WWE NXT Heatwave 2024 Predictions: Wrestling Inc. Picks The Winners

One night after WWE Money in the Bank smashed ladders all over Toronto, "WWE NXT" is here to close out the weekend — and crank up the heat — with NXT Heatwave 2024, the latest independent PLE from the developmental brand. It's something of a momentous occasion, as "NXT" hasn't live streamed an event from Canada in almost five years, since "NXT" Takeover came to Toronto in 2019. Main roster stars Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa paid tribute to that Takeover in their WWE Tag Team Championship win on Friday, and on Sunday, Heatwave looks to pay its own tribute by putting on another classic "NXT" event.

Now, here at WINC, we didn't do great in our Money in the Bank picks, going 3-2 as a collective staff. That said, we did do great at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door, where our staff picks went 10-1. All told, our record for 2024 currently stands at 74-11-4 — still an 85% hit rate! And while Money in the Bank was a difficult show to call, Heatwave is comparatively much easier, with four of the five matches coming in at 82% agreement or above. Will we be correct enough to get ourselves firmly back on track? Let's get to the picks!

It's the only match where we have more than a little disagreement, and the only one where we see a championship changing hands. Granted, while many of us at WINC have a fondness for Chase U as an act, Chase U aren't really the reason we're picking Chase U. They've been champions before, after all (though admittedly only for 21 days) and it isn't entirely clear how a title run for Andre Chase and Duke Hudson would advance their ongoing story of "everybody feels a way about Ridge Holland."

The champions, however, seem more than a little ripe for dethronement. Nathan Frazer and Axiom might hold the gold, but they've been bickering a lot of late, with Axiom particularly begrudging Frazer his recent pursuit of singles titles instead of focusing on tag team wrestling. It seems to us that the most likely next step in that storyline is for Frazer and Axiom to lose the belts, and Shawn Michaels' booking isn't quite as snail-paced as Paul Levesque's. And honestly, you can't blame Michaels for wanting to get the tag titles back into the actual tag division after the two most recent teams to hold the gold are Frazer and Axiom and the Wolfdogs, both teams of which consist of primarily singles-oriented wrestlers who happened to get thrown together. It's not a huge majority, but 64% of the WINC staff see another championship run in Chase U's future.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

There's no doubt in our minds here at WINC that Kelani Jordan holds on to the NXT Women's North American Championship when she faces off against Sol Ruca at Heatwave. Jordan just climbed the metaphorical ranks and literal ladder to win the gold at Battleground, and not a single one of us believes she's losing it so soon. Many of us are big fans of Ruca and her character in "NXT," but its just not her time, though, this has potential to be a great match at the premium live event on Sunday.

This will be only the second title defense for Jordan, who defeated Michin on an episode of "NXT" to keep the title around her waist. Many of the other women who competed in the Battleground ladder match, such as Ruca and Jaida Parker, have been fighting for another shot at the Women's North American Championship. Jordan basically hand-picked Ruca to be her Heatwave opponent, telling Ava that Ruca was deserving of a shot. The "NXT" general manager put Ruca in a match against Arianna Grace, and the surfer girl came out on top to head to Sunday's event.

While Ruca is a great character and even better in the ring when she's on top of her game, a full 100% of us here at WINC who cast our votes in our Heatwave predictions don't have faith in her this time around. It's Jordan's time to shine with the title, and some of us are even predicting a possible heel turn for Jordan, which would certainly make the NXT Women's North American Championship picture much more interesting moving forward.

Written by Daisy Ruth

It's hard for a wrestler to become as dominant a force as NXT North American Champion Oba Femi has in as short of a timespan in which he has done so. He has a grand total of 12 matches on "NXT" television, winning the North American title in just his fifth televised match and running roughshod since with seven straight wins including six title defenses. All good things must come to an end, of course, but the vast majority of our esteemed punditry panel sees Femi retaining once more over Wes Lee.

Unfortunately for Lee, the stipulation in this one dictates that he can never again challenge for the North American Championship so long as Femi is the titleholder (weird how this stipulation is repeating itself on the same weekend, with Seth Rollins facing the same situation in his match against Damian Priest at Money in the Bank, but we can forgive that for now). That said, sometimes being backed into a corner can present a whole new set of opportunities and we're betting that's the case here with Lee who, despite an impressive showing, should come up just short against Femi. Where he goes from there is anyone's guess, perhaps throwing himself into the NXT Championship picture or, as long as the partnership with TNA is still ongoing, maybe there's still something to be done with his old Rascalz mates?

As for Femi, the beat should go on (along with the beatdowns). His rise to prominence has been impactful enough that it shouldn't be beyond the realm of possibility for him to challenge for the NXT Championship either, even while still holding the North American title. And there is always enough room for another monster on the main roster as well, which surely isn't too far off for the massive Nigerian.

Written by Jon Jordan

It's not that we don't think "NXT" is high on Lola Vice. We absolutely do. But there are big things for the "NXT" women's division on the horizon, and will all due respect to Vice, you don't want it to be her holding the "NXT" Women's Championship when Giulia finally crosses the Pacific. You want it to be Roxanne Perez.

That might read as a little reductive, and maybe it is. But it's really just another way of saying that we're not ready for Perez' title reign to end. She's been an absolute revelation as a heel, and it helps that basically all her title matches have been top notch. She's the perfect person to anchor this division and it's not particularly close. Vice is good, but she's not on Perez' level, and really, nobody is. That's why we have our sights set on Giulia — only the former ace of the world's top joshi promotion feels like she has a chance to take down Roxanne. And after the incredibly consistent quality of Perez' recent work (not to mention her past showings against the likes of Meiko Satomura — Perez vs. Giulia is the match we want to see, not Giulia vs. Vice.

In terms of in-ring action, this should be a lot of fun. In terms of booking, as far as 82% of the WINC staff is concerned, wake us up when the scary Japanese lady gets here.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

Despite being in a fatal four-way match against two former AEW stars in Ethan Page and Shawn Spears, both whom have major talent in the ring, as well as a great, new up-and-coming 20 year old star in Je'Von Evans, a majority of us here at WINC, at 82%, believe Trick Williams isn't dropping the NXT Championship at Heatwave. Williams has held on to the title since winning it on April 23 on an episode of "NXT" where he finally defeated Ilja Dragunov before the "Mad Dragon's" jump to the main roster. Williams has even faced "All Ego" before, and successfully defended his gold from Page at Battleground at the beginning of June.

The way this match was set up was kind of confusing to begin with, so it just seems likely to us that Williams holds on to the belt until things settle down a bit with this story. Evans won a battle royal on an episode of "NXT" to become the number one contender for Williams' title, but both Spears and Page didn't take too kindly to that. Both men objected to Evans' win and both felt entitled to their own shot at Williams. After eliminating Joe Hendry from the battle royal, Page was taken out of contention by Oro Mensah, who is still looking for revenge on "All Ego." Mensah is banned from being at the arena for Heatwave, but it's likely he or his fellow Meta-Four members could get involved and keep Page from the title. Spears had a slightly less strong claim to a title match, but was the runner-up in the battle royal.

While many of us believe that Evans is destined for a great WWE career and will hold gold in the developmental brand one day, none of us cast our vote for the Bouncy One this time around. In addition to the 82% of the votes for Williams, Spears and Page both received 9% of the votes cast in our predictions.

Written by Jon Jordan