Four NXT stars made their debuts this week on RAW and Smackdown. Ricochet, Aleister Black, Tommaso Ciampa, and Johnny Gargano all wrestled on both episodes this week. They won all of the matches that they were involved in.
We have a rumor to pass your way on the backstage reaction to these new call-ups.
This comes via Mike Johnson of PWInsider. Here is a quote (via WrestlingNews.co):
“Four NXT stars were brought up. They were not at the Elimination Chamber. I can tell you from speaking to a number of people who work on the main roster, no one seemed to have any knowledge or understanding that they were coming to work the show. When they showed up, there was definitely some side eye at these guys going ‘ok, why are they all here? why are they all working Raw?’ There were definitely some talents who have been brought up within the last couple of months who really have kind of just floated around not due to their issues but just due to how they were treated on creative. They were kind of like ‘oh, are they coming for my spot? what’s going on here?’”
“For the first time in a while, not that there was anger or resentment against the quartet that showed up last night [but] we definitely heard some feedback from some WWE talents who were paying closer attention to their own spot and what these talents coming up could mean for their spot. I don’t mean people who just came up to the roster from NXT. I’m talking about existing mid-card talent who haven’t gotten a lot or are just starting to get a little bit of a push again. There was definitely some whispering among each other like ‘hey what’s going on here?’”
As we noted prior, WWE writers were told to “think outside the box” for the episode this week. It looks like they did just that.
On a related note, check out the latest update on Tommaso Ciampa after his scary landing on Smackdown.