Austin Aries has been out of action since he broke his orbital bone at a NXT house show in October after getting kicked in the face by Shinsuke Nakamura (they don’t call him the King of Strong Style for nothing). Dave Meltzer reports in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Aries has been cleared to return to the ring from his injury, only his time in NXT might already be over.
Aries has been utilized during his injury in a brilliant way by showcasing his superb talking ability on commentary during the cruiserweight matches on Raw and 205 Live. It’s being reported that there is an idea going around backstage to use The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived in the cruiserweight division on Raw and 205 Live, and put him directly in a program against the Cruiserweight Champion, Neville.
Essentially, he was called up to the main roster when he was added to the commentary table for the cruiserweight matches. Even though his first real match on the main roster might not be until WrestleMania against Neville for the Cruiserweight Title.
Meltzer says that the thinking is for him not to work a match until WrestleMania and have the rivalry kick off during one of Aries’ post-match interview segments while interviewing Neville. It was also noted that they might have started doing the post-match interview segments with Aries so when the program does begin, it won’t look contrived.
The reason that they haven’t mentioned Austin Aries wrestling yet on television is because WWE doesn’t want to start teasing the match until the angle is shot. Dave went on to explain that if Aries takes a go at Neville, then the early signs of that feud could start next week on Raw.
[…] Recent reports stated that Austin Aries was scheduled to make a surprise return to the ring and challenge Neville for the Cruiserweight Title at WrestleMania 33. However that surprise might have been ruined a little bit when WWE aired a promo package to hype Aries’ eventual in-ring return. […]