Tag: NXT

Dakota Kai, Dexter Lumis And Malcolm Bivens Among 10 Released from NXT Contracts

WWE released 10 performers from their NXT contracts Friday, including Dakota Kai, Dexter Lumis and Malcolm Bivens, according to Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp.

Persia Pirotta, Harland, Draco Anthony, Paige Prinzivalli, Sanjana George, Mila Malani and Raelyn Divine were the other performers who also reportedly received their releases.

Kai, who had been under contract with WWE since 2016, spent her entire tenure in NXT and was a two-time NXT women’s tag team champion.

The 33-year-old Kai is a native of New Zealand who went by the name Evie on the independent scene before signing with WWE, winning championships in popular women’s promotions Shimmer and Stardom.

Kai was popular as both a face and a heel during her NXT run, but she is perhaps best known for teaming with and later feuding with Raquel Rodriguez.

Raquel and Kai held the NXT Women’s Tag Team Championships together twice, including as recently as earlier this month when they dropped them to Toxic Attraction.

Rodriguez seemingly reacted to the release of her friend on Twitter:

Bivens signed with WWE in 2019 and managed multiple acts. Most recently, he was the mouthpiece for Diamond Mine, which features Roderick Strong, The Creed Brothers and Ivy Nile.

Sapp added that WWE had asked Bivens to re-sign with the company in February, but he “made it clear” he didn’t want to.

Bivens went by the name Stokely Hathaway before joining WWE and spent time in Ring of Honor, Evolve, MLW and other independent wrestling companies.

AEW star MJF and Impact Wrestling star Moose were among the wrestlers Bivens managed before he went to WWE.

Bivens managed the tag team Indus Sher and singles wrestler Tyler Rust in NXT before finding his greatest success as part of Diamond Mine.

After news of his release broke, Bivens tweeted the following video, utilizing his signature sense of humor:

Lumis, 38, signed with WWE in 2019 after previously competing in Impact Wrestling under the name Samuel Shaw.

He became a cult favorite in NXT thanks to his on-screen romance with Indi Hartwell, leading to a storyline wedding. Collectively, Lumis and Hartwell were known as InDex.

Given NXT’s renewed focus on younger and less experienced Superstars, Lumis may have been a victim of circumstance due to his age.

Pirotta, a 25-year-old native of Australia, signed with WWE last year and spent much of her time in WWE teaming with Hartwell, who is a fellow Aussie.

Persia and Indi had recently started a storyline where they were in relationships with Duke Hudson and Lumis, respectively, and forced them to compete together as a tag team.

Harland, whose real name is Parker Boudreaux, played college football as an offensive lineman at the University of Central Florida.

He signed with WWE last year amid comparisons to a young Brock Lesnar and served as Joe Gacy’s on-air disciple. Harland recently disappeared from WWE programming during Gacy’s feud with NXT champion Bron Breakker.

Anthony’s most high-profile angle in NXT saw Gacy and Harland trying to recruit him, only for Xyon Quinn to step in.

That led to a match between Anthony and Quinn on the April 12 episode of NXT, which Quinn won. That marked Anthony’s final NXT appearance.

Source: Bleacher Report

The full list of released NXT Superstars is as follows:

  • Malcoml Bivens
  • Dakota Kai
  • Dexter Lumis
  • Harland
  • Persia Pirotta
  • Draco Anthony
  • Sanjana George
  • Mila Malani
  • Raelyn Divine
  • Blair Baldwin (referee)

Dakota Kai signed with WW in December of 2016 following a successful stint on the indies as well as a well-received run in Japanese promotion Stardom. Kai competed in the 2020 Women’s Royal Rumble match. With Raquel Gonzalez, Kai won the first-ever Women’s Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic and was an inaugural NXT Women’s Tag Team Champion.

Dakota Kai posted the following on Twitter:

Above everything, thank you all. I am so overwhelmed at all the love and support. The DMs, txts, tweets.. you all have my heart. I love you. I am thankful for being able to meet, work, and intertwine with so many beautiful people, people I looked up to, people I learned from.. I met some of my best friends over these last few years that will remain in my life forever. I don’t know what’s next for me. I chose ‘Evie’ at 17 years old. That chapter is shut.. just know this; I’m far from being done.

