After a month full of speculation former Ring Of Honor World Heavyweight Champion Roderick Strong finally made his NXT debut during the October 13th TV tapings.
WWE announced the arrival of the ROH veteran to their development territory via the following statement as seen on WWE.com:
Roderick Strong debuts in NXT
ORLANDO, Fla. — Roderick Strong has arrived in NXT, and he’s ready to break some backs.
The independent wrestling scene standout and former world champion, known as “The Messiah of the Backbreaker,” made his debut between the yellow ropes Thursday at a taping of the WWE Network show at Full Sail University.
Strong’s surprise arrival continues to show that NXT is the premier destination for the hottest free agents in sports-entertainment.
For more on Strong’s debut in NXT, stick with WWE.com and tune into WWE NXT every Wednesday at 8/7 C on WWE Network.
Although the company did not reveal the circumstances of the debut of Strong, multiple sources are reporting that he teamed up with Austin Aries during a first round matchup of Dusty Rhodes' Tag Team Classic Tournament.
This reunited team who won the ROH Tag Team Championships back in 2005 defeated the team of Otis Bogojevic & Tucker Knight to advance in the tournament.
As we noted before, Roderick apparently inked a deal with WWE sometimes back in July this year, and the company was probably looking for a right opportunity to introduce him to the folks at Full Sail University.
Roderick Strong made his wrestling debut back in 2000 in a wrestling promotion dubbed as Independent Professional Wrestling.
After making an impact on the independent circuit, Strong made his ROH debut in 2003 and wrestled for them for 13 long years before ending his run with the company this past June.
During his stint with the independent promotion, Roderick became a two-time ROH World Television Champion while also winning the ROH World heavyweight Championship once.
Interestingly, the former World Champion also won the ROH Tag Team Championships once with his current partner Austin Aries back in December 2005 as a part of the Generation Next faction.
During his long run with ROH, the newest NXT star has earned the legend states in the company and has competed against many future WWE stars such as CM Punk, AJ Styles, Cesaro and Daniel Bryan.
Apart from this, the former ROH star also had brief runs with several Japan-based wrestling promotions and has also made a handful of appearances for WWE's rival promotion TNA.
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