News

Former WWE Raw Star Returns At NXT Vengeance Day (VIDEO)

By John Canton • Published 5th February 2023
WWE NXT vengeance day arena

A former WWE Raw star returned at NXT Vengeance Day to deliver a message to Apollo Crews following one of the biggest matches of the night.

At WWE NXT Vengeance Day on Saturday night, one of the most anticipated matches was a 2 out 3 Falls bout between Apollo Crews and Carmelo Hayes. Of the six matches that took place at Vengeance Day, it was the only match without a title on the line although it did serve as a bit of a number one contender’s match for the NXT Title.

Apollo Crews has been part of WWE for nearly nine years now as a guy that started on NXT that also had success on Raw & Smackdown while winning the United States & Intercontinental Titles.

In 2021, Crews turned heel for the first time in WWE by adapting the gimmick of a Nigerian Prince-like character that was accompanied by a big man name Commander Azeez, who is nearly a 7-footer that looks very intimidating.

With Commander Azeez by his side, Apollo Crews would go on to win the Intercontinental Title from Big E at WrestleMania 37 in a match that was billed as a Nigerian Drum Fight. Crews won thanks to the help of Azeez. Crews held the Intercontinental for 124 days when he lost it to Shinsuke Nakamura in August 2021. The alliance between Crews and Azeez fizzled out soon after that.

Crews was moved to the WWE NXT brand in June 2022 and Azeez was as well although he didn’t appear on television until Vengeance Day.

During the conclusion of the Crews-Hayes match at Vengeance Day, Azeez showed up as Dabba Kato and it looked like he was going to help Crews deal with Hayes’ buddy Trick Williams at ringside. That led to Crews clotheslining Williams off the apron to the floor. When Crews turned around, Hayes hit him with a springboard clothesline and a Nothing But Net leg drop to the head for the pinfall win 2 falls to 0.

After the match was over at Vengeance Day, Dabba Kato gave Crews a two handed-Chokeslam spinebuster move onto a steel chair to deliver the message that he is not Apollo’s friend anymore.