Top 5 WWE Moments of the Week

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5. The Hottest Free Agents on the Indie’s Hit NXT

We’ve known for a while that both Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa made appearances on the previous set of NXT YV tapings. Until now, it wasn’t clear why they were there but now we know, as they’re part of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic.

We saw them on-screen on this week’s NXT alongside William Regal and Tyler Breeze. If you had any doubt what role the company was set to use them in, I think that became more than clear in the couple of minutes they were on-screen. Regal described them as “the hottest free agents in our entire industry.” There’s nothing like building them up to a new audience. Granted, a lot of the NXT crowd probably has a reasonably good idea of who the 2 of them are but the wider WWE Universe may very well not.

The pair of them are well-known on the indie circuit. Both have made a name for themselves around the world and are apparently the latest in the line of world-class indie stars to be linked with NXT.

Both men are no slouches between the ropes. Ciampa is the bruiser out of the pair with Gargano likening himself to Shawn Micheals in his younger years.

After the appearance on NXT, they had an exclusive interview with WWE.com. These 2 men could give a much-needed boost to the NXT roster. They’re set to face Breeze and Bull Dempsey in the first round of the tournament and I think they’ll do pretty well.

It is interesting to hear them described as having backgrounds on the “independent scene” rather than just being “stars around the world” much like Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens and Adrian Neville were when they debuted with the company. Is this the start of a new era for WWE? Much like Jushin Liger and Samoa Joe, they are now happy to have men wrestle for other companies as well as in the hottest company on TV right now.

Next: Dudley Boyz