Booker T makes massive announcement about non-WWE star who recently appeared on NXT
A non-WWE star who recently appeared on NXT is set to make an appearance at another promotion. Booker T confirmed this with a massive announcement.
Joe Hendry is one of the most popular stars in TNA at the moment. He is also a fan favorite due to his popular gimmick and catchy entrance music. Hendry has managed to become a household name in recent months and even caught the attention of the WWE Universe.
Hence, Hendry has made a few appearances on NXT earlier this year. He even competed for the NXT Championship at No Mercy 2024 against Ethan Page. He is now set to make an appearance for another wrestling promotion.
Speaking on his Hall of Fame podcast, Booker T confirmed that Joe Hendry will be making an appearance for a Reality of Wrestling show this Sunday. Booker also confirmed that Moose and Hank and Tank from NXT will also make appearances for ROW this weekend.
"Joe Hendry is going to be stepping inside the Reality of Wrestling for the first time at Walker Texas Lawyer arena. Moose will be making his return from TNA back to Reality of Wrestling. Hank and Tank will be making an appearance from NXT at Reality of Wrestling." [4:27 - 4:47]
Booker T commented on ROW being a part of the WWE ID program
Over the past few years, WWE has been focused on developing new talent that the company could bring up to the main roster eventually. As a result, the promotion launched an NIL program which provided several college-level athletes an easier pathway to becoming a WWE Superstar.
The Stamford-based promotion is now trying to make this pathway simpler with the introduction of WWE ID - the company's Independent Development program which will aim to provide financial assistance, among other things, to select wrestling schools and wrestlers.
The first schools be get the WWE ID designation were Booker T's Reality of Wrestling, Cody Rhodes' Nightmare Factory, Seth Rollins' Black and Brave Academy, Elite Pro Wrestling Training Center, and KnokX Pro Academy.
Speaking on his Hall of Fame podcast, Booker T spoke about what it meant to get the WWE ID designation. He highlighted the effort that went into making this a possibility and noted his goal of helping the next generation of wrestlers. He also thanked everyone for supporting him in this journey.
"Many, many years we've been working on becoming a developmental program for WWE and never knew if it was ever gonna happen or not but we just kept grinding man. We just kept working, no matter what, day in and day out, we came in with that vision that perhaps, you know, and if not, we just going to keep trying to create the best we possibly can create and now 20 years, man, 20 years. That's why for me it's real. It's surreal as it possibly can be. I'm serious now in a position where we can really really help the next generation of young guys trying to get into this business as well as create a monster man and that is Reality of Wrestling." [6:02 - 7:06]
It will be interesting to see which independent wrestlers will get to be a part of this program.