Look, I know this gingerbread man thing is stupid, but I’m gonna let you in on a little secret: Pro wrestling is stupid. It’s stupid and weird and often hilariously funny, and the running joke of the gingerbread man’s funeral throughout this episode was all those things. It turns out Sami Zayn (much like his forever frenemy, Kevin Owens) plays a tremendous straight man, especially when the straight man’s job is to react in ever-increasing horror and disbelief to a ridiculous situation that everyone else accepts without question. Zayn walking around the gingerbread man’s wake, interacting with the likes of R-Truth and the comatose Johnny Gargano, was absolute gold, but it was nothing compared to what awaited us in the main event segment.

Trick Williams, it must be said, really made this segment work, literally pouring one out for the gingerbread man and singing along with a terrible choir. Zayn came out to further express his disbelief (and call out the choir for being off-key) and did an amazing job of tying the whole thing back to their upcoming match at Backlash. And then, in the best possible pay-off to this entire angle, the gingerbread man rose from the dead like a freshly-baked messiah, revealing himself as Lil Yachty and revenging himself upon Zayn with deadly red-and-white-striped strikes! 

It was absolute nonsense, and I loved every minute of it. Five-star classics are all well and good, but as far as I’m concerned, this is professional wrestling.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

After briefly falling in both viewership and its rating despite an episode packed with surprise debuts, the May 5 edition of “WWE NXT” bounced back in both categories. The episode saw former IWGP Heavyweight Champion EVIL reveal his new ring name, Naraku, the Women’s North American Championship title picture reveal itself, and a surprise main event featuring the NXT Champion Tony D’Angelo.

According to Wrestlenomics, with data from Programming Insider, the May 5 episode of “NXT” drew 641,000 viewers, up 18 percent from the previous week’s 541,000 viewers. The episode drew a 0.11 rating in the ever-important ages 18-49 demographic, up 57 percent from the April 28 edition’s 0.07 rating.

Compared to this time last year, viewership was down four percent compared to the May 2025 average of 666,000 viewers, and the rating is down 21 percent from last year’s average of 0.14. Viewership for the episode was up from the trailing four weeks average of 580,000, by 10 percent, and show rating was up 38 percent vs. the trailing four weeks rating of 0.08.

In addition to Naraku’s reveal video vignette, Zaria challenged Women’s North American Champion Tatum Paxley, but the women were interrupted by Lizzy Rain, then Nikkita Lyons. A tag match between the teams, with Zaria set to team with Lyons, was set for next week. 

The main event saw D’Angelo take on Tavion Heights in non-title action, after he attacked the former member of No Quarter Catch Crew at the beginning of the show, following Heights laying him out the week prior. North American Champion Myles Borne accidentally cost Heights the match, and after D’Angelo’s victory, the champion was attacked by Mason Rook, the former Will Kroos.

UFC 328 is less than 24 hours away, with the main event fight between Khamzat Chimaev and Sean Strickland for the UFC Middleweight Championship officially on as both men made the championship weight limit, or did they? 

Fight fans everywhere have analyzed Chimaev’s weigh-in and believe that something wasn’t quite right. The champion barely made 185 pounds with less than 20 minutes to go until his allotted time limit expired, and while he looked drained and dejected (as do most fighters after cutting weight), it was announced that Chimaev weighed in at exactly 185 pounds. This footage didn’t sit right with a lot of people, including current UFC bantamweight Bryce Mitchell, who even took to Instagram to express his frustrations on how the upcoming title fight is already rigged in favor of Chimaev.

Khamzat Chimaev just made weight with only 20 minutes to spare 👀

DC: “He looks pretty dejected, man. He’s hurting. He’s miserable. He looks so skinny.” pic.twitter.com/bKLjV1NLar

— Happy Punch (@HappyPunch) May 8, 2026

Mitchell stated that the scales weren’t balanced and that there was no way that Chimaev could have made 185 pounds, which in his mind makes Strickland the unofficial champion already. Mitchell also brought up Chimaev’s previous weigh-in controversy where he weighed seven-and-a-half pounds over the welterweight limit to fight Nate Diaz at UFC 279, which ended up being the night where Chimaev was allowed to nearly move up to middleweight the day of his newly scheduled fight.

Strickland himself has called Chimaev out at the ceremonial weigh-in, outright claiming Chimaev to be a coward who didn’t make the weight. 

Khamzat Chimaev is ready to go to war with Sean Strickland at UFC 328 this Saturday, and the tempers of both men have been through the roof in the lead up to the fight. Chimaev and Strickland have traded words back and forth on social media to the point some people think it might escalate to Strickland literally shooting Chimaev. However, it didn’t help when the two men were finally in the same room together at the UFC 328 press conference.

Strickland was asked about his comments about Chimaev where he reportedly called the UFC Middleweight Champion a “terrorist” among other racial and non-racial slurs. Before Strickland had the chance to explain himself, Chimaev took it upon himself to actually lean in to Strickland’s insults. “I am a terrorist for him, I’m going to take off his head, I’m going to kill him. Allahu Akbar.”

Khamzat Chimaev responds to Sean Strickland calling him a terrorist:

“I am terrorist for him. I’m gonna take off his head, I’m gonna kill him. ALLAH AKBAR.” 😭 pic.twitter.com/E4Yry3PG0C

— Championship Rounds (@ChampRDS) May 7, 2026

Extra security had been drafted in to make sure that Chimaev and Strickland were kept apart from each other, but they did get close enough to have a stare-down to close the press conference. While the two men were heavily surrounded, Chimaev did manage to land one blow by kicking Strickland in the knee, forcing both men to dragged to either end of the stage.

This angle shows exactly what went down at the #UFC328 face off! pic.twitter.com/ySQ0gZIMIH

— UFC_AUSNZ (@UFC_AUSNZ) May 7, 2026

Strickland said that he expected nothing less from such a coward, and with both men now officially weighed in at the championship weight (although Chimaev’s weight has caused some controversy), nothing stands between them now as UFC 328 approaches.