Tommy Dreamer Likens TNA's Jordynne Grace On WWE NXT To '90s ECW Surprise Appearance

It's Forbidden Door season in professional wrestling, and while AEW has welcomed stars from NJPW, CMLL, and STARDOM in recent weeks, WWE opened a door of their own to welcome TNA Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace to the May 28 edition of "WWE NXT." NXT General Manager Ava announced that Grace would be the next woman to challenge Roxanne Perez for the NXT Women's Championship, with the match officially signed for the NXT Battleground event on June 9. Someone who has seen his fair share of surprises during his career is Tommy Dreamer, who admitted on a recent edition of "Busted Open Radio" that seeing Grace show up on "WWE NXT" reminded him of when a beloved wrestling legend first arrived in Extreme Championship Wrestling. 

"The place exploded, I felt it was–it harkened back to the day of when Steve 'Dr. Death' Williams showed up in ECW," Dreamer said. "He did it without music, but I watched the fans reactions and when the music spun, and they heard it, they were like 'there's no way this is happening.' Then when they saw her name and when she walked out, it was just a surge of energy which I loved. Those are moments that are made, and purposely made to be special."

Grace originally made her WWE debut during the 2024 women's Royal Rumble match in January, where she got to mix it up with Naomi, the woman she defeated to become the TNA Knockouts Champion in January. While she has already agreed to face Perez at NXT Battleground, WWE fans will get to see what Grace is made of on the June 4 edition of "WWE NXT" as she is set to go one-on-one with Stevie Turner.

Please credit "Busted Open Radio" when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.