On Saturday evening, Oba Femi made his return to WWE television as part of the Men's Iron Survivor Challenge to determine a new #1 contender for the NXT Championship. That took place during the NXT Deadline PLE from The Armory in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Femi won the match and is now set to challenge current NXT Champion Trick Williams on the "New Year's Evil" special edition of NXT.
It marked Femi's comeback following an absence which began after Halloween Havoc; it was there that Tony D'Angelo picked up a big win over the popular rising star. On Saturday afternoon, Fightful Select was first to report plans for Femi's return, explaining that he'd been enjoying time off in his home country of Nigeria.
Interestingly, the piece also revealed that, "Triple H is also said to be a very big fan of Femi." With that in mind, it surely won't be too much longer before Femi is called up to the main roster and given a huge push.
He has all the makings of a future main eventer and has been a hit with NXT fans since debuting on the developmental brand in 2022.
"The world of track and field, and the world of WWE, the only thing they have in common is being sports. That’s it. They are very different from one another," he said earlier this year. "My path in WWE was kind of a fresh start for me, for my athletic career. When I put down the shot put, I put it down for good."
"As far as me getting involved, I was messaged by one of the NXT recruiters at the time and they asked me, ‘Would you like to come and do a tryout in Vegas?’ I said, ‘Yes, I would.’ At first I thought it was fake. I did my research and double checked and was like, ‘Oh, this is real.’ I did the tryout, I got a contract."
"The only problem was I had to go back and finish school. I wasn’t done with college yet," Femi continued. "The NIL program was a platform they used to keep in touch with me for the year I was finishing school just at the back end it could still be there and show me that the contract was still waiting for me."
The former NXT North American Champion has also expressed an interest in facing current World Heavyweight Champion Gunther.
"That’s what everybody is expecting, but it’s going to be more than that. If me and Gunther got in the same ring, it’s going to be poetry. It’s not going to be mindless chops. There is going to be a lot more to it," Femi teased.
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