It was reported some months ago that Killian Dain could be reporting back to WWE NXT. Judging by the latest episodes, those reports are true.
In light of the Superstar Shake-Up, resident crazy stable and former NXT Tag Team Champs, Sanity, were split across different WWE brands after spending about a year on SmackDown Live as a unit. Eric Young went to Raw – where, apart from a clobbering from Seth Rollins, he’s been mostly absent from – while Alexander Wolfe was drafted to NXT UK, the latter making his debut on the British black and gold brand mere weeks ago as a member of WALTER’s Imperium.
Meanwhile, Killian Dain’s whereabouts have been unknown until recently.
Back in May, The Wrestling Observer had reported that plans were in place from WWE for Dain to report back to the original black and gold brand. This time, for a singles run. Since the last couple episodes of NXT have featured hype packages for the return of Killian Dain, it’s safe to say that those rumored plans are true now.
While his entire WWE career thus far has seen the heavyweight attached to Sanity as their big muscle, anyone who has seen Dain’s pre-WWE run as Big Damo – particularly in ICW where he was a World Heavyweight Champion, or in Defiant Wrestling (then WCPW) where he was the brand’s first World Champion – knows that he has what it takes to succeed on his own.
Not only does a singles run in NXT provide a heap of potential for the big man, but it also opens the door for some promising feuds to take place down the line on the black and gold brand. Here are just some potential feuds.
5. Kushida
If you have been watching NXT recently, you may have seen that the former face of the NJPW Junior Heavyweight division, Kushida, has arrived on the yellow brand. It was reported that one reason why Kushida left NJPW was because he wanted to do something more with his career than be a staple of the Junior Heavyweight division. It seems like he wanted to move on to the Heavyweight division to take on guys like Hiroshi Tanahashi.
WWE seem to respect that urge for more from The Timesplitter and so far continue to throw the biggest opponents they can find at him. Kushida’s first feud was against the new Cruiserweight Champion, Drew Gulak – to be fair, with both men being submission specialists, it is just a feud that always made sense on paper and wrote itself – but his debut match saw him take on a near 300-pounder in Kassius Ohno. Not only that, but the 192-pounder conquered the behemoth.
If Kushida were to move on from one behemoth to another, it could do a lot to showcase the Tokyo native as a sort of Beastslayer, even if the moniker itself has been taken. In turn, demolishing such a pure babyface fan favorite in Dain could do a lot to establish him early as a monster heel, something that NXT is in a shortage of (apart from new blood like Bronson Reed and Damian Priest who still need to be built up).
It’s a win-win for everyone involved.
4. Matt Riddle
Ever since joining NXT – and even prior to the start of his WWE career – Matt Riddle has preached about his desire to conquer Brock Lesnar in The Beast’s retirement match at WrestleMania. It would be absolutely insane if after all of these years, Riddle’s prophetic prediction actually comes to fruition. But first, he must prove that he has what it takes to slay a beast before he can slay The Beast.
Apart from Kassius Ohno – who he discarded with ease at TakeOver WarGames II – Riddle has yet to be challenged by a much heavier challenger since Brock Lesnar outweigh Riddle by 60+ pounds, The Bro is going to need to rack up some wins against some monstrous challengers before the general public can buy into Riddle doing what so few men have done in the past decade: slay The Beast.
Putting a man the size of The Beast of Belfast – who actually outweighs Lesnar by nearly 40lbs – in Riddle’s way as an obstacle should do the trick. Even if the former UFC fighter were to lose to the Belfast native, Riddle still has an opportunity to look great enough to make for a believable challenger for Lesnar down the road to those less familiar with Riddle’s MMA background. Plus, Dain gets a big win on his way back to NXT.
And if Riddle wins, then he’s slayed his first beast before moving on to a bigger Beast. Again, a win-win situation.
3. Keith Lee
The only thing more fun to watch than a Beast vs Beastslayer encounter is pitting one beast against another beast. For Killian Dain, that other beast could be Keith Lee.
Lee’s WWE career first began about this time last year in the summer of 2018. Thanks to his deceiving agility and freakish athleticism, The Limitless One was touted early to have a mountain of potential on his back. Unfortunately, his NXT run so far has been less than memorable. The only notable thing he’s done is have a not-so-hot one-sided feud with Kona Reeves and lose his first big match against Lars Sullivan.
He has yet to appear on an actual TakeOver card – the oddball pre-show match taped for NXT TV doesn’t count – and spent a couple months on the shelf, which set his momentum back even further. A big hoss rivalry against Killian Dain could be enough to set The Limitless One’s momentum straight. Just because, well, everyone loves a big hoss match. Hard not to get excited at the thought of two giant dudes – incredibly agile dudes at that – slamming into each other.
Not only could this lead to a hot feud and some necessary momentum for both men, the matches could be super fun.
2. Johnny Gargano
An argument can be made for Gargano being one of the best in-ring storytellers in the game right now. He is one of the few competitors on the WWE roster – and quite frankly, in all of wrestling – to have the unique ability to have a great match with anybody and nine times out of ten, that match winds up being an instant classic. Matches he’s had in the past year alone against the likes of Adam Cole, Ricochet, and then of course Tommaso Ciampa are some prime examples.
I think he could put on another classic with someone like Killian Dain, despite the obvious clash of size and style. Not just because Johnny Wrestling is that good of a wrestler, but because they actually have produced such compelling action inside of a ring in the past already.
Onscreen, Gargano and Dain have only ever faced off in a fatal four way match on NXT TV back at the very end of 2017, but have wrestled one-on-one numerous times at untelevised house shows. Going off of pure word of mouth, these match proved to be a beauty to behold; they were well received by fans in the crowd. Now, it’s finally time for these two bring that magic to the big stage on television.
And now, last but not least, the proverbial face of NXT himself. The top champion at the helm of the black and gold brand: Adam Cole, bay bay.
Another incredible wrestler in his own right and one of – arguably the – best heel sitting underneath the WWE banner, Cole is at his very best when he is playing a coward. Someone terribly afraid of his opponent, but somehow – by hook, by crook, by cheating, or with help – finds a way to weasel a victory for himself. He’s also tremendous at selling, especially for much bigger competitors, as showcased best in his NXT Championship match against Drew McIntyre.
Both of these strengths would come in handy in a title feud against Killian Dain. Of course, since The Beast of Belfast likely isn’t going to get a top title match immediately on his way back to NXT, this will have to be a plan for later down the line. But if Dain is built up right from the start and booked well as a singles star, this very well could be a potential TakeOver headliner in the future.
Just imagine the sight of Dain manhandling Cole up and down the ring, then flinging all of his Undisputed Era partners left and right whenever they try to interfere. Imagine the panic droop down over the NXT Champion’s face when it looks like his title run is nearing out of his grasp. It all could make for a truly awesome sight.