Heartwarming / WWE NXT

• Kaval winning Season Two of NXT's original incarnation and celebrating his victory with Pros LayCool (Layla & Michelle McCool).
• During the fallout to the the first NXT TakeOver, Sami Zayn is feeling dejected during his interview because he (yet again) was screwed out of a big match win. At this point, Adam Rose comes out with the Exotic Express and invites Sami Zayn to join the party in a sincere attempt to cheer him up. What makes it even better that despite being clearly upset, Sami actually accepts Adam Rose's offer and the next night you see him genuinely smiling. Looks like Adam Rose's help worked.
  • Later, Adam Rose offers to be Sami Zayn's tag team partner when he sees Sami being bullied by Tyson Kidd and Justin Gabriel.
• ANY time one tag team partner takes a move meant for his partner. The fact that the crowd chants "Chivalry! Chivalry! Chivalry!" every time just adds to the moment.
  • Even more Heartwarming is when the Vaudevillains (a Heel tag team) do it.
• Sami Zayn versus Adrian Neville at TakeOver: R-Evolution also had a few heartwarming moments (unless you're a highly partisan Neville fan). First, there was a moment where Sami Zayn considered using the NXT Championship as a weapon to win the match, and the notoriously smarky crowd were all so invested in Sami Zayn as a character that they chanted, "NO! NO! NO!" showing how much they wanted him to remain true to himself. Then came the moment Sami FINALLY defeated his former best friend turned rival for the NXT Title. The loud ovation when the ref's hand hit three has to be heard to be believed. Every fan in Full Sail was absolutely elated. After that, almost every single person on the NXT roster (bar some heels, anyway) came out to congratulate Sami Zayn, lifting him up on their shoulders and parading him around. Then, the defeated Adrian Neville stood up, and Sami Zayn went to offer his former friend a handshake, only to have his hand violently kicked away. For one second you thought that this was the end of their friendship forever. Then you realize a simple handshake wasn't good enough for Adrian Neville…he wanted to hug Sami Zayn and truly congratulate him on becoming champion.
• Every single face in the NXT locker room coming down to congratulate Sami Zayn is Daaww worthy enough. Tyler Breeze being one of them?! Talk about Jerk with a Heart of Gold!
• During the early months of the feud between Big Cass & Enzo Amore and Wesley Blake & Buddy Murphy in 2016, it looked like Carmella was going to turn on Enzo and Cass and side with their opponents. After all, she seemed to appreciate Blake and Murphy flirting with her and had historically shown to be repeatedly annoyed by Enzo's antics. However, the second Blake and Murphy insulted "her boys," she immediately turned on them and made it clear that for all their stupidity, she will ALWAYS be loyal to Enzo and Big Cass.
  • Her embracing Enzo after he got the pin in their Six Person Mixed Tag Match. Again, considering she normally treats him as an annoyance at best, it's a great Aw, Look! They Really Do Love Each Other moment.
• Becky Lynch started off as a generic Irish lady, eventually moving her way up to Sasha Banks's lackey. She soon gained more confidence and broke away from Sasha, winning the No. 1 contender shot for the NXT Women's Championship. Lynch lost the title match at Unstoppable, but she put in one of the best women's performances in NXT history and looked strong in defeat. With Becky standing in the ring, reduced to tears, the crowd showed their appreciation — not only giving her a standing ovation, but also singing her theme song before it was cued up again to play Becky out of the ring, giving her the biggest boost of her career and cementing her Heel–Face Turn.
• On the May 21, 2015 taping, Leva "Blue Pants" Bates received "Happy Birthday" chants. Probably the icing on the cake for someone who, in her own words, is just happy to be on WWE TV at all.
• The recent series of videos explaining the backstory of Finn Bálor are full of them, but when his former student, Becky Lynch broke down crying it really went into the next gear. Also, given how Becky has gone on in Real Life interviews and explained how wrestling saved her life because it got her off of a bad road, Finn comes across as all the more great of a guy, especially because he refuted her claims that she was terrible at the beginning by saying she was a natural at wrestling and he really didn't do much of anything while training her.
• At NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn: After Bayley FINALLY won the NXT Women's Championship from Sasha Banks (in an INCREDIBLE match), the two, along with Becky Lynch and Charlotte, in a scene similar to the Curtain Call, all came in the ring together, in what was likely the last time the 4 Horsewomen would be in an NXT ring together (with Sasha, Charlotte, and Becky all on the main roster).
  • Backstage before the match, Becky and Bayley put their differences aside. It seems she really was a Bayley Friend Forever.
  • What makes the above moment very poignant is that backstage Sasha was famed for never breaking character.
