One former champion debuted his new identity by attacking Bron Breakker in the aftermath of his Great American Bash title defense!
The main event of NXT 2.0 Great American Bash saw Cameron Grimes attempt to dethrone Bron Breakker as NXT Champion. The two have had tense confrontations for weeks, with Grimes telling Breakker last week that he was only in his position as NXT Champion because everyone knew who his famous father (WWE Hall of Famer Rick Steiner) was, and that no one knew Grimes’ father.
Despite a hard fought battle, Cameron Grimes was unsuccessful in his quest to become the new NXT Champion and lost to Bron Breakker via pinfall. However, Breakker’s post-match celebration was cut short when the returning JD McDonagh – formerly known as Jordan Devlin – made a shock appearance to attack him in the closing moments of the show.
JD McDonagh!? 😲
The "necessary evil" just sent @bronbreakkerwwe a message he won't soon forget. #NXTGAB#WWENXTpic.twitter.com/IVVkoOzivE
— WWE (@WWE) July 6, 2022
Earlier in the night, a vignette aired that showed McDonagh promising that NXT would “change forever,” and during his attack on the champion, he screamed, “You should have been listening, because I was talking to you! The necessary evil is here!”
JD McDonagh is the latest in a long list of stars who’ve undergone recent name changes in WWE, including NXT stars Katana Chance, Alba Fyre, Cruz del Toro, and Giovanni Vinci.
During his time as Jordan Devlin, the star won the NXT Cruiserweight Championship in January of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic rendered him unable to travel to defend the title in the United States, and Santos Escobar was crowned the Interim Crusierweight Champion after winning a tournament the following April. However, Devlin returned to NXT in March of 2021 to set up a ladder match at NXT TakeOver: Stand & Deliver which would determine who had true claim to the belt.
In the end, Santos Escobar emerged the Undisputed Cruiserweight Champion, and Devlin disappeared from NXT television until tonight.
A vignette aired on June 21st to announce that Devlin was on his way back to the United States, but that he would be arriving with a new name and identity. In a voiceover, the star said that winds of change are blowing, and that he’s left his home in Dublin for a very good reason before a caption revealed that his name was now JD McDonagh.
The former champion returned to NXT UK following the events of Stand & Deliver, and competed there throughout 2021. His last match saw him face Ilja Dragunov in a Loser Leaves NXT UK Match, and he was forced to leave the promotion when he failed to capture Dragunov’s NXT UK Championship.