{"id":370254,"date":"2026-07-22T16:58:42","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T11:28:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/?p=370254"},"modified":"2026-07-22T16:58:42","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T11:28:42","slug":"former-tna-world-champion-mike-santana-makes-surprise-wwe-nxt-appearance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebiztoday.news\/index.php\/2026\/07\/22\/former-tna-world-champion-mike-santana-makes-surprise-wwe-nxt-appearance\/","title":{"rendered":"Former TNA World Champion Mike Santana Makes Surprise WWE NXT Appearance"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
\n<\/source><\/source><\/picture>\n TNA<\/span>\n <\/div>\n
\n

Former TNA World Champion Mike Santana made his first post-TNA appearance, showing as much as the WWE Performance Center at the top of “WWE NXT” on Tuesday, following NXT Champion Tony D’Angelo retaining his gold over Naraku.<\/p>\n

Santana’s music hit as D’Angelo was posing on the ropes, after taking down Naraku with a Dead to Rights through a table for the victory of their street fight. Santana got here through the gang to stare down the champion within the ring because the show went off the air.<\/p>\n

The star lost the TNA World title to Nic Nemeth at TNA Slammiversary. Shortly after the pay-per-view, reports suggested Santana had finished up with the corporate, and was likely headed to WWE. Other reports indicated Santana is well-liked backstage on the Performance Center, as he’s worked with “NXT” before, through TNA’s partnership with WWE’s developmental brand established initially of last yr.<\/p>\n

Notably, Booker T and Vic Joseph on commentary didn’t say Santana’s name, and WWE posted to X (formerly Twitter)<\/a> that a “latest face” had shown up, alongside the video of Santana’s debut. WWE has been changing stars’ ring names as they move into “NXT,” with EVIL becoming Naraku and Nikki Blackheart becoming Reina Volcan in recent memory.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/article><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TNA Former TNA World Champion Mike Santana made his first post-TNA appearance, showing as much as the WWE Performance Center at the top of “WWE NXT” on Tuesday, following NXT Champion Tony D’Angelo retaining his gold over Naraku. Santana’s music hit as D’Angelo was posing on the ropes, after taking down Naraku with a Dead […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":370255,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[338],"tags":[3149,1470,2561,13883,15883,3013,14959,813,6221],"class_list":["post-370254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-appearance","tag-champion","tag-mike","tag-nxt","tag-santana","tag-surprise","tag-tna","tag-world","tag-wwe"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t