During Wednesday night’s AEW Dynamite, former NXT Superstar Roderick Strong made his debut. Strong came out to help Adam Cole, Orange Cassidy and Bandido fight off members of the Jericho Appreciation Society.
According to Fightful Select, the AEW talents they spoke with were “pleasantly surprised” that Strong signed with the company.
It was also said that the newest information was that 2K Games had been told not to include Strong in the “WWE 2K23” video game and that WWE talent were never given any updates on his status with the company. Strong had not been seen at the WWE Performance Center “in quite some time” even though he was medically cleared to wrestle. Fightful Select further noted that Strong’s run in WWE started a downward slide when Paul Levesque lost power in NXT, as he was a supporter of Strong and giving him push as the center of the cruiserweight division.
Strong reportedly had requested his release from WWE in May 2022. He had not seen on NXT television since last August. As of mid-March, he was reportedly still under contract with WWE for the NXT brand.
Strong and Adam Cole will team up with Bandido and AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy to take on the Jericho Appreciation Society, in a huge 8-Man Tag Team Match on next week’s episode of AEW Dynamite.