NXT talents make dark match debuts

Recent NXT signees, Trevor Lee and Shane Strickland, both made their NXT Full Sail debuts in a dark match before this Wednesday’s set of tapings.

Former independent wrestling stars, Trevor Lee and Shane Strickland, both stepped into a Full Sail ring for the first time on Wednesday (May 1), in a pre-show dark match much to the delight of the NXT fans.

Lee, signed in February of this year, is a Hardy Boyz trainee and has been a regular for independent companies like PWG and AAW for years. “The Carolina Caveman” has been working matches on the Florida house show loop but had not yet appeared at Full Sail until Wednesday.

Strickland, signed in April, is a former Lucha Underground, EVOLVE, Defy and MLW regular. “The King Of Swerve” has been known as one of the biggest workhorses on the indie scene in the past few years and is likely to bring that rabid energy to NXT TV sooner rather than later. Strickland also made his Full Sail debut on Wednesday, taking on Lee.

The two apparently did not have a taped match, however. It appeared to be a dark match to get the crowd excited before the actual tapings began. Lee came away with the win but look for both men to make a huge impact in NXT whenever they make their television debuts.

We have seen other NXT talents like Punishment Martinez and Lio Rush have these kind of dark matches before so this should show that Lee and Strickland might be getting worked into the NXT TV system soon.

Another debuting duo made it to the television-taping portion of Wednesday’s event. Scott Parker and Big Magic, known as 3.0, took on Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel in tag-team action. Aichner and Barthel picked up the win.