Backstage News On The WWE NXT Meetings Where Female Talents Were Reportedly Asked To Dress Sexier

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.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

WWE NXT Preview 4/26/22

Tonight’s WWE NXT 2.0 episode will air live from the WWE Performance Center in Orlando with the go-home build for next Tuesday’s NXT Spring Breakin’ special episode.

WWE NXT Preview 4/19/22

Tonight’s WWE NXT 2.0 episode will air live from the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida.

Tonight’s NXT 2.0 episode should also feature an appearance by new NXT Tag Team Champions Pretty Deadly, who won a five-team Gauntlet last week to capture the vacant titles.

Kushida Reportedly Parts Ways With WWE

According to a recent report, Japanese wrestler Kushida is no longer with WWE.

Former NXT Cruiserweight Champion Kushida is reportedly no longer a member of the WWE roster.

According to Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp, Kushida parted ways with WWE after his contract expired.

Kushida signed for WWE in 2019. His signing was announced by Triple H at a press conference in New York City just a few days prior to that year’s WrestleMania. In a video on the WWE Performance Center channel at the time of his in-ring WWE debut, Kushida was shown talking about how excited he was to debut in NXT. After defeating Kassius Ohno on his debut, Kushida told an interviewer he felt “reborn” and happy.

The 38-year-old cut his teeth in his native Japan and made a name for himself in New Japan Pro Wrestling — the country’s most prestigious professional wrestling promotion. During his NJPW tenure, Kushida became a six-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion and a two-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion (with Time Splitters teammate Alex Shelley). He also won the 2015 and 2017 Best of the Super Juniors tournaments, and the 2016 Super J-Cup.

While his WWE tenure was largely uneventful, Kushida did have a few standout moments. In 2020, he reunited with Time Splitters partner Alex Shelley in order to compete in that year’s Dusty Classic. The team was eliminated by The Grizzled Young Veterans in the first round, but the moment was special as it was the first time Shelley and Kushida had teamed up since 2015. It was also Shelley’s first appearance in a WWE ring since 2005.

Last April, Kushida won his first and only title in WWE when he defeated Santos Escobar for the NXT Cruiserweight Championship. Kushida lost the title to Roderick Strong on the September 21 episode of NXT 2.0. More recently, Kushida performed as one half of a comedy duo tag team called Jacket Time with his countryman Ikemen Jiro.

Source: TheSportster

UPDATE:

The belief within WWE is that Kushida is going to be returning to New Japan Pro Wrestling at some stage in June, following his WWE departure, according to Dave Meltzer on the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio.

Two WWE NXT Superstars Given New Ring Names

NXT 2.0 Superstars Kacy Catanzaro and Kay Lee Ray have new ring names, according to PWInsider. 

Kacy Catanzaro’s ring name is now Katana Chance.

The former American Ninja Warrior star signed with WWE in January of 2018 and then worked the Mae Young Classic tournament that year. She also participated in the Women’s Royal Rumble Match in 2019.

Kacy Catanzaro is currently teaming with Kayden Carter and last wrestled at Roadblock.

Kay Lee Ray’s new ring name is Alba Fyre.

The former NXT UK Women’s Champion made her NXT 2.0 debut at TakeOver 36. She also won this year’s Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament with Io Shirai.

KLR last competed at Stand & Deliver in a fatal four-way for the NXT Women’s Championship.

WWE filed trademarks for both “Alba Fyre” and “Katana Chance” on April 12.

As noted this past week, Raul Mendoza has changed to Cruz Del Toro, Austin Theory is now just Theory, and Raquel Gonzalez was re-named to Raquel Rodriguez.

Natalya Returns To NXT, Attacks Cora Jade

Veteran WWE Superstar Natalya appeared in an NXT ring for the first time in a long time during this week’s edition of NXT 2.0.

Natalya returned to her old stomping ground at WWE’s Orlando Performance Center when she made a surprise appearance on the April 12 edition of NXT 2.0 on USA Network … which did not end well for rising star Cora Jade.

The segment in question kicked off with Cora Jade making her way to the ring, where she preceded to address the NXT Universe. Jade lamented her failed attempt to capture the NXT Women’s Championship at Stand & Deliver, but assured fans that her goal is the same now as it was when she was a child of eight journaling about how she would one day become a champion in WWE. The 21-year-old vowed to one day be considered as successful as the likes of AJ Lee, Paige, Sasha Banks, and more … and then Natalya’s music hit, and the main roster Superstar made her way to the ring — much to the joy of the fans in attendance, who cheered and chanted her name.

