Oba Femi will be making his eleventh defense of the NXT Championship during this weekend’s No Mercy event, facing former North American Champion and AEW Tag Team Champion Ricky Saints for the first time on Saturday.

Femi has been the champion for 262 days since dethroning Trick Williams for the title, and it was just this week that he was in action for his tenth defense in a Title-for-Title match with Williams as TNA World Champion. Femi was potentially robbed of a second title when the TNA roster invaded the bout, and the show closed with a final stand-off between Saints and Femi as the former had his eyes drawn to the NXT title belt.

For his part, Saints earned number one contendership in August with a win over Josh Briggs, having defeated Jasper Troy to close their feud the week before. But the majority of Wrestling Inc.’s staff doesn’t think he has it in him to extend that record over “The Ruler” at No Mercy, with 76% backing the champion to retain the title when all is said and done. That does, of course, indicate a 24% contingent with belief he will become the new champion; that would put him in an esteemed class of those to win the NXT and North American titles, including Femi, Carmelo Hayes, Johnny Gargano, and Adam Cole.

Written by Max Everett