{"id":326176,"date":"2026-04-29T07:45:51","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T02:15:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=326176"},"modified":"2026-04-29T07:45:51","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T02:15:51","slug":"former-iwgp-heavyweight-champion-evil-debuts-in-wwe-nxt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/04\/29\/former-iwgp-heavyweight-champion-evil-debuts-in-wwe-nxt\/","title":{"rendered":"Former IWGP Heavyweight Champion EVIL Debuts In WWE NXT"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"content\">\n<article class=\"news-post\">\n<div class=\"news-article\">\n<div class=\"slide-key image-holder gallery-image-holder credit-image-wrap lead-image-holder\" data-post-url=\"https:\/\/www.wrestlinginc.com\/2159888\/former-iwgp-heavyweight-champion-evil-debuts-wwe-nxt\/\" data-post-title=\"Former IWGP Heavyweight Champion EVIL Debuts In WWE NXT\" data-slide-num=\"0\" data-post-id=\"2159888\">\n<picture id=\"p8a58ec25ed830a2e259044e9fc334ada\"><source media=\"(min-width: 429px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wrestlinginc.com\/img\/gallery\/former-iwgp-heavyweight-champion-evil-debuts-in-wwe-nxt\/intro-1777424552.webp\" type=\"image\/webp\"><source media=\"(max-width: 428px)\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wrestlinginc.com\/img\/gallery\/former-iwgp-heavyweight-champion-evil-debuts-in-wwe-nxt\/intro-1777424552.sm.webp\" type=\"image\/webp\"><\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n                    <span class=\"gallery-image-credit\">Etsuo Hara\/Getty Images<\/span>\n                    <\/div>\n<div class=\"columns-holder \">\n<p dir=\"ltr\">With a batch of names moving as much as WWE&#8217;s fundamental roster, an influx of recent ones has now flooded that of &#8220;WWE NXT.&#8221; This includes former IWGP Heavyweight Champion EVIL.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Following reports of him inking a contract with WWE, EVIL marked his WWE debut by confronting NXT Champion Tony D&#8217;Angelo on tonight&#8217;s edition of &#8220;NXT.&#8221; D&#8217;Angelo cut a promo asserting himself because the constant of WWE&#8217;s developmental brand. Moreover, he claimed that there was no competitor tough enough to kick him off the &#8220;NXT&#8221; mountain top. Cue EVIL, who approached D&#8217;Angelo through a wave of fog and flashing lights.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Donning a heavy black robe, EVIL handed the reigning champion a shirt inscribed with Japanese text. After a temporary staredown with D&#8217;Angelo, EVIL then left the ring. &#8220;NXT&#8221; commentator Vic Joseph acknowledged the 39-year-old as a &#8220;former IWGP Heavyweight Champion,&#8221; along with his shirt given to D&#8217;Angelo being up for debate as a present of &#8220;pure admiration&#8221; or &#8220;pure evil.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">Provided that neither Joseph nor Booker T directly referred to EVIL by his NJPW name tonight, it&#8217;s unclear which ring name he&#8217;ll perform under in &#8220;NXT&#8221; future appearances. EVIL left Recent Japan Pro-Wrestling earlier this 12 months after his contract with the corporate expired. His last NJPW match got here in the shape of an eight-man tag motion at NJPW Road To The Recent Starting on January 20.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\">EVIL wasn&#8217;t the one talent to send a message to D&#8217;Angelo on &#8220;NXT&#8221; as former No Quarter Catch Crew member Tavion Heights attacked him from behind. English wrestler Will Kroos followed with a moonsault to the champion immediately afterward.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/article><\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Etsuo Hara\/Getty Images With a batch of names moving as much as WWE&#8217;s fundamental roster, an influx of recent ones has now flooded that of &#8220;WWE NXT.&#8221; This includes former IWGP Heavyweight Champion EVIL. Following reports of him inking a contract with WWE, EVIL marked his WWE debut by confronting NXT Champion Tony D&#8217;Angelo on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":326177,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21056],"tags":[1470,641,5087,1097,40093,13883,6221],"class_list":["post-326176","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wwe-and-more","tag-champion","tag-debuts","tag-evil","tag-heavyweight","tag-iwgp","tag-nxt","tag-wwe"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326176","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326176"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326176\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":326179,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326176\/revisions\/326179"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/326177"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326176"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326176"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326176"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}