WWE officials will be getting a closer look at more NXT stars this week.
PWinsider.com reports Dakota Kai, Io Shirai, LA Knight, and Roderick Strong are all slated to be at this Friday’s WWE SmackDown TV event from the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, MO. It’s likely they will be working dark matches as WWE has done this in the past with various NXT stars.
Last week at SmackDown in Nashville, TN, Knight, and Strong wrestled a dark match against each other with Knight going over. Last night at Raw, Knight wrestled Cedric Alexander while T-BAR was Strong’s opponent for this week’s episode of WWE Main Event.
There’s been speculation that Strong could be on his way out of the company as he and his wife Marina Shafir recently launched a Pro Wrestling Tees. Also, Strong has been on a losing streak on TV as of late as he dropped the NXT Cruiserweight Title to Carmelo Hayes at New Year’s Evil and lost a match to Gunther (WALTER). Combine that with WWE wanting to push younger stars in NXT and Strong being older, there is concern among fans his time in WWE could be coming to an end if WWE officials are not interested in using him on the main roster.
Strong did sign a new contract in early 2021, but he is also a Triple H hire and most of the recent cuts were people who were considered to be Triple H guys.
