Released NXT Talent Confirms Scrapped Diamond Mine Plans

A recently released NXT talent has confirmed reports that he was originally meant to be a part of NXT faction Diamond Mine.

Following the debut of the Diamond Mine faction on NXT, it was reported that there were plans for Arturo Ruas and Marina Shafir to be members of the group, prior to their WWE releases.

Speaking with Wrestling Inc, Ruas explained that the stable’s debut was rearranged a number of times. Noting that he was told that he’d join the group later, Ruas said:

“When I did my match with Kushida, I knew that the storyline of that match would be leading to me being a part of Malcolm Bivens’ group. It wasn’t Diamond Mine yet. I was supposed to be in that group, and then I got injured. I got surgery on my bicep, and things kind of stopped, but I healed. I got cleared, and everything started to run again. That’s where Diamond Mine came up. It would be a group of legit fighters with legit backgrounds.

People are paying to see what they want to see, and that’s why I worked my ass off, and then I started to work more and more and I got more in shape. And I did my gear and things started to kind of move a little bit weirdly. They cancelled one date. They pushed it to another date.

“Not just for me, the group itself and then they cancelled another date, and they cancelled a big date supposed. And finally they were like, okay, it will be this day. I was like, let’s go. The group were talking together, and then days before, not weeks — they billed it on Tuesday. I got a call Saturday. ‘Hey man, we’re putting you off now, but you’re going to be on soon.

“I felt like something’s weird, something’s off here. I was like, ‘Hey, let me know more. What’s happening?’ They said, ‘No, nothing’s happening. You’re good. You’re going to be on later because if you debut all together, it won’t make sense, but in the future, you’re going to be there. That’s it.’ The same week, ‘bye bye.’”

Ruas was released on June 25, days after Roderick Strong, Tyler Rust, Hideki Suzuki (Hachiman) and Malcolm Bivens debuted the group on June 22. His last match was against Kushida in November 2020.

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• diamond mine
• Arturo Ruas
• Release
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