Category: NXT

Former CMLL Star Stephanie Vaquer Signs With WWE Instead Of AEW

Stephanie Vaquer is bound for WWE. The former CMLL and NJPW champion is set to debut with the United States-based promotion, but there’s been some question about her status with CMLL ahead of her signing.

According to the Wrestling Observer, Vaquer was under contract with CMLL but the promotion and its partner NJPW knew that Vaquer would be negotiating with both AEW and WWE. However, both promotions asked that she still work the upcoming NJPW/CMLL Fantasticamania show in San Jose, CA, as she had been advertised for the show. CMLL also asked her to lose her CMLL Women’s title on her way out.

Vaquer signed with WWE but was unable to commit to the original Fantasticamania show and she vacated her title, leading to a Three-Way Match for the CMLL Women’s Championship taking place that night. CMLL and NJPW have already announced Vaquer’s departure, which signaled her going to WWE, as AEW is a business partner of both companies and would’ve allowed her to complete her booked dates.

WWE Hall of Famer and “NXT” creative head Shawn Michaels confirmed the news on X (formerly known as Twitter) on Wednesday, formally welcoming Vaquer to the white-and-gold brand.

https://twitter.com/ShawnMichaels/status/1811151655544496619

According to reports ahead of the announcement, Vaquer had entered WWE’s radar specifically after her outing against Mercedes Mone at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door. She was booked in two appearances, wrestling Lady Frost prior to Forbidden Door during “AEW Collision,” and had reportedly been offered a deal to continue with Tony Khan’s company. However, she decided to join WWE, foregoing any of her future bookings with NJPW and CMLL and allegedly upsetting all three promotions. CMLL is said to be upset they were unable to have Vaquer drop the CMLL Women’s World and Women’s Tag Team titles prior to her departure as they had intended; they were vacated instead. Vaquer lost the NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship to Mone at Forbidden Door, simultaneously failing to capture the TBS Championship. She is the latest international women’s talent to be brought into WWE after Giulia agreed to terms to join the “WWE NXT” brand in the near future.

Dave Meltzer is reporting that WWE has no plans to change Vaquer’s ring name. This approach contrasts with WWE’s typical practice of creating new names for talents joining from other promotions, allowing the company to retain intellectual property rights.

However, it is essential to note that WWE can always change Vaquer’s ring name in the future.

WWE RAW & NXT To Air On SYFY During Olympic Games

Due to the upcoming Summer Olympic Games, WWE’s regular programming, including Monday Night RAW and NXT, will be affected multiple times over the next month.

This is a recurring pattern every four years for RAW, although it is expected to change in 2025 when the show moves to Netflix. In the meantime, NXT will move to The CW in the fall, as the Olympic Games will be broadcast across various NBCUniversal networks, including the USA Network.

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter is reporting that RAW and NXT will be relocated to SYFY during the Olympics for four shows: RAW on 7/29, NXT on 7/30, RAW on 8/6, and NXT on 8/7.

Source: eWn

TNA Star Joe Hendry Returns To WWE NXT

Fresh off their four-way title match at “WWE NXT” Heatwave, Ethan Page, Shawn Spears, Trick Williams, and Je’Von Evans were slated to meet in tag team action, specifically with the former two taking on the latter pair. Ahead of their tag bout, though, the newly reinstated Brooks Jensen attacked Evans backstage, rendering him unable to compete. As such, Williams was then tasked with finding a new tag team partner for the evening. That replacement partner was later revealed to be TNA Wrestling’s Joe Hendry, who marked his first appearance on the “NXT” brand since the June 18 episode of “NXT.” 

Hendry and Williams proved to be quite successful in their debut as a pair, namely as Hendry laid out Spears with a chokeslam for the win. The duo did find themselves with a significant advantage in the match’s closing moments, however, as Page fled through the crowd after being attacked by Oro Mensah. Regardless of the circumstances, Hendry has now earned his first official victory under the banner of WWE.

Last month, Hendry appeared, albeit briefly, in a 25-man battle royal to determine the number one contender for the NXT Championship. Following this outing, Hendry’s face notably surfaced at the end of the “NXT” Heatwave premium live event, and in a commercial promoting Tuesday’s episode of “NXT.” Recent reports indicated that WWE officials were planning to heavily utilize Hendry on their programming again in the coming months, which has now seemingly begun with an alliance alongside the now former NXT Champion Trick Williams.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Wes Lee Reunites With TNA’s Rascalz On WWE NXT

Former WWE NXT North American Champion Wes Lee came out to the ring alone, ready to address the fans following his crushing loss to champion Oba Femi at WWE NXT Heatwave, which robbed Lee of further opportunities at the North American Title, when he was surprised by some supportive faces from his past.

