Who Is NXT's Tony D'Angelo
NXT heralded the impending arrival of a former NCAA wrestler.
With last night's NXT serving up the debuts of several new talents, audiences also got a vignette promoting the 'coming soon' arrival of Tony D'Angelo.
Portrayed as a Chicago mobster of sorts, whose family are in "waste management", D'Angelo talked up his amateur wrestling background and said he's heading to NXT as that's where the "real money" is.
For those wondering about the background of this new character, Tony D'Angelo is Joe Ariola, a former NCAA wrestler. So, when D'Angelo mentioned his amateur background, that's very much legit.
An undefeated state and national champion during high school, Ariola - as D'Angelo told us - then wrestled for the University of Buffalo, where he qualified for the NCAA tournament in 2016.
Joe Ariola was one of several prospects signed by WWE in February and sent to the Performance Center, and it looks like he'll soon be seen in-ring on NXT television. As and when his in-ring debut takes place, that's yet to be announced, but one would imagine Tony D'Angelo will show up at some point in next week or two.
Elsewhere, this NXT offering also featured the debuts of Bron Beakker (Bronson Rechsteiner), Von Wagner (Cal Bloom), Brooks Jensen (Ben Buchanan), Trick Williams (Matrick Belton) and Ivy Nile (Emily Andzulis). While Beakker, Wagner and Jensen wrestled on this inaugural NXT 2.0 show, Williams was introduced as the new partner of Carmelo Hayes, whilst Vile is the latest addition to Diamond Mine.