Jordynne Grace And Ethan Page Make Their Shocking WWE NXT Debuts

Last night on the May 28, 2024 episode of WWE NXT, both Jordynne Grace and Ethan Page made their shocking NXT debuts. Both have been connected to other companies over the past year, so no one expected to see them. Grace has been with TNA for a long time now and is still under contract with them. In fact, she’s still the TNA Knockouts Champion. Meanwhile, Ethan Page had been under contract with AEW until recently.

People had been hammering Triple H online for his failure to sign some big free agents. He did indeed lose out on some big names like Will Ospreay, Kazuchika Okada, and even MJF. While the latter recently returned to AEW wearing a jacket remarkably similar to Triple H’s when he returned from injury in 2002, it should be noted that he was never a free agent. It’s a fact now that WWE never lost out on MJF because he was never available in the first place.

Meanwhile, Okada & Ospreay reportedly did have conversations with WWE before signing with AEW. That said, Triple H did manage to sign both members from the infamous Guerillas of Destiny faction in Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa. He also seems to have signed “All Ego” Ethan Page too. What might be even more surprising is that Triple H has been open to working with other companies. WWE President Nick Khan loves this idea as well!

Therefore, working out a deal with TNA Wrestling to use some of their talent is a big deal. On top of that, WWE might also lend them the use of some WWE Superstars. It is clear that WWE loves Jordynne Grace, so getting her in any capacity is a big deal.

WWE NXT DEBUTS

Jordynne Grace and Ethan Page both appeared on the show but in different capacities. Grace had already become acquainted with WWE fans when she appeared in the Women’s Royal Rumble back in January. Back then, WWE officials were said to have absolutely loved her work and wanted to keep using her. Of course, they couldn’t since she is signed with TNA. This meant that if they used her, it would have to be in a very limited capacity in some type of talent exchange concept.

Grace appeared on the show to reference that she will challenge Roxanne Perez for the WWE NXT Women’s Championship at the upcoming NXT Battleground PLE. It is a big deal to get Grace, but even bigger than this is the fact that WWE would put her in this type of match. Some believe WWE might actually allow Grace to win the title. That makes a lot of sense. Most would understandably assume Grace is a TNA star, so she could never win a WWE-owned title, right?

Wouldn’t it then be good to do the most shocking thing of all and have her win? She’d become the first person to ever win any WWE-owned title without being under contract outside of Nicolas, the kid who won the WWE RAW Tag Titles with Braun Strowman a few years back. He held the tag title for only a few days before vacating it on WWE RAW that Monday.

This could very much be similar for Grace, in that she wins the title only to drop it right back at an upcoming TNA event.

ALL EGO:

When it comes to Ethan Page though, he had been under contract with All Elite Wrestling. However, Tony Khan’s roster is heavily bloated with very little wiggle room for young stars. Unless you’re in a faction, you’ll often be lost in the shuffle there. Even established names have been riding the bench a lot. While paid well, this type of issue has become one of the biggest gripes among AEW talent.

In fact, several are planning to leave when their AEW deals come up. Jake Hager (Jack Swagger) just recently left alone. Ethan Page, however, was a surprising pick-up for WWE. It’s said that Page was offered a deal to stay with AEW and had some other offers on the table. However, when the WWE opportunity came up, it only made sense for him to come in. He officially signed with WWE and is now being put in line to be in a main event NXT Championship program with the champ, Trick Williams.

Page has proven to be a solid wrestler with terrific promo skills. Most felt that going to WWE would make sense for him if they were interested. It’s clear that they are, so adding him to the NXT roster was a smart move. He could become a legit star on this brand. If he is able to do so, he could become a bigger deal on the RAW or SmackDown brand later on.

THE FUTURE OF JORDYNNE GRACE AND ETHAN PAGE

While Jordynne Grace and Ethan Page were clearly big surprises, Grace is probably the biggest surprise of the two. Simply put, we could understand Ethan showing up soon. In fact, there had been rumors of a possible WWE signing for him. We just never knew when he would debut for the company. Grace, on the other hand, is still under a TNA deal. The woman is still the TNA Knockouts Champion to top it off. Having her on WWE programming is only helpful for TNA, but we can bet a ton of money that WWE will offer Grace a truckload of money to sign with them when her TNA deal is up.

NXT showrunner Shawn Michaels actually spoke about Grace appearing with WWE. In speaking to Adrian Hernandez, he claimed:“

“Right now, a lot of things are still being worked out internally. There are people above me that I leave to making those kinds of decisions. What I enjoy doing is what we did last night, which is having the opportunity to putting real surprises and real ‘oh my God’ moments back to WWE, wrestling, and NXT. That’s what we had last night. I have been very public about being a fan of Jordynne Grace. I expressed to Hunter [Triple H] privately that I was very jealous that he had her for the Rumble. He owed me. We’re thrilled to have her for Battleground and next week. This is going to be an epic event. To one up ourselves, which we always try to do, having TNA Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace contend for the NXT Women’s Championship, fighting Roxanne Perez, is going to be really big.”

Michaels is right that we do not have nearly enough surprises in professional wrestling anymore. Clearly, having Jordynne Grace and Ethan Page both make shocking NXT debuts was a good way to make people want to tune in next week. You never know what they’ll do, which makes live watching important. Shocking us with Jordynne showing up alone was huge, but then bringing Page into the equation at the end of the show was a stroke of creative genius in our book.

Page is going places, and WWE is likely very happy to have signed him right now.