During last night’s episode of WWE NXT 2.0, former Intercontinental Champion Apollo Crews made his NXT return.
Crews came out to confront NXT World Champion Bron Breakker. Breakker had successfully retained the NXT title this past Saturday at “In Your House” against Joe Gacy.
During the promo, Crews said he’s back in NXT for as long as he wants to be and misses being there. He calls Breakker one of the best acts in the entire company and not just in NXT.
Crews also added that he can’t wait to make history with Breakker, but until then, he’ll see him around.
It was interesting that he appeared on NXT as a face receiving a huge ovation.
Later in the night, Apollo joined forces with Solo Sikoa to take on Carmelo Hayes and Grayson Waller in tag team action. Crews picked up the win for his team after nailing Waller with a spinning powerbomb for the 1-2-3, marking his return to NXT with a victory.
Crews made his NXT debut in August 2015 and in April 2016, was moved to the main roster. He won the Intercontinental title at WrestleMania 37 from Big E. Crews would hold the title until August 2021.
Crews was drafted to “Raw” in the 2021 WWE draft, though he hasn’t competed on “Raw,” since the March 21 episode. His last match was on the May 30 edition of “Main Event” against Akira Tozawa.
Tony D’Angelo, Channing Lorenzo & Troy Donovan defeated Legado del Fantasma (Santos Escobar, Cruz Del Toro & Joaquin Wilde) (*losing faction must join the winners’ faction)
WWE NXT WOMEN’S TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH Toxic Attraction (Gigi Dolin & Jayce Jane) (c) defeated Katana Chance & Kayden Carter
WWE NXT NORTH AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH Carmelo Hayes defeated Cameron Grimes (c) To become NewNXT North American Champion
WWE NXT WOMEN’S CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH Mandy Rose (c) defeated Wendy Choo
WWE NXT TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH Creed Brothers (Brutus Creed & Julius Creed) defeated Pretty Deadly (Elton Prince & Kit Wilson) (c) to become NEW NXT Tag Team Champions
WWE NXT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH Bron Breakker (c) defeated Joe Gacy
Last week’s show ended with Joe Gacy’s disciples carrying NXT Champion Bron Breakker away after Breakker retained in the main event. There will likely be a follow-up to that angle on tonight’s show.
Roderick Strong has reportedly requested his WWE NXT release, but the company has him factored into upcoming creative plans.
Strong has requested his release “multiple times” in the past several months, according to Fightful Select. However, word is that WWE has denied the request.
The veteran pro wrestler is said to be frustrated with many things within WWE over the past year, which led to him asking for his release.
WWE reportedly pitched a name change to Strong, but he was opposed to the idea. There were many people within WWE who were surprised that Strong was not included in the NXT releases made last Friday as he’s made it clear he wants out of the company.
Strong went to England in March for a quick run in NXT UK, defeating Wolfgang on the March 17 taped episode, then coming up short against NXT UK Champion Ilja Dragunov on the taped episode that aired on April 7. Strong lost to LA Knight and Tommaso Ciampa in SmackDown dark matches this past January, and took a WWE Main Event loss to T-BAR that same month, but there’s no word on if he’s being considered for a main roster run. His last NXT 2.0 TV singles match was the loss to Solo Sikoa on March 22, and then he competed in the Second Chance Triple Threat the following week for a spot in the NXT North American Title Ladder Match at Stand & Deliver, which also included A-Kid and the winner, current NXT North American Champion Cameron Grimes.
Strong reportedly re-signed with WWE shortly before The Diamond Mine stable debuted last year. Original plans called for Strong to be in the group with wife Marina Shafir, manager Malcolm Bivens, trainer Hideki Suzuki, Tyler Rust, and Arturo Ruas, but less than one year later Strong is the only member of the originally pitched stable to remain with the company.
WWE recently began a storyline where Strong said he wanted to make changes to The Diamond Mine so they don’t fail like The Undisputed Era did. WWE released Bivens last week, along with 9 other budget cuts, and now the group consists of Strong, The Creed Brothers and Ivy Nile.
Strong has reportedly remained professional in his handling of creative week-to-week. It was also noted that WWE officials currently have no plans to release Strong as he is factored into upcoming creative plans.
