The trend of WWE bringing in NXT talent to TV events to work dark matches continued on Friday night at SmackDown as a way to get a better look at them ahead of potential main roster call-ups.
Pwinsider.com reports NXT Champion Karrion Kross, Toni Storm, Shotzi Blackheart, and Odyssey Jones were all brought to the show. The matches were Kross vs. Cesaro, Jones vs. Robert Roode, and Storm vs. Blackheart.
Jones, a former college football player, signed in the same February 2019 WWE Performance Center Class that included Reed, Mei Ying, Rachael Ellering, Jordan Myles, Cameron Grimes, Ever-Rise, Dexter Lumis, Nick Comoroto, Brendan Vink, and Ricardo Miller.
He is formerly known as Omari Palmer. He made his NXT in-ring debut at a November 2019 live event where he lost to Lumis and only worked 5 matches after that then the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
This comes at a time where Kross, Scarlett, Blackheart and former NXT North American Champion Bronson Reed have been brought to recent TV events for WWE officials to check out.
Three weeks ago, Kross wrestled Dolph Ziggler at SmackDown while Reed wrestled Roode that same night. The following Monday, Kross and Reed worked the WWE Main Event TV episode where Kross defeated Shelton Benjamin and Reed defeated Drew Gulak. That same week, Scarlett and Blackheart wrestled each other at SmackDown while Kross wrestled Slapjack. Finally, this past Monday, Kross, Scarlett and Blackheart were brought back to Raw to work matches.