Top NXT Star Pulled From Last Night's WWE Raw
As if Big E's WWE Title win wasn't enough, last night's Raw almost saw a surprise NXT appearance.
Samoa Joe was originally scheduled to appear on last night's episode of WWE Raw, report Fightful Select, who state that the now-former NXT Champion was part of the show's original script.
The three-hour broadcast ended up passing without Joe showing up. While there's no word on the precise nature of his planned role on the night, it is believed that it would have related to NXT's reboot tonight.
Some performers had been heard internal rumours of Joe showing up on Raw at the time of the original report's publication.
The past few days have been eventful for Joe, who announced on Sunday that he was vacating the NXT Championship after suffering an undisclosed injury. Claiming that he would be out of action for an indefinite period of time, Joe said that NXT's new era demanded a fighting champion, thus ending his third developmental title reign after three weeks.
Joe defeated Karrion Kross to reclaim the NXT Championship at TakeOver 36 on 22 August. This was the veteran's first match since February 2020, when injury issues forced him onto the sidelines for 18 months (a period that saw him released by WWE then re-hired two months later).