Cesaro, Jeremy Borash, Johnny Gargano And Others Praise Alex Shelley Ahead Of WWE NXT TV Debut

WWE posted this video of several Superstars and employees talking about former TNA X Division & Tag Team Champion Alex Shelley ahead of his TV in-ring debut for the company during tomorrow's WWE NXT episode on the USA Network.

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Below are the quotes from each person:

Nigel McGuinness:
"An incredible exciting style," Nigel said when asked what we can expect from Shelley. "Ever since I first got in the ring with Alex Shelley, there was something that stood him apart from the other competitors. ... He's got the experience now. He spent so much time in Japan, honing his craft. He's one of the very best in the world. Now that he's teaming with his old tag team partner Kushida, they are going to be very difficult team to stop."

Kassius Ohno:
"He's one of the best technical wrestlers I've ever been in the ring with. He's one of the best tag team wrestlers I've ever been in the ring with. He is... and I call myself the Wrestling Genius, but a lot of what he does in the ring is something a genius would do."

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NXT North American Champion Roderick Strong:
"Alex Shelley is a charismatic, technical wizard who can match any style. I'm very, very excited to have him here in NXT, and him & Kushida are an amazing team."

Johnny Gargano:
"A lot of people may not know who Alex Shelley is. I'd recommend going on YouTube, YouTube-ing Alex Shelley and watching how amazing he is. He is one of the best technical wrestlers I've ever seen, and he's just got something about him. For me as a young wrestler growing up, I got the opportunity to wrestle Alex Shelley many times, and I learned so much from him. He is like a big brother to me. So, to see him now in NXT, playing for our team, it's awesome."

NXT Producer Jeremy Borash:
"Alex Shelley is a very unique competitor, a very unique individual. And now as a guy who is teaming with Kushida, a guy who has a lot of history with a guy like Kushida... you're going to see a different kind of Alex Shelley than I think you've seen previously here in the United States."

Cesaro:
"Alex Shelley was one of the forerunners of technical wrestling. He was always known for busting out new moves, new holds, always improving with every single match, and you know, if you watch him & Kushida teaming together from over 10 years ago, and you would watch it now, you would just see how far ahead of the times they were. And I think that's what we're going to expect in the Dusty Classic."

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As noted, this week's NXT episode will see the first round of the 2020 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic wrap up as Shelley and Kushida, known as The Time Splitters, go up against The Grizzled Young Veterans from NXT UK. Wednesday's show will also see The BroserWeights (Matt Riddle and Pete Dunne) vs. Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster in the other first round match. Last week's show saw the tournament begin with Imperium's Marcel Barthel and Fabian Aichner defeating Wesley Blake and Steve Cutler of The Forgotten Sons, and NXT Tag Team Champions Kyle O'Reilly and Bobby Fish defeating NXT UK Tag Team Champions Wolfgang and Mark Coffey of Gallus to advance.

Shelley made his in-ring debut for the company last Friday at the NXT live event in Pittsburgh, as we noted at this link. Shelley reunited with Kushida to defeat The Forgotten Sons in the opening match of the night.

There's still no word on what kind of contract the former Motor City Machine Gun has signed with WWE, or how long he will be around. Shelley returned to the indies in 2019 after a brief retirement from the ring, and worked as a Guest Coach at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando back in October.

Stay tunes for updates on Shelley's WWE future and news from Wednesday's episode.

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