  • On the following episode of NXT, Bayley and Sasha Banks were obviously delighted to be going from their acclaimed match in Brooklyn to a main event Ironman match at the next TakeOver. Later, Bayley and Sasha Banks both tweeted old "When I grow up, I want to be the WWE Women's Champion" essays.
    • Even more Heartwarming in Hindsight post WrestleMania 32 — since the two girls wrote those essays, the Women's Championship had been replaced by the Divas Championship (which coincided with the Women's division suffering a drastic fall from its peak in the Trish Stratus/Lita years — but on the day of WM32, a second Women's Championship, with an all-new lineage, was reinstated. Sasha got to compete in the very first match for the restored title and though she came up short, it's only a matter of time before both women's dream becomes a reality.
• Somehow, someway, the NXT Women's division upped the heartwarming factor just a month and a half later at Takeover: Respect. Bayley defeated Sasha Banks in their rematch — the first ever Ironman match between two female wrestlers in the company's history — only to be met afterward with a show of respect and admiration from the entire NXT roster, including bouquets of flowers for both competitors. Sasha actually falls to the ground because she's so overcome with emotion, and seeing Sara Del Rey and Stephanie McMahon sincerely happy and comforting her is bound to give everyone some warm fuzzies.
  • Triple H enters the ring and hugs Bayley. It's extra Heartwarming in Hindsight if you hear the Divas of the Attitude Era talk about how they didn't originally have agents to help them with their matches — but Triple H always gave them feedback and helped them out. Some fifteen years later he's responsible for helping the women get to the main event.
  • After the match is over, you can see Charlotte crying Tears of Joy. As a face she's very much Good Is Not Nice, so seeing her unambiguously happy for her friend is just beautiful.
  • And despite stealing Bayley superfan Izzy's trademark headband in the middle of the match, Sasha redeemed herself after the show went off the air by giving Izzy her bouquet and apologizing.
• How do you cheer up an injured WWE NXT Champion? Bayley shows one possibility.
  • A few months later, Finn pays her back.
• The emotion on the faces of Chad Gable and Jason Jordan upon winning the NXT Tag Team Championships at Takeover: Dallas. Bear in mind, Jordan has been in WWE developmental for over five years now and only last year started to gain true momentum through his team with Chad Gable; combine that with both of their stories of how they failed in their originally intended goal of amateur wrestling and looking at both men looking ready to cry at winning the titles and receiving a deafening pop in the process becomes a massive heartwarming moment in and out of kayfabe.
  • The interview on the following episode of NXT is even more heartwarming as Gable ends the promo by referencing Jason Jordan's long road through developmental and basically saying that as happy as he is to be a champ himself, he's even happier that he helped Jordan to get there. (Jordan, by the way, is visibly on the verge of breaking down throughout the entire segment. What this achievement means to him is almost palpable through whatever screen you're watching.)
• Any time a beloved NXT superstar wrestles their final match before getting permanently called up to the main roster becomes this, with the farewell matches of Sami Zayn, Finn Bálor, Sasha Banks and Bayley being the more tearjerking examples.
  • One-night-only returns too, with recent examples including Neville (in a match against Bálor on a March 2016 episode) and Tyler Breeze (at a house show against Shinsuke Nakamura).
• The conclusion of the NXT Tag Team Championship match at Takeover: Brooklyn II, with Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa unsuccessful in their bout against The Revival. The audience is held in suspense all throughout, fearing a Face–Heel Turn from Ciampa. Instead, he pulls Gargano into a hug and they exit the arena together, mirroring the conclusion of their match against each other at the Cruiserweight Classic.
• During the NXT Women's Championship Fatal-Four-Way match at Takeover: San Antonio, one could witness the extremely rare case of friends staying on the same page in a everyone for himself (or herself for that matter) title match. Usually in these kinds of matches, the two buddies, no matter how strong their friendship, basically always fall apart sooner or later - usually happening when one of them goes for the pin, and the other one breaks it up. Throughout this match, however, Billie Kay and Peyton Royce were on the same page all the time. At one point, Peyton went for the pin on Asuka, and what does Billie do? Does she break it up? No, she adds additional leverage to help her friend win the championship, despite Royce being portrayed as Kay's sidekick most of the time. Then after Asuka kicks out, they are on a verge of having a Villainous B.S.O.D., but they reassure each other and hold each other's hands. That's right, two heels, that are supposed to be lying, cheating and backstabbing jerkasses, still value their friendship more than the championship title, something that's rare even among the good guys (or girls).
  • As another more subtle example of them being inseparable: Even after 2 years or so in NXT, neither of them has her own entrance video yet. Even in singles matches they both use their tag team video.
• The February 1, 2017 episode of NXT was the final episode where Corey Graves would be announcing, and they put together a nice tribute for him as part of a going away present. Doubles as a Tear Jerker when you see the parts about his concussion and subsequent in-ring retirement.
