Norwegian Rudo

Honestly she tends to look better when wrestling the guys. Here's an extended highlight video of her against Chris Brookes. It was the culmination of a years long feud, so it gets a little wild:

You mean famous Filipino TJ Perkins? Disagree about the NXT part.

It's not just WWE who limits their wrestlers. With Nixon in particular it was obvious she was allowed to do basically nothing.

Zeuxis is Puerto Rican so Sugehit being in shouldn't affect her chances. Toni is always announced as Australian, and at least three are NXT wrestlers. Unless Io is put in, or there is some big surprise, they are also the best four.

So Toni goes into the likely Final Four with Evie, Hojo and Nixon Newell assuming she is signed at least to a WWEUK deal.

He was a lot more diverse. He got the main stream attention doing one thing, and he's stuck to it ever since.

From the rumours is appears they will be using mostly PC girls as first round jobbers

Last year the Dusty Classic was just a few matches on NXT, and no external teams.

Ideally they would just expand NXT to two hours and give everybody more time, but the rumours specifically said a women's show.

I've said it before, the only way a women's show makes sense logically and logistically, s to split NXT into separate men's and women's shows. Taping alongside a main roster show is a recipe for disaster.

They'll absolutely embellish. My list has 9 nationalities, plus a few that I don't really know, especially the latinas. You can easily get to 17 with people like Mia Yim, Deonna Purazzo (who I forgot) etc.

It won't be 25, or anywhere near really. There's 10 in PWInsider's list, and you can add Nixon, Hojo and Evie for sure. Probably Demi Bennett and Mandy Rose as well. Maybe even some of the lower level NXT girls. I don't really see any problem getting 32 girls with at least some experience. Let's try a quick list: Hojo Nixon Newell Evie Kimber Lee Mandy Rose Bianca Blair Sarah Logan Shanna Jinny Viper Kellyanne Nicole Matthews Madison Eagles Candice LeRae Mia Yim Nicole Savoy (think she's working the Shimmer tapings the week before this) Tessa Blanchard Rachael Ellering Kay Lee Ray Shazza McKenzie Jordynne Grace Mercedes Martinez Sonya Strong Britt Baker Shayna Baszler Kiera Hogan Aja Perera Santana Garrett Thea Trinidad Asley Vox Delmi Exo Tasha Steelz That's leaving off people like Lufisto, Veda Scott, Leva Bates, Marti Belle, and with only one Japanese girl. I'm sure I've forgotten a few really obvious names as well. Edit: Looking at the list I see I forgot to put Demi Bennett on it. Samantha Heights is another one. Also Deonna Purazzo.

Obviously nobody was expecting 32 killers, but having 5 complete rookies in 16 first round matches is risky to say the least. There is always going to be skeptics about a women's tournament, and if the first round sucks there are going to be a lot of people who write off the entire tournament.

Just listed the ones in PWInsider's article. Nixon and Evie might have been left out as everyone has assumed they're in for ages.

Yes, I know, but I figured since he is involved in Texas indies she might have worked a little.

Not really: Taynara Melo, Victoria González (may have some indie experience?), Julia Ho, Zhao Xia, & Danielle Kamela are basically completely inexperienced Bianca Blair & Lacey Evans have at least made it to the NXT traveling squad on occasion, but still don't have many matches Sarah Logan, Kimber Lee & Mary Kate have significant indie experience.

According to PWInsider we are getting pretty much all the PC girls in this. Pretty much guarantees the first round is going to suck with a bunch of the girls barely having had matches in front of a crowd.

Axel's in the class that just reported last week. He's tall, which helps.

Thanks. That's from the last newsletter, and all Dave says is that she probably won't be in the tournament as she is "finishing up in Japan". That's, to put it mildly, short on details and could pretty much mean anything.

Where did he say that? Not doubting you, just can't remember reading it.

Do we know this? The rumoured start dates would fit in very well with the normal time frame for foreign signings to get their physicals and legal matters sorted.

As Hojo and Shirai have proved; Stardom contracts don't appear to mean much.

Don't expect anyone who isn't signed to get beyond the second round or so. Rumour is they are looking to sign double figures out of the tournament (it's Rovert, so take it with a grain of salt), in addition to the ones signed going in... As for Zeuxis, there are long term rumours of WWE interest.

There's a group I'm confident will be heavily featured, Nixon, Hojo, Evie and probably Toni Storm, but who will win is not in any way obvious. It could even be somebody else who impresses greatly in the early rounds.

They've been teasing the turn seemingly forever, at the very least since their CWC match. You can argue motivations, but to say it was out of nowhere is flat out wrong.