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Jordan Devlin And Santos Escobar Trade Words Over NXT Cruiserweight Championship

By Matt Tennant. Published 16th October 2020.

Both Jordan Devlin and Santos Escobar have traded barbs over the NXT Cruiserweight Championship which both men believe belongs to them.

On last night’s edition of NXT UK, ‘The Irish Ace’ returned to our screens in a vignette in which he sent a stark warning to Santos Escobar.

Motivated and angry, Devlin appeared in the video with the original NXT Cruiserweight Championship and insisted that the strap Escobar held was just a replica. In the video which can been seen below, ‘The Import Killer’ said:

“So I’ve been in pro wrestling now for 18 years. That’s 2/3 of my life that I’ve dedicated to this sport, that’s 18 years of grasping and struggling and sacrificing to prove that I’m the best in the world at what I do, and that’s exactly what I did this year at Worlds Collide in Houston, Texas, and every single sacrifice that I made was all worth it. So, I guess you could put it down to bad luck, finally hit your stride after 18 years and then something like this happens. Your visas are frozen, and you have the rug pulled out from under you. It’s just kind of wrong. So, then I’m home and I turn on the TV and I see William Regal make an announcement. They’re going to have a glorified #1 contender’s tournament for my championship, but it gets worse, because I started to notice a change in the branding over the weeks, and it makes me wonder – did you think I wouldn’t notice? Let me make one thing perfectly clear. I’m not one of these stooges you see running around in a ‘Property of the Performance Center’ t-shirts. Jordan Devlin is the property of absolutely no one. I am self-made, pound for pound, the best professional wrestler on this planet. This goes out to every man under 205 on that roster. See this right here? This belongs to me. Until you tap me out, until you pin my shoulders on the mat, that little replica title over there doesn’t mean a thing. This is the one real Cruiserweight Championship of the world. It stays here, it belongs to me, and if you want it back you better send someone to come and take it from me.”

Not taking the shot lying down, Escobar took to Twitter to respond to the Irishman stating:

“Ok…since we’re qouting…lemme quote a more credited source. “Every bit of that #WWENXT Cruiserweight Championship was about seizing opportunity. Congratulations to @EscobarWWE…a division changing talent and it’s STILL ALL his. #NXTTakeOver” @TripleH”

When Jordan Devlin disappeared from our screens earlier this year thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic placing harsh restrictions on travel, WWE proclaimed that they would crown an interim NXT Cruiserweight Champion in his place. Meaning that technically, Devlin would still hold onto the original championship.

However, a few months after his absence on June 4, the company stripped him of the championship and began to refer to the title as its usual name rather than the Interim NXT Cruiserweight Championship.

While there is yet no word on what WWE have planned for Devlin, Escobar and the NXT Cruiserweight Championship, the storyline harks back to 1994 and the glorious tale of Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon contesting who was the real WWF Intercontinental Champion.

Jordan Devlin won the NXT Cruiserweight Championship on January 25 of this year at WWE Worlds Collide, defeating Travis Banks, Angel Garza and Isaiah ‘Swerve’ Scott in a Fatal 4-Way Match.

Santos Escobar won the NXT Cruiserweight Championship Tournament to lift the vacant gold under the name, El Hijo del Fantasma, on the June 3 edition of the black and gold brand when he overturned Drake Maverick in the Final.

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