After several years of anticipation, the match finally happened. Yes, an interpromotional showdown between WWE’s The New Day and NJPW’s The Elite took place earlier today, albeit in a Street Fighter V battle. After some heavy promotion for the battle on social media, the two top wrestling stables finally played against each other during the E3 video game expo today. It was a hard-fought battle between each of the stables, but only one could prove that they were truly the best trio. The event, which was streamed live on Xavier Woods’ UpUpDownDown YouTube channel saw Kofi Kingston defeat Nick Jackson, Kenny Omega defeat Big E, and Xavier Woods beat Nick Jackson. Unfortunately for Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks, it looks like The New Day have proven that they are the better stable for now.
When The Authors of Pain and SAnitY were confirmed to join WWE’s main roster earlier this year, NXT fans imagined that they would each be positioned as dominant top tag teams right out of the gate. Instead, The Authors of Pain have barely made any appearances on Raw while SAnitY still has yet to even debut on Smackdown. According to the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Live, one of the biggest reasons why both teams have been not been emphasized is because the original plans for both of them have fizzled out. Both teams were largely called up in order to be in the planned Money in the Bank tag team ladder match. Since that match was cancelled, both groups are currently left with no direction.
Mike Kanellis has now been a member of the WWE roster for over a year, and despite that, he has not done much in the company as of yet. Kanellis debuted during the Money in the Bank pay-per-view last year and began working on Smackdown and Raw shortly thereafter. Kanellis has not appeared onscreen since The Greatest Royal Rumble event in April, but Kanellis has revealed that he is not opposed to competing in NXT if that means that he will be able to compete and entertain fans. Kanellis made tremendous progress in overcoming a prescription drug addiction and getting himself in shape over the past few months, perhaps an NXT run is just the shot that Kanellis’ WWE career needs right now.
I’d love to go to NXT. I just wanna work and wrestle. https://t.co/fdjnpIpe4h
— Mike Kanellis (@RealMikeBennett) June 14, 2018