Quite a few things have changed over the past 6 months in WWE, and one of the smallest but most impactful changes has been WWE’s acknowledgment that other wrestling companies exist. You never used to hear about anyone other than WWE on WWE TV previously, but these days commentary will mention people’s histories with other companies during their matches. Then WWE shocked everyone by working with New Japan Pro-Wrestling with Karl Anderson, and now they are taking things one step further by letting NXT talent work with select independent promotions, starting with Reality of Wrestling.
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On Twitter Bryan Alvarez wrote, “NXT is going to allow talent to work select indies going forward, which is a pretty big deal.” News also hit today that Reality of Wrestling, which is owned by Booker T, will be one of the first examples of this. The company will be working with NXT on crossover matches, and the first one will feature Ivy Nile.
Nile will appear in Reality of Wrestling on February 11th at the World Gym Arena, and you can find the official announcement from Reality of Wrestling below. No other appearances have been announced yet, but we are sure there are plenty more to come.
The official Reality of Wrestling Instagram account wrote “Wrestling is taking the roster to the NEXT Level! We are proud to announce that Reality of Wrestling will be working with WWE/NXT to bring our fans incredible match ups they can’t see anywhere else.
Don’t miss the chance to see NXT Superstar and NBC’s Titans Games first female champion, @ivynile_wwe in action on Saturday, February 11th in Texas City at the World Gym Arena.”
WWE NXT working with ROW makes all the sense in the world. Not only does Booker T have a long relationship with WWE but he’s currently part of the commentary team for NXT every week. NXT Women’s Champion Roxanne Perez also trained at Reality of Wrestling, and it showed, as Booker T got emotional when Perez won the NXT Women’s Championship.
It remains to be seen if this type of crossover will occur with other companies outside of ROW, but this is a rather big step and something that seemed like a pipe dream just a year ago.
What other crossovers would you like to see happen? Let us know in the comments or as always you can talk all things wrestling with me on Twitter @MattAguilarCB!
