Former WWE Superstar Commander Azeez (also known as Babatunde), made his debut for Major League Wrestling at Thursday’s MLW One Shot event from NYC.
Now going by the name Babathunder, he battled Mads Krugger at the event before joining forces with him. The clash of the powerhouses concluded with Babathunder passing out to a rear naked choke. Afterwrds, Krugger gave the Babathunder an ultimatum to leave in a body bag or join CONTRA Unit as a mercenary. Babathunder responded “Hail CONTRA” which indicated that is now a part of the faction.
Babatunde had joined WWE back in April 2016 and was part of NXT until 2020. Following that, he made WWE his Raw debut as part of the Raw Underground brand where he was known as Dabba-Kato. He also went by the name of Commander Azeez when he was associated with Apollo Crews during the latter’s WWE Intercontinental Championship reign. However, Babatunde was later released last year.
During an interview with Developmentally Speaking, the former Dabba-Kato had reflected on his WWE release.He was asked whether he was surprised but he said that his contract was expiring anyway. He said:
“I think I kind of sensed it. My contract was coming to an end anyway. We already had conversations long before it was close to that. Now, we came pretty close, I started pushing stuff and I could feel there was nothing great planned for me. You get that feeling and I had that feeling the day was going to come. I lived through so many cuts. It happened to so many guys before me. You can prepare yourself a little bit for it. You can prepare yourself financially and mentally, which I didn’t think would be as hard as it was.”
Since his release, he has mostly competed in the independent scene. Prior to his debut in MLW, he had challenged DCCW Heavyweight Champion Hobo Hank at DCCW No Way Around but he was unsuccessful.
