No Mercy was first held by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE as a United Kingdom-exclusive pay-per-view (PPV) event in May 1999.[1] A second No Mercy was then held later that same year in October, but in the United States, which established No Mercy as the annual October PPV for the promotion until 2008.[2] No Mercy was discontinued in 2009, but it was reinstated in October 2016 following the reintroduction of the brand extension, which brought back brand-exclusive PPVs.[3] Following WrestleMania 34 in April 2018, however, No Mercy was again discontinued as WWE ended brand-exclusive PPVs, resulting in the reduction of yearly PPVs produced.[4] In 2023, WWE again revived No Mercy to be held in September as a livestreaming event for their developmental brand, NXT.[5]
On August 24, 2025, at Heatwave, it was announced that the third No Mercy for the NXT brand, and 16th overall, would be held on Saturday, September 27, 2025, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida at the FTL War Memorial.[6] Beginning with Halloween Havoc in 2024, all major NXT events (with the exception of the 2025 Great American Bash) are branded solely with the WWE logo instead of the NXT logo; the 2025 No Mercy would have been the first No Mercy event to solely use the promotion’s logo since the 2017 event but this was later changed with the addition of the NXT logo.
Broadcast outlets
In addition to Peacock in the United States, the event was also available to livestream on Netflix in most international markets and the WWE Network in any remaining countries that have not yet transferred to Netflix due to pre-existing contracts. This marked the first No Mercy to livestream on Netflix following the WWE Network's merger under the service in January in those areas.[7] Peacock had retained the rights to stream NXT's major premium live events after the loss of its main roster events to ESPN's direct-to-consumer streaming service which began at Wrestlepalooza one week before.[8][9]
The event included 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.[10][11]
At Heatwave, NXT General Manager Ava announced that both the WWE Speed Championship and WWE Women's Speed Championship would now be exclusive to NXT. Ava also announced that a tournament would begin on the September 2 episode of NXT, with the winner of the tournament challenging champion Sol Ruca for the Women's Speed Championship at No Mercy.[13] Ava subsequently revealed that the participants of the tournament would be SmackDown's Candice LeRae, Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide's (AAA) Faby Apache, Total Nonstop Action Wrestling's (TNA) Xia Brookside, and NXT's Lainey Reid.[14] The finals took place on the September 23 episode, where Reid defeated LeRae.[15] However, moments before the event, Shawn Michaels announced that Reid sustained an injury during training, and Ruca would defend the championship against an opponent to be announced.[16]
At NXT: New Year's Evil in January 2025, Oba Femi defeated NXT ChampionTrick Williams in a triple threat match to win the championship.[17] Williams vowed to regain the championship, and three months later at Stand & Deliver, Williams faced Femi in another triple threat match for the title, but failed to win.[18] After that, Williams would win the TNA World Championship at Battleground.[19] At The Great American Bash, Femi successfully defended his title against Josh Briggs's tag team partner Yoshiki Inamura. During the match, Briggs tried to interfere, much to Inamura's dismay, who wanted to win the match without any help.[19] On the July 22 episode of NXT, Femi retained his title in a triple threat match against both Briggs and Inamura. After the match, Briggs attacked Inamura, turning heel in the process.[20] On the August 19 episode of NXT, Briggs defeated Inamura in a Philadelphia Street Fight, Ricky Saints defeated Jasper Troy, who Saints was in a rivalry, and Williams, who kept trying for another shot at the NXT Championship, lost a number one conteder's match for a shot at the title at Heatwave.[21] At the event, both Briggs and Saints announced their intentions to challenge for the title, and later that night, after Femi successfully defended his title, he was confronted by Saints.[12] Two days later on NXT, Saints called out Femi, but was interrupted by Briggs, who stated that Saints did not deserve a title shot. After some exchange of words, NXT General Manager Ava scheduled a match between Saints and Briggs for later that night, where the winner would challenge for the NXT Championship at No Mercy. The match was won by Saints.[14] However, at NXT Homecoming on September 16, Raw's Grayson Waller hosted his talk show The Grayson Waller Effect with both Femi and Saints. They were all interrupted by Williams, still wanting an NXT Championship match. Waller then proposed a Winner Takes All match between Femi and Williams for the following week with both titles on the line, which both men agreed, and it was subsequently made official, with the winner facing Saints for the NXT Championship at No Mercy.[22] Femi subsequently retained the NXT Championship after the match ended in disqualification when TNA's Mike Santana, who will face Williams for the TNA World Championship at TNA's Bound for Glory attacked Williams at ringside during the title match.[15]
Since August, Tavion Heights had been feuding with NXT North American ChampionEthan Page. Heights took issue with Page insulting the United States and arguing that his native Canada is superior. At Heatwave, Heights lost a mixed tag team match against Page.[12] After the event, their rivalry continued, leading to a Flag match on the September 9 episode of NXT, where Heights defeated Page by grabbing the American flag.[23] The following week at NXT Homecoming, SmackDown's Damian Priest appeared and praised Heights. After that, Priest announced that after speaking with NXT General Manager Ava, Heights would face Page for the title at No Mercy.[22]
At Heatwave, Blake Monroe defeated Jordynne Grace.[12] Two days later on NXT, Grace interfered on Monroe's match, costing her the match.[14] On the following episode, after Grace had won her match, Monroe appeared, with both women brawling, being separated by some WWE personnel.[24] Three weeks later on the September 23 episode, after Grace had won her match, Monroe appeared once again with a kendo stick. Grace grabbed a steel chair and they brawled, being separated once again by some WWE personnel. After that, co-assistants to NXT General Manager Ava, Stevie Turner and Mr. Stone appeared. Turner then scheduled a weapons match between Grace and Monroe at No Mercy, with Stone subsequently stating that the match would also be a steel cage match.[15]
On the September 2 episode of NXT, Je'Von Evans addressed failing to win the NXT Championship match at Heatwave, when he was interrupted by The Undertaker's theme song, who had given some advice to Evans back on the July 22 episode. However, it was revealed to be Josh Briggs faking it, who took issue with Evans getting several title matches at his young age. Briggs also stated that Evans should have demand a title match, however, since Evans did not do so, a #1 contenders match was scheduled for the previous week, which Briggs lost. After Evans asked if Briggs thinks he knows him, Briggs attacked Evans and stated that Evans should learn when to stay down. Briggs then performed a Chokeslam on Evans onto a chair.[24] The following week, Briggs defeated Evans in a match after Briggs punched Evans with a chain.[23] At NXT Homecoming, Briggs and Evans brawled on backstage,[22] and on the following episode of NXT, it was confirmed that Briggs and Evans would face each other at No Mercy.[15]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