Former TNA World Tag Team Champions Trey Miguel and Zachary Wentz, known as The Rascalz, made a surprise appearance on Tuesday, shocking the fans and their former fellow Rascal. The tandem’s appearance is yet another chapter in the cross-promotion between WWE and TNA, where Wentz and Miguel are currently employed, following in the footsteps of Kazarian, Joe Hendry, and TNA Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace. Later in the night, the reunited trio were confronted by the dastardly Gallus, who threw cold water on the group’s reunion, leading to a six-man tag match set for next week’s “WWE NXT.”

https://twitter.com/WWENXT/status/1810845944054677892

WWE NXT Preview 7/9/2024

Tonight’s WWE NXT on the USA Network.

Fallout from NXT Heatwave

  •  Heritage Cup Championship Match: Tony D’Angelo (c) vs. Lexis King
  • Karmen Petrovic vs. Arianna Grace
  • Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson vs. OTM
  • Gallus vs. Tyson Dupont & Tyriek Igwe
  • Sol Ruca vs. Fallon Henley
  • Wes Lee addresses his future

Bobby Steveson (Damon Kemp) Gone From WWE NXT

Bobby Steveson, better known as Damon Kemp to WWE fans, has been a member of the “WWE NXT” roster since 2021, initially debuting as part of Roderick Strong’s Diamond Mine stable and more recently joining the No Quarter Catch Crew. Now, however, it seems his days in WWE are over. On Monday, the 25-year old took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to reveal that he has officially left WWE.

“As of today, I am no longer under contract with WWE,” Steveson wrote. “Forever grateful for the people I met and the experiences I’ve had.”

Contrary to what many initially assumed, Steveson was not released by WWE. A report from Fightful Select revealed that WWE simply chose not to renew Kemp’s contract; he signed a multi-year deal in the summer of 2021. Fightful was told that Kemp was informed ahead of time that his contract would not be renewed, and that this was not part of a new round of talent cuts. Kemp was last seen on the June 25 edition of “WWE NXT,” where he lost an initiation match to Tavion Heights, who has since taken Kemp’s place in the No Quarter Catch Crew alongside Charlie Dempsey and Myles Borne.

Steveson is the older brother of controversial Olympian Gable Steveson, who was also signed by WWE in 2021 and was released back in May. Fightful noted that Bobby made a much better impression than Gable did on coaches, fans and backstage officials during their three years with the company.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque Teases Upcoming Changes In WWE

WWE will be transitioning through various programming changes in the near future, with “WWE Raw” heading to Netflix come January 2025 as well as “WWE Smackdown” moving to the USA Network and “WWE NXT” going to CW in October. However, according to Chief Content Officer and Head of Creative Paul “Triple H” Levesque, “NXT” leaving the USA Network will not be the only change coming to the gold brand later this year. 

Speaking at the Money in the Bank 2024 post press conference, “The Game” went into detail about WWE planning ahead toward making more changes to “NXT” in the fall. He also explained that, over time, the audience will see various differences to “Raw” and “SmackDown” as we inch closer to December. 

“We are just getting started. I really feel like that. We got a whole fall thing coming up with CW for NXT. Which by the way Shawn is just killing it right… Whether that’s talent development, recruitment, NXT in general. I can’t say enough good stuff about it. I’m in awe of what they’re doing down there… When they move to CW, when SmackDown makes the move to USA, when Raw makes the move to Netflix. We’re just getting rolling. We’re lining up all this stuff that’s gonna happen. A lot of the changes you see now, we are slow rolling things out. When we get to the fall, when we get to the winter, there’s gonna be a lot.”

