Isaiah “Swerve” Scott is a name NXT can build around
The NXT will soon be leaving Wednesday for Tuesday nights and, as a goodbye, decided to give the wrestling fans two big events with NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver. The NXT Takeover special and it did exactly that when it comes to what fans got to see in the middle of the ring.
Night one of the Takeover specials featured a Gauntlet Eliminator match that would determine a challenger to Johnny Gargano’s North American Championship. The winner of the match was Bronson Reed, but the true MVP of the match was Isaiah “Swerve” Scott, who seemed to have the match secured, but Reed would hit a huge splash that would put Scott down. In this article, I will be discussing Scott and his journey to where he is now.
Stephon Strickland was born on September 30th, 1990, and is known under the NXT ring name Isaiah Scott. Scott has been wrestling professionally for nine years now. He made his wrestling debut in Combat Zone Wrestling in 2012. While in CZW, he was able to capture the CZW Wired Championship and would eventually go on to capture the CZW World Heavyweight championship and hold on to the belt for four months.
Scott would continue making waves on the independent scene when he would leave CZW for Evolve, where he would enter a feud with Matt Riddle and win the Evolve Championship. Isaiah’s rise to the top in professional wrestling has been filled with nothing but praise because of the level of wrestling he brings every time he steps in a ring.
When Scott debuted in Lucha Underground under the ring name Killshot, it was a unique chance for him that showed he could play a character that could connect with the Lucha Underground crowd. Killshot would achieve success when he would become a Lucha Underground Trios Champion with Big Ryck and The Mack. Before coming to WWE, Stephon Strickland would make one more stop, and that was when he would debut in Major League Wrestling and win the top prize in the company, the MLW World heavyweight championship.
Scott signed with the WWE NXT brand in 2019 and has been in some good matches, but these past weeks, Takeover was when we truly got to see him shine. The NXT brand is different from RAW and Smackdown because it gives wrestlers who can wrestle the chance to shine. Scott would be the perfect person to win the North American championship because a feud with Johnny Gargano would be what Scott needs to be taken to the next level in NXT.
The NXT brand needs to start building up the next stars in NXT so that when the huge stars now get called up, they can easily be replaced. Now is Scott’s time to become the NXT brand’s MVP and allow him to be the star he was in MLW and Lucha Underground. With WrestleMania being this weekend, the WWE reset will happen Monday, which means news stars will rise, and fresh feuds will start. The NXT brand will probably be hit the hardest, which means a new door will be open for a future star. That is where Scott comes in, builds him up, and starts getting him big wins on some of NXT’s most popular superstars.
Next. Three things done right at NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver. dark
NXT is where wrestlers who come from other wrestling companies can go and be themselves and still wrestle the type of matches they wrestled on the independent scene. The move to Tuesday nights means that NXT can get back to focusing on being the best company without having to compete with what AEW is doing. The NXT brand always delivered good wrestling that made sense on Wednesday night, and hopefully, that continues on Tuesday nights. Isaiah Scott could be the wrestler that leads NXT into its next chapter.