Grace, accompanied by Monroe, challenged Jayne for the title, but lost the match after Monroe attacked her with the championship, turning Monroe heel in the process. Two nights later on NXT, a vignette aired where Monroe mocked Grace for not being worthy for a NXT Women's Championship shot, and invited Grace to watch her singles debut the following week, where Monroe won. After that, Grace attacked Monroe, who would get the upper hand, injuring Grace's neck. On the July 29 episode of NXT, Monroe stated that Grace was not good enough, continuing to mock her, and one week later during Monroe's match, Grace appeared wearing a neck brace and chased Monroe out from the arena, costing her the match by countout. Later that night, NXT General Manager Ava announced that Grace would face Monroe at Heatwave.

At Stand & Deliver, Oba Femi defeated Je'Von Evans and Trick Williams to retain the NXT Championship. After that, Williams would win the TNA World Championship a month later at Battleground. On the July 22 episode of NXT, Evans was thinking about what he should do next when he was approached by WWE Hall of Famer The Undertaker, who said that Evans should "go after the biggest dog in the yard". The following week, Evans discussed Undertaker's advice when he was interrupted by Williams, who thought Evans was there to challenge him, however, Evans revealed he had come to challenge Femi. Williams felt disrespected, stating it would only be a matter of time before he defeated Femi and become a double champion. After that, they were interrupted by Williams' allies The High Ryze (Wes Lee, Tyson DuPont, and Tyriek Igwe) and after some exchange of words, Evans attacked Lee, but it was outnumbered by Williams and High Ryze. Later that night, Evans defeated Lee, and after that, Williams, Evans, and Femi confronted each other. The following week, Femi stated that no one was worthy of facing him for the championship before being interrupted by Williams and Evans, with Evans proposing that he and Williams should face each other to determine who would challenge for the NXT Championship, with Femi stating that the match should happen on that night's episode. Williams declined, preferring it take place on the August 19 episode. It was later confirmed by NXT General Manager Ava, who also announced that the winner would face Femi at Heatwave. The match was won by Evans.

For months, DarkState (Dion Lennox, Osiris Griffin, Saquon Shugars, and Cutler James) had been attacking several wrestlers, including NXT Tag Team Champions Hank and Tank (Hank Walker and Tank Ledger). On the June 24 episode of NXT, Hank and Tank were attacked backstage by unknown assailants. A month later, on the August 5 episode, Hank and Tank were attacked by DarkState after their successful title defense. Later that night, DarkState revealed that they were the ones who attacked Hank and Tank a month ago, while Hank and Tank demanded a match against any members of DarkState. NXT General Manager Ava then announced that Hank and Tank would defend their titles against two members of DarkState at Heatwave.