NXT Call-Ups Were ‘Pretty Sure’ They Wouldn’t Feature In 2023 Draft

WWE

The 2023 WWE Draft saw a great number of stars from the NXT brand move up to the main roster.

Two of those names were former NXT Women’s Tag Team Champions Kayden Carter & Katana Chance, who were drafted to the Raw brand on night two.

The pick came as a surprise to many, as NXT had only just booked them in an NXT Women’s Tag Team Championship match against Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn, who were drafted to SmackDown on night one.

Speaking on Busted Open Radio, Chance and Carter discussed the call-up, and their reactions to it.

They said:

Chance: “It’s just surreal. We’ve been working for this for so long and together as a team as well. We’ve had the opportunity to stay together for four years now as a team so, to be able to share this moment and finally be there, it just doesn’t feel real yet, it’s only been a week.

Carter: “It hasn’t kicked in yet, it hasn’t kicked in yet.”

Continuing on, the pair were asked if they were informed prior to Monday that they would be called up, to which Katana said they weren’t, and they were actually pretty sure it wouldn’t happen.

She said:

“No. We actually were pretty sure it wasn’t happening. Not only did we not know, we thought we weren’t [getting called up]. Especially when the Women’s Tag Champs got brought up, we were like ‘Man, that’s the tag team that they’re taking and that’s it’, you know?

“Then, the very last [second], at like 10:30pm on Monday and we’re at the watch party and we were like ‘I think it’s over’ and then they just like, said our names and we were like ‘Wait, what’s happening? What brand did they even say?’”

Other NXT names called up in the Draft were JD McDonagh, Zoey Stark, Indus Sher, Apollo Crews, Odyssey Jones and Indi Hartwell heading to Raw, Grayson Waller, Pretty Deadly, Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn heading to SmackDown, and Xyon Quinn and Von Wagner appearing as free agents.

Despite seemingly being called up, Von Wagner has been appearing on NXT television every week since, where he’s undergoing a character shift.

transcription via Fightful

Here’s a recap of what happened on the May 8 episode of WWE Raw:

Seth ‘Freakin’ Rollins def. Damian Priest, Shinsuke Nakamura in the WWE World Heavyweight Championship tournament

Mustafa Ali def. Otis when Chad Gable and Maxxine Dupri argued and distracted Otis

Finn Balor def. Cody Rhodes, The Miz in the WWE World Heavyweight Championship tournament

Brock Lesnar, who had cost Cody Rhodes the aforementioned three-way, attacked Rhodes and demanded a rematch from Backlash at Night of Champions, which Rhodes later accepted

Rhea Ripley def. Dana Brooke and was then confronted by Natalya

Kevin Owens & Sami Zayn def. Giovanni Vinci & Ludwig Kaiser

Johnny Gargano, Candice LeRae, Indi Hartwell and Dexter Lumis reunited The Way backstage, and Gargano hinted at someone else returning soon which could be Tommaso Ciampa

Zoey Stark def. Nikki Cross

Becky Lynch returned and confronted Trish Stratus

Dominik Mysterio def. Xavier Woods

Seth Rollins def. Finn Balor in the WWE World Heavyweight Championship tournament

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• Katana Chance
• Kayden Carter
• RAW
• draft
• wwe

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