Nattie got on the mic and said that the Performance Center brought back a lot of memories for her. The emotional veteran introduced herself to the upstart standing opposite, but she needn’t have bothered as Jade had been familiar with Natalya for a while. Jade shared an anecdote in which Natalya pointed at her during a WWE house show the 11-year-old Cora attended. As a child, Jade sent Natalya a message on Instagram, but Natalya didn’t see the message until years later when she sent Jade a message of congratulations regarding her NXT debut.

Jade continued to express her admiration for Natalya, and Natalya said Jade was the future of NXT … but added that the future was bleak before blindsiding Jade with a huge open-palmed strike to the side of the face. Jade fell to the mat and Natalya slapped a Sharpshooter on the youngster, forcing her to tap out as the segment drew to a close and officials tried to quell the carnage.

Later in the episode, Natalya was confronted in the locker room by Tatum Paxley, who challenged her to a match on NXT week’s NXT 2.0. That match will be Natalya’s first in an NXT ring since 2016.

https://twitter.com/WWENXT/status/1514072398584328193

Source: TheSportster

WWE NXT Preview 4/12/22

Tonight’s WWE NXT 2.0 episode on the USA Network is being billed as a “colossal edition” of the show as three titles will be on the line.

NXT 2.0 will feature the vacant NXT Tag Team Titles on the line in a Five-Team Gauntlet Match. The titles were declared vacant last week after it was reported that MSK’s Nash Carter was released over abuse allegations by his wife, Kimber Lee, who is still under contract to Impact Wrestling, and due to photos of Carter a photo of Carter performing a Nazi salute in which he appears to have modeled his mustache after Adolf Hitler’s.

It’s believed that tonight’s NXT show will also feature a follow-up on the abduction of 2022 WWE Hall of Famer Rick Steiner. Last week’s show ended with NXT Champion Bron Breakker looking on as it was revealed that Joe Gacy and Harland were holding his father hostage, tied up in a cage.

WWE NXT Level Up Preview 4/8/22

Tonight’s NXT Level Up at 10pm ET on Peacock and the WWE Network.

Chase and Hayward clash with Donovan and Lauren on NXT Level Up

* Andre Chase and Bodhi Hayward tangling with Troy Donovan and Channing Lauren in a thrilling main event

* Bernal seeks his first career victory against Raaj

* 18-year-old Hail is setting her sights on one of NXT Level Up’s pillars, Nile.

Nash Carter Released By WWE For Nazi Salute, Not Abuse Allegations [Report]

NXT had what was arguably its biggest show since becoming NXT 2.0 last weekend. Stand & Deliver, on which a number of titles changed hands including MSK becoming Tag Team Champions for a second time. A curious decision in the eyes of some fans as the new champs’ Nash Carter had some pretty serious allegations made against him by his wife Kimber Lee that same week.

Lee deleted the initial tweets following backlash from fans but posted new, potentially more incriminating ones after WrestleMania weekend. The Impact star shared two photos in which she has a mark above her lip. Lee claims the mark was a result of a busted lip, an injury she allegedly sustained after being hit by Carter when he was intoxicated.

Carter was released by WWE shortly after those photos were made public, but apparently, Lee’s allegations are not the reason why Carter’s NXT career has come to an end. At around the same time Lee doubled down on her own allegations, a photo of Carter performing a Nazi salute in which he appears to have modeled his mustache after Adolf Hitler’s also surfaced.

According to The Wrestling Observer, the Nazi photo is the reason WWE released Carter as opposed to the abuse allegations made against him. That actually makes sense and may explain why Carter’s release came so quickly after Lee published the photos. Lee’s comments will need to be investigated to determine exactly what happened and if Carter really did intentionally inflict the injury in the photo. The Nazi photo, on the other hand, there’s no disputing or defending that.

There have been a number of allegations made against wrestlers as a part of the Speaking Out movement over the course of the past two years. WWE claims to undertake internal investigations if it believes the allegations are serious ones, which ultimately led to the release of Velveteen Dream last year. Dream wants to return to NXT, but the likelihood of that seems low for the time being.

Source: TheSportster