New details have been revealed on the WWE NXT women’s division meetings that Warrior Wrestling Women’s Champion Athena (fka Ember Moon) called “stupid” in a recent interview.
Athena spoke with Chris Van Vliet to discuss various topics in a new interview this week. At one point she talked about how hurtful her NXT situation was, and how she saw the downfall once WWE Executive Vice President of Global Talent Strategy & Development Paul “Triple H” Levesque was gone following his cardiac event. This is where Athena described meetings where she says female talents were told how to dress like NXT Women’s Champion Mandy Rose.
She said, “When you care about something, not just for yourself but for everyone involved, it hurts so much more because, for so many years, I’ve been not about myself. I’ve been for the match and other people. To be told that I’ve done nothing wrong and I was taken off TV for doing nothing wrong, it hurt so bad because I was so happy walking into work. I remember when Shotzi left, I remember going to my makeup artist and saying, ‘I am so unhappy.’ We would have to sit through stupid meetings about how we’d have to dress sexy. I remember looking at someone else (and laughing). I cater to children. I’m not about to wear fishnet booty butt-cheek shorts because we had a two-hour meeting about how to dress like Mandy Rose. That’s not fair. Mandy is absolutely phenomenal and an amazing person, but not everyone is Mandy Rose. I started seeing this downslope as soon as Hunter was gone. For the first bit, we didn’t know why, we just knew he wasn’t there. I got so angry. I was sitting there thinking, ‘I did nothing wrong. I didn’t piss off Vince.’ They take Shotzi away, Hunter is gone. ‘You guys promised me this wouldn’t happen. You promised I wouldn’t be lost in the shuffle. I went on this losing streak to help you guys out and build other talent so I could get a reward.”
Fightful Select has revealed new details on the “stupid meetings about how we’d have to dress sexy” that Moon mentioned. These talent meetings were held back in October of last year.
WWE brought in fashion expert Melanie Pace to conduct the meetings back in October 2021. Pace bills herself as an Orlando-based on-air style expert, a fashion stylist, and a virtual stylist. She also works out of other cities, and serves as a wardrobe stylist, and personal shopper.
Pace took to Instagram and posted a few photos from the WWE Performance Center on October 18 of last year, and captioned it with, “Quick trip back to Orlando! Fashion talks with the best at @wwenxt [heart emoji]”
The meetings were reportedly held under the guise of “fashion consulting” and “fashion aid” as a way to play up the fact that the women on the NXT brand were larger-than-life Superstars. It was noted by one NXT wrestler how this was a stark contrast from before as people on the NXT roster were originally encouraged to wear either just their ring gear, or an available merchandise shirt.
Another talent noted how they were encouraged to dress similarly backstage, and didn’t outright say that “dressing sexier” was spoken aloud, but it was implied.
Several members of the roster expressed displeasure with the meetings, and blamed them on WWE Talent Relations head John Laurinaitis as they started taking place when he regained power. The meetings were seen as one of the big changes following Triple H’s departure when he took time off for his health last fall. While talent put the blame on Laurinaitis, it has not been confirmed that he came up with the meetings.
It looks like the meetings were not mandatory as numerous women reportedly refused to attend. The photo below from Pace shows at least 15 chairs set out for the wrestlers.
Athena was with WWE from September 2015 until her release on November 4 of last year. She had stints on the main roster and in NXT, and left the company as a one-time NXT Women’s Champion, and a one-time NXT Women’s Tag Team Champion.
Athena returned to the ring at Warrior Wrestling #19 on February 12, wrestling a Time Limit Draw to then-Warrior Wrestling Women’s Champion and current AEW Women’s World Champion Thunder Rosa. She also worked Warrior Wrestling #20 on March 12, in a Triple Threat with Rosa and Skye Blue. She took a loss to Mia Yim at the WrestleCon SuperShow, took another loss to Swerve Strickland at TWR Swerve’s House on April 16, and then returned to Warrior Wrestling for their WW 21 event on April 23, defeating Blue and Shazza McKenzie to capture the vacant Warrior Wrestling Women’s Title.