Triple H also expressed how excited he is about John Cena returning to the ring for a full year after announcing his retirement at Money in the Bank. Furthermore, he stated how grateful he is to be running creative with the current talent on the WWE roster.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

WWE NXT Heatwave 7/7/2024 (Results)

Countdown Show

  • Sam Robert & Megan Morant previewed the card for tonight’s show. For the kickoff match, they transitioned to the broadcast team of Booker T. Huffman & Vic Joseph to transition into the opening match.
  • Karmen Petrovic & Arianna Grace def. Jacy Jayne & Jazmyn Nyx via Pinfall (O’Connor Roll from Petrovic on Nyx).
  • Axiom was frustrated that Nathan Frazer had arrived at the arena for their NXT Tag Title defense, but Frazer showed up and said he had travel difficulties. He then asked Axiom what was the game plan for tonight.

Main Show

  • Vic Joseph & Booker T. Huffman welcomed the audience to the broadcast before transitioning into the opening match.
  • NXT North American Championship Match: Oba Femi (c) def. Wes Lee via Pinfall (Pop-Up Powerbomb).
    • With the result of this match, Wes Lee cannot challenge for the NXT North American Title while Oba Femi is the champion.
  • NXT Women’s North American Championship Match: Kelani Jordan (c) def. Sol Ruca via Pinfall (Split-Leg Moonsault).
  • Gallus (Mark Coffey, Joe Coffey & Wolfgang) called out Tyriek Igwe & Tyson Dupont on a promo from Twitter saying it did not matter how many people they could tackle when they could still get a beating.
  • Ava congratulated Karmen Petrovic & Arianna Grace on their win tonight but said Grace was why they won. Ava then booked Grace to face Petrovic for the 7/9 edition of NXT.
  • NXT Tag Team Championship Match: Super Sonic Duo (Nathan Frazer & Axiom) (c) def. Chase University (Andre Chase & Duke Hudson) (w/ Thea Hail & Riley Osbourne) via Pinfall (Golden Ratio from Axiom on Chase).
  • Wes Lee was interviewed backstage expressing he was extremely frustrated from the loss tonight. He said he would address the situation on Tuesday.
  • There was a vignette of Josh Briggs.
  • There was a video package for Carlee Bright.
  • There was a video package for Dante Chen.
  • NXT Women’s Championship Match: Roxanne Perez (c) def. Lola Vice via Pinfall (Pop Rox).
  • There was a video package of The Family (Tony D’Angelo, Adrianna Rizzo, Channing “Stacks” Lorenzo & Luca Crucifino).
  • There was a video vignette, where Shawn Michaels invited Brooks Jensen to sit down with the NXT General Manager on the 7/9 edition of NXT.
  • Lexis King cut a promo celebrating the 4th of July before calling out Tony D’Angelo to a match for the NXT Heritage Cup.
  • In a video promo posted by Tony D’Angelo on his Twitter (X) account, D’Angelo accepted King’s challenge and promised to slap the fake-ass beard from King’s face and go back to gardening his basil.
  • NXT Championship – Fatal Four Way Match: Ethan Page def. Trick Williams (c), Je’Von Evans & Shawn Spears via Pinfall (Lay Down Pin on Evans) to win the title.
    • With this win, Page became the first Canadian wrestler since Bobby Roode in 2017 to win the NXT Championship.
    • After the match, a brief shot of Joe Hendry smiling to the camera was shown to end the broadcast.

WWE NXT Heatwave 7/7/2024 (Card)

WWE NXT Heatwave PLE – Sunday July 7, 2024 – Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada

CARD

NXT CHAMPIONSHIP FATAL 4-WAY MATCH:
Trick Williams (c) vs. Ethan Page vs. Je’Von Evans vs. Shawn Spears

NXT TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
Nathan Frazer and Axiom (c) vs. Chase University (Andre Chase and Duke Hudson)

NXT WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP
Roxanne Perez (c) vs. Lola Vice

NXT NORTH AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIP
Oba Femi (c) vs. Wes Lee

SINGLES MATCH FOR THE NXT WOMEN’S NORTH AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIP
Kelani Jordan (c) vs. Sol Ruca

[COUNTDOWN TO NXT HEATWAVE PRE-SHOW]
Arianna Grace & Karmen Petrovic vs. Jacy Jayne & Jazmyn Nyx

WWE NXT Star Charlie Dempsey Appears On TNA Impact

WWE NXT Superstar Charlie Dempsey made an appearance on this week’s episode of TNA Impact.

In the opening match, Dempsey appeared by attacking Leon Slater, Trey Miguel and Zachary Wentz. He then assaulted the referee and put Slater in an STF before TNA officials came out and made him leave.

Dempsey is part of the No Quarter Catch Crew in WWE NXT.