Welcome to Wrestling Inc.’s live coverage for “WWE NXT” on May 5, 2026, coming to you live from the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida!

NXT Women’s Champion Lola Vice will be joining forces with her fellow AAA World Mixed Tag Team Champion Mr. Iguana to take on Izzi Dame and Niko Vance of The Culling. While Dame and Vance looked to get the better of Vice by sneaking up on her during last Tuesday’s episode of “NXT” after Vice had called out Dame, Vice came prepared when Mr. Iguana was revealed to be waiting under the ring to take out Vance as Vice took out Dame herself.

Jaida Parker will be competing in her first match on “NXT” since coming up short to Kelani Jordan at Week One of the “NXT” Revenge special on April 14 as she collides with former EVOLVE Women’s Champion Kali Armstrong. The two women encountered one another last Tuesday in a tense verbal exchange surrounded by several other members of the “NXT” women’s division in the women’s locker room.

Although Sol Ruca may have become the newest member of the “WWE Raw” roster last Monday, Zaria scored a win against her in a Last Woman Standing Match at Week Two of the “NXT” Revenge special on April 21 by sending her crashing off a tall platform through a table beneath. Following her victory, Zaria will be making an appearance on tonight’s show with something on her mind to share.

Additionally, Jasper Troy and Vanity Project’s Jackson Drake will be going head-to-head with one another after Drake and his stablemates and reigning NXT Tag Team Champions Brad Baylor and Ricky Smokes scored a win against Troy, Hank Walker, and Tank Ledger at an NXT Live Event on May 1.

After reports that World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns won’t be on “WWE Raw” at all in June leading into Night of Champions in Saudi Arabia, WWE released a graphic on social media with all the “Tribal Chief’s” dates for May. Fans already know that Reigns will be defending his gold against Jacob Fatu at Backlash in Tampa, Florida, but four more dates are listed on the graphic.

WWE announced in a post to X (formerly Twitter) that Reigns will be on the “Raw” episode the Monday after Backlash in Knoxville, Tennessee. He will also be live on the next two episodes, May 18 and May 25 in Greensboro, North Carolina and Columbus, Ohio, respectively. Reigns is also listed for WWE Clash in Italy on Sunday, May 31 from Turin, Italy. “The Tribal Chief” is not advertised to be on the Saturday Night’s Main Event special on May 23 at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Acknowledge your Tribal Chief in person. ☝️

Don’t wait to see @WWERomanReigns, buy your tickets NOW!

🎟️: https://t.co/DewXMi9HpH pic.twitter.com/1HVr3Xa4t8

— WWE (@WWE) May 5, 2026

After Reigns won the World Heavyweight Championship in a five-star match against CM Punk to headline WrestleMania 42 night two, he proclaimed that he would be full-time through the summer. WWE initially advertised Reigns for June dates, but fans noticed in the following days he had been pulled from those ads.

According to a report from Dave Meltzer, WWE chose to remove Reigns from the schedule for June because he will not be used for Night of Champions in Riyadh on June 27. Reigns missed Night of Champions last year, a show that saw Cody Rhodes crowned King of the Ring after a victory over Randy Orton, but Reigns had been featured on a poster circulating social media ahead of the event.

There’s not much that surprises me these days, but reading through the responses to Joe Hendry’s music video earlier did leave me a bit stunned. Yes, on the surface, this appears to be just another part of Hendry’s shtick, where he mocks his opponent via singing, and you’re either into it because you like Hendry’s gimmick or you aren’t. But right now, in the wake of all these wrestlers losing their jobs while others are either being forced to take pay cuts to keep their jobs, doing a comedy storyline where a wrestler advocates for the firing of a rival seems tone-deaf, insensitive; you name it.

I’m sure some people will see this take and say I’m a party pooper or have no sense of humor, blah blah blah, yadda yadda yadda, so on and so forth. You’re entitled to think that, and you may even have an argument that this isn’t WWE intentionally trying to make light over, by my count, nearly 30 wrestlers being sent to the unemployment line. But if you tell me you think this is in good taste, I’m going to side-eye you. It’s in the poorest or poor tastes, and worst of all, it’s completely unnecessary. I’m fairly certain WWE could do a Joe Hendry-Logan Paul feud just fine, with Hendry doing songs that make no reference to the fact that WWE/TKO is becoming more soulless by the minute. Call me a dork all you want; this is a bad decision by WWE. And the fact that so many people are clueless to this is why people’s calls to bring back certain released talent will likely fall on deaf ears. Why bring anyone back, after all, when they can turn these firings into storylines and fans will just clap along?

Though Woods and Kingston made the decision to leave WWE rather than take the pay cut, Fightful reported that the pair still left “millions” on the table over the next few years. Talent were also reportedly frustrated as New Day, as well as Santos Escobar, had just signed new deals, with Escobar re-signing as recently as October after briefly becoming a free agent. According to Fightful, some stars had not spoken with AEW or other companies while negotiating, which could now reduce their leverage.

As for recent reports that Woods could return to WWE under a “Tyler Breeze deal,” or a digital-only deal, Fightful had not heard anything. The deal would likely keep Woods with his WWE-owned UpUpDownDown YouTube channel, as seen with Breeze in 2022, but would keep him from signing with AEW. After the news of the New Day’s departure broke on Saturday, multiple AEW talent, including former AEW World Champion MJF, took to social media to express their desires for New Day to be hired, and Fightful reported names have also pushed for that internally.

A WWE source told the outlet that a joint statement was expected to be released by the company about New Day’s departure before word got out, but that source didn’t know why that did not happen. WWE has not released a statement about any releases, wishing talent “the best in their future endeavors” in years. Both Woods and Kingston took to their respective Instagram accounts ahead of “WWE Raw” on Monday to issue statements about their time in WWE, giving thanks to the locker room, backstage workers, and fans.

Amanda Nunes has confirmed she intends to keep fighting if she regains her UFC Bantamweight Championship from Kayla Harrison. 

Nunes retired in 2023 while the Bantamweight Champion, vacating the title in the process, although she was due to return against the reigning champion in an attempt to reclaim the title in January. Harrison sustained a neck injury which ensured the fight had to be postponed, and Nunes is waiting in the wings until the champion is cleared to return. 

In the meantime, Nunes was asked by “MMA Junkie” whether she was returning for the title and riding off into the sunset again, or going to defend the title and continue fighting. 

“For sure I’m gonna defend,” she replied. “I’m gonna get my belt [and] defend as long as possible. I feel so good. I feel like I’m in the best moment of my whole life, my whole career. I’m healthy. I’m training good. My spirits, like, honestly I’ve never felt like that before.”

She continued to say that she’s feeling good in training camp, especially considering her three years out of the sport. 

“The first thing you want is to feel good when you come back after three years, and I do feel very good,” she said. “My body feel good, my mind feel good, my spirit feel good, and I’m so happy. My daughter making me so happy and my wife, we are very happy. So I can’t wait to bring my belt back to complete everything what I feel right now.”