Report: WWE Free Agents In NXT Were Planned In Advance
Wrestlers utilizing status to travel between brands, but there's apparently a plan.
When the WWE draft wrapped up last month, several wrestlers went undrafted by Raw or SmackDown and were left labelled "free agents," which seemed like a cop-out of sorts. But it looks like there might have been a plan for it after all.
Mustafa Ali and Baron Corbin arrived on NXT last week, interjecting themselves into the show. Tuesday night, both were victorious in matches, with Ali defeating Joe Gacy, and Corbin toppling Trick Williams. Ali already is scheduled to be involved in a six-man tag match next week, joining Wes Lee and Tyler Bate to face the Schism, while Corbin is slated to face Ilja Dragunov.
Fightful Select reports that there have been tentative plans in place for a while for both superstars to work in NXT, which is why they were tagged as free agents during the draft. That's certainly a departure from previous years where undrafted superstars were haphazardly labelled free agents. This time, there seems to be a plan to it.
Several NXT wrestlers reportedly have requested to work with Mustafa, and Ali was happy to oblige, according to Fightful. The aim here is to boost interest in the developmental brand and allow the experience main roster mainstays to assess the talent they work with while giving the developmental wrestlers more experience.
None of the other main roster free agents -- such as Omos, Shelton Benjamin, Elias and Dolph Ziggler -- have appeared yet in NXT since the draft.
Both Ali and Corbin have also remained active on the main roster, with Mustafa challenging unsuccessfully for the Intercontinental Championship against Gunther at Night of Champions, and Baron scheduled to have a Money in the Bank qualifying match on SmackDown this week.