WWE cut several people from the NXT brand on Wednesday and some releases were more surprising than others. The locker room was pretty floored when NXT decided to fire EJ Nduka.
During Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer explained how so many in NXT were shocked that Ezra Judge was released as part of the Wednesday cuts. Now EJ Nduka is no longer on the WWE NXT roster despite having so many incredible tools to become a top Superstar.
“EJ Nduka was a surprise for everybody. He had been with the company for like 20 months. The guy was like… if you could build a wrestler […] this would be like f*cking Lex Luger, if you could build a wrestler Lex Leger beats Randy Orton, you know what I mean? As far as from the ground up, I mean this guy was a champion, I mean like a high level professional bodybuilder. He won national championships in bodybuilding. Legit six-foot-six, billed at six-foot-eight — 285 pounds — 42 inch legit vertical jump, that was from the NFL combine, you know? So, I mean as far as size, body, look you couldn’t ask for me.”
“People were stunned. There may have been, I mean there had to have been — I mean this guy’s taller than Strowman, he’s got a body like Lex Luger — better than Lex Luger, because Lex could never win a national championship […] as far as, you know guys like that there aren’t a lot of guys like that in this world and they salivate over guys like that. Even if he wasn’t progressing, they have kept guys with far less potential. I don’t know if it was a discipline issue, I don’t know what it is, but I do know that people were stunned by him.”
It was theorized that there might have been something with behavioral issues, but that wasn’t confirmed. At this time the NXT locker room is still a bit stunned that WWE cut someone with such untapped potential.
In the meantime, the former NXT Superstar isn’t losing sight on getting back to WWE. He sent out tweets saying that the grind will continue and he promised to be back in WWE.
Who was the most surprising NXT release so far? Sound off in the comments!