WWE’s NXT 2.0 saw the debut of a number of promising young stars from the WWE Performance Center. Early on in the show Pete Dunne and Ridge Holland attacked Kyle O’Reilly backstage, forcing him to be pulled from the NXT Championship four-way match later in the night. O’Reilly was eventually saved by Von Wagner, real name Cal Bloom and the son of Wayne Bloom (one half of the Beverly Brothers in the WWF). Wagner was added into the NXT Championship match by William Regal, though Tommaso Ciampa wound up winning the vacated title.
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Putting a wrestler in an NXT Championship match in his television debut came as a shock to many fans, though WWE apparently has massive plans for him. The 6-foot-4 former collegiate football player has been training at the WWE PC since 2019 and, according to WrestlingNews.co, WWE officials see him as a potential WrestleMania main eventer.
“Everyone is comparing him to a young Edge. He is rough around the edges but he has something and Vince thinks he can be a big deal but it will take some time,” one source told the outlet, while another said, “Vince sees him as a future WrestleMania main eventer. That should tell you everything about his future here.”
Wagner’s push, while unexpected, fits right in with what WWE president Nick Khan said the future of the brand will be during a recent interview with Ariel Helwani.
“We are doing a complete revamp on NXT, led by Triple H, who is really one of the architects of the original NXT. What we found — it’s part of why we did the tryout yesterday — what we want to make sure is easy for folks who want to be WWE Superstars, is figuring out how to become WWE Superstars,” Khan said.
“In terms of an NXT re-brand, look for it in the next couple of weeks. It’s going to have a whole new look, it’s going to have a whole new feel — and we believe — because of a lot of the indie wrestlers, if you will, have come through our system and are in our system with SmackDown and Raw now. We don’t want to just keep doing that same thing, we want to look elsewhere for great, young talent,” he continued.
What did you think of Wagner’s first performance? Let us know in the comments below!