• #DIY shows how even a threat can become a heartwarming moment when they challenge the Authors of Pain to a rematch for the Tag Team Championships:
  Precious Paul Ellering: In two weeks, you can have your rematch for the NXT Tag Team Titles. Make peace with your loved ones before then!
  Tommaso Ciampa: Hey, Johnny, I love you, man.
  Johnny Gargano: Oh, I love you too!
• At Takeover War Games, Ember Moon finally wins the NXT Women's title in her home state. Handing the belt to her? Asuka as the two long-time rivals embrace and Moon celebrates at last.
• There's the relationship Triple H has with this young generation of fighters whom he tries to push forward, while taking a fatherly role. One example shown on social media outlets was his comforting of Bianca after she'd lost her match.
• From NXT TakeOver: New Orleans, although a short-lived one: Johnny Gargano hesitating to hit his partner-turned-arch-nemesis Tommaso Ciampa with a broken crutch before sitting down next to him in a manner reminiscent of their match at the Cruiserweight Classic, showing that Johnny still had some hope Ciampa could be redeemed.
• After NXT TakeOver: WarGames II, Io Shirai and Dakota Kai were interviewed on why they helped Kairi Sane against Shayna Bazler, Jessamyn Duke and Marina Shafir. While Dakota had a history with Shayna like Kairi, Io's reason is simple; Kairi is her best friend.
• Io coming down to save Kairi from getting hurt by Shayna during her last match on NXT before she moved up to Smackdown.
• NXT UK TakeOver: Cardiff had a couple:
  • Hometown heroes Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster (who is actually a native of Brynmawr, which is out in the valleys, although the 'south Welsh' part is more important than specifically the 'Cardiff native' part) winning the UK tag titles off of Grizzled Young Veterans - especially their celebration in the audience afterwards. Andrews' bandmates even showed up!
  • After being beaten by WALTER (all while still managing to look unbelievably strong), Tyler Bate's stablemates, Trent Seven and Pete Dunne, walked out to the ring and, after fussing over him for a minute, helped him back to his feet and showed him off to the crowd.
• Upon finally winning the NXT championship at Takeover: New York, Johnny Gargano gets to celebrate with his wife Candice LeRae. When they reach the top of the ramp, who comes out to greet them but Johnny's former tag partner (and real-life best friend) Tommaso Ciampa. Doubly heartwarming when you consider Ciampa had to relinquish the title due to a neck injury, and he was barely a week off the surgery, but showed up to congratulate his friend and rival.
• In spring 2020, going into the tournament to crown an interim NXT Cruiserweight Champion^note Reigning champion Jordan Devlin was stuck in the UK and unable to defend the title due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the biggest story revolved around Drake Maverick, who was released by WWE (among many other Superstars in what became known as the "Black Wednesday") shortly before the tournament began, but would be still competing in it. Fighting not only for a title, but for a job, he makes it all the way to the final against El Hijo del Fantasma... but comes up short. As the Performance Center trainees in attendance applaud him in a show of respect, and he starts to process that he's definitely out of a job now... cue Triple H appearing on the stage with a new contract for him.
• Damian Priest's protectiveness towards the younger, newer Leon Ruff in late 2020 while the two were both involved in a feud over the North American title. Despite the fact Priest wanted the title off of Ruff, he was also trying to keep Ruff safe from the likes of Johnny Gargano, who had turned heel earlier in the year.
• Undisputed Era’s support for Kyle O’Reilly as he pursues the NXT Championship. There’s no dissension from the rest of the group over Kyle “not understanding his role” in the group or anything of the sort - the three of them are completely on board with Kyle becoming the NXT champion, cheering him on at every opportunity.
• On the NXT after Wrestlemania 37 saw Raquel in the ring when Rhea Ripley’s music hits, only for Ripley to celebrate Raquel’s win the previous week. Bianca Belair then also appears, with the three women’s champions celebrating together.
• Piper Niven and Jack Starz' run as a sort-of tag team on NXT UK has been nothing short of adorable, with Piper being like a protective big sis to Jack, reassuring and hugging him in backstage segments. It also seems to have finally given Jack, a perennial jobber, the courage and self-confidence to stand up for himself against bullies like Pretty Deadly.
• Booker T landing the NXT color commentator gig just in time to watch Roxanne Perez, who he trained as a teenager, rise to main event level in NXT's Women's division. He never misses an opportunity to gush about her on commentary, coming off like a proud dad talking about his little girl. He actually broke down in tears when she won the NXT Women's Championship.
• Cora Jade managing to meet her wrestling idol, CM Punk, and getting some nice words of encouragement on behalf of himself and his wife A.J. Lee after coming back from her injury at NXT Deadline 2023.