Who is Nick Wayne? Meet the 18-year old debutant on AEW Dynamite
Nick Wayne became the talk of the town when Tony Khan signed him to compete at AEW last year. Since signing with the promotion, many had been waiting for Wayne's debut. This wait finally ended as Wayne made his debut on Dynamite in a match against Swerve Strickland.
Aged 18, Wayne became the youngest man to compete in AEW. However, that meant nothing as he put on a great performance against his 32-year-old opponent. Even though Wayne lost the match, he looked very good and earned the appreciation of fans, and his boss Tony Khan.
While Wayne worked very hard for his debut, one can also say he is gifted. The 18-year-old AEW superstar is a third generation wrestler and has trained under his father Buddy Wayne. Nick's talent mixed with his father's knowledge and instructions have led to the former achieving success at a young age.
Wayne's first official match in wrestling came at the tender age of 18 where he faced Carl Randers in a match that ended in No Contest. Since then, till the age of 16, Wayne took the independent wrestling scene by storm. He wrestled for various promotions like GCW and Defy Wrestling before being signed by AEW.
Congratulations! What a great debut tonight on Wednesday Night #AEWDynamite, and now it's official: @thenickwayne is All Elite! https://t.co/3NJPBtqCPR
In his very young professional wrestling career till now, Nick Wayne has won the GCW Tag Titles with Jordan Oliver, and was also the DEFY World Champion. The 18-year-old was also a 5CC World Champion. Taking into account the career he has had so far, Wayne can go on to achieve big things in wrestling.
Darby Allin came up with Nick Wayne's intro video
Before Nick Wayne made his much anticipated AEW Debut, an introduction video featuring him was played for fans to watch last week. In the video, fans got to know about Wayne, and his journey to AEW. This intro video received a lot of appreciation on social media.
The mind behind making an introduction video for Wayne was Darby Allin. In an interview, the former TNT Champion revealed that he did not want Wayne to be presented as a random guy. Speaking about the same, Allin said:
"I went up to Tony [Khan] and said, 'I have this idea and I want to present Nick in a way where I make a video package for him so people can get to know him before he wrestles and just not throw him out there as a random guy, but have a backstory.'"
Allin further spoke about his love for presenting wrestlers and wrestling. He added:
"That's all I've ever wanted in life," Allin confessed. "Not just wrestling, but life, just the opportunity to do something with myself. It's cool when you have someone like Tony Khan, who has a national television company and is letting you take the ball and run with it." [H/T Wrestling INC]
Backstage, Wayne will be grateful to Allin for creating a video that added more purpose to his debut. Now that Nick Wayne has officially stepped into AEW, it will be interesting to see where his career goes from here.