If you thought Swerve Strickland was a man on an island heading into Forbidden Door against Will Ospreay, think again. 

Strickland happened to team with his opponent on the go-home episode of AEW Dynamite to face The Gates Of Agony. Swerve and Ospreay ended up winning the fight, but not without their share of trouble. Ospreay accidentally kicked Swerve in the face and post-match, it prompted Swerve to drop Ospreay. The AEW Collision elevated that tension ahead of Sunday.

Fan footage has Swerve and Will confronting one another on the entryway ahead of their big Forbidden Door battle. Swerve once more broke a cardinal rule of Will’s by once again bringing up his family, but this time the champ had some literal big back-up.

EJ Nduka happened to be standing behind Swerve as he mentioned Ospreay’s wife and it led to a pull apart brawl onstage, with Kyle Fletcher and Nduka taking swings at one another. 

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Nduka has been a blue chip acquisition by AEW since 2023, but The Judge had yet to make his TV debut until this coming Saturday. Nduka impressed Tony Khan and AEW in a memorable tryout match against Konosuke Takeshita, but has been kept on the back-burner since. The Judge was in WWE developmental for a time, but was released during the pandemic. 

EJ eventually found opportunity to hone his craft in Major League Wrestling as he was a dominant force on their programming. Along with Calvin Tankman, Nduka captured the MLW World Tag Team Titles and Nduka also had a World Title program with then champion, Alex Hammerstone

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EJ Nduka has some options regarding what he wants to do with his wrestling career. 

The former WWE star worked the AEW Dark tapings on January 28 in Orlando, Florida, where he made his debut for the promotion. His loss to Konosuke Takeshita aired this week on Dark. 

In the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reported that Nduka was offered a full-time AEW contract after the match. As of this writing, there is no word yet on if Nduka has signed the contract. 

MLW aired his match with World Heavyweight Champion Alexander Hammerstone in a Last Man Standing main event for the MLW Underground premiere on REELZ.

Free Agency

His contract expired last month, but he went forward with finishing up with the promotion at the February 4th tapings. He is still one-half of the MLW World Tag Team Champions with Calvin Tankman. Their match with Juicy Finau and Lance Anoa’i of The Samoan SWAT Team is slated to air soon.

According to multiple reports, Nduka also has interest from MLW, WWE, and those in Japan. MLW officials have praised EJ in the past, while the former WWE star previously credited the promotion for giving him a chance when he needed it. 

The former NXT star was let go in May 2021 after having been with the company since 2019. He made his MLW debut the following month when his non-compete clause expired. 

WWE may be bringing back another wrestler that they had released a few years ago, and that’s EJ Nduka. 

The former NXT star was let go in May 2021 after having been with the company since 2019. He made his MLW debut the following month when his non-compete clause expired. 

In this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer reported that WWE has expressed interest in bringing Nduka back to the company. 

The Interest

Meltzer wrote: “EJ Nduka, who has gotten rave reviews from management [in MLW], has his contract coming due imminently, and there is interest in him from multiple promotions, including WWE having expressed some interest in bringing him back.”

Meltzer continued by noting that his name has come up in AEW as well as Japan.

Heis currently one-half of the promotion’s Tag Team Champions along with Calvin Tankman. The tag team will defend their titles against The Samoan Swat Team (Lance Anoa’i & Juicy Finau) on Saturday’s Blood & Thunder event from Philadelphia. 

Nduka is also booked for a show with the KAOZ promotion on February 26, 2023, in Monterrey, Mexico.

Before breaking into the wrestling business, he played for both the Indoor Football League and Canadian Football League.