Former NXT champion Tommaso Ciampa and former NXT UK champion Pete Dunne were both at this week’s episode of SmackDown.
The two competed in a dark match before the show went on air. The match was won by Ciampa and Dunne apparently got his old entrance music back for his appearance:
WWE officials have recently been evaluating talents for a main roster call up through dark matches before SmackDown and Raw.
People such as Austin Theory, Karrion Kross, Shotzi Blackheart, Xia Li among others have similarly competed in dark matches before being called up to the main roster.
Pete Dunne has wrestled only one televised match since the Team Black and Gold lost to Team 2.0 at the NXT Takeover: WarGames event last month.
Tommaso Ciampa similarly dropped the NXT title to Bron Breakker at New Year’s Evil and teased his departure from the brand with his post-match tweet.
All signs seem to be pointing towards these two former champions heading to the main roster sooner rather than later.
With the Royal Rumble coming up later this month, the only question that remains is whether WWE will confirm their main roster call up before that or use them as surprise entrances.
