VIDEO: Released NXT Star Appears On AEW Dynamite

A familiar face. Back in April, WWE released a ton of wrestlers from their contracts in the span of a few days. Dozens of performers were suddenly gone from the company and the question became where they would wind up next. There were names from both the main rosters and NXT, which opened up a lot of doors for some surprise moves. We now might have seen one of them.

One of the best things about NXT is how many wrestlers they have picked up from around the world. There are wrestlers from several different countries on the roster, offering quite a bit of flavor to pick from. That can make for some unique setups as you would see wrestlers who weren’t as well known as others getting a chance on the big stage. Some of them were released in April, but one of them seems to have landed a new gig.

During this week’s AEW Dynamite, former NXT wrestler Cezar Bononi was seen in the crowd during a brawl between Hikaru Shida and Penelope Ford. Bononi was not mentioned by name and there was no reference made to him. Bononi wrestled in NXT from 2015-2020 and won the Future Star Of NXT Award in 2017. He was released from his contract on April 17, 2020. There is no word on if Bononi has been signed by AEW or if he will appear going forward.

It was a surprise appearance. Check out how it went down:

Opinion: It’s very good to see someone getting another shot (in theory) on the big stage as Bononi had some potential while he was in NXT. I’m not sure how big of a star he was going to become but with his size and look, it makes a lot of sense to give him the chance. Bononi could be someone in AEW, even if that is for a short time and only in some lower level appearances. It’s better than not appearing, right?

What did you think of Bononi’s time in NXT? Who else would you like to see signed? Let us know in the comments below.

Thomas Hall has been a wrestling fan for over thirty years and has seen over 50,000 wrestling matches. He has also been a wrestling reviewer since 2009 with over 5,000 full shows covered. You can find his work at kbwrestlingreviews.com, or check out his- Amazon author page with 30 wrestling books. Get the latest and greatest in professional wrestling news by signing up for our daily email newsletter. Just look below for “GET EXCLUSIVE UPDATES” to sign up. Thank you for reading!