EJ Nduka making AEW Dark debut against Konosuke Takeshita
A former NXT and MLW wrestler is set to make his AEW debut on this week’s episode of Dark.
EJ Nduka will compete for AEW for the first time as he faces Konosuke Takeshita on AEW Dark tonight. The match was filmed at AEW’s set of Dark tapings at Universal Studios on January 29.
Nduka, a former football player, was released by WWE/NXT in May 2021. He joined MLW after his release and held the MLW Tag Team titles once during his time with the promotion.
Nduka’s contract with MLW expired last month. Dave Meltzer reported at the time that there were multiple promotions interested in Nduka:
EJ Nduka, who has gotten rave reviews from management [in MLW], has his contract coming due imminently and there is interest in him from multiple promotions including WWE having expressed some interest in bringing him back. Nduka, 34, is a 6-foot-5 high level bodybuilder and former college footballer who bounced around Canadian Football, Arena Football and some NFL camps until signing with WWE in 2018 and becoming Ezra Judge. He’s a guy who hasn’t worked a ton of indies, but has worked Mexico and been pushed in MLW where he currently holds the tag team titles with Calvin Tankman. WWE cut him in May 2021 which was when they were cutting guys probably in his case based on his not making television and already being older when the idea was they wanted younger guys in NXT. The name has come up in AEW as well as Japan
In addition to facing Takeshita on Dark, Nduka will be featured on tonight’s debut edition of MLW Underground on the Reelz channel. Nduka is challenging Alex Hammerstone for the MLW World Heavyweight Championship in a Last Man Standing match.
AEW Dark premieres on YouTube at 7 p.m. Eastern time. Here’s the full card for tonight’s show:
AEW Dark (Tuesday, February 7) —
- Konosuke Takeshita vs. EJ Nduka
- Slim J vs. Mascara Dorada
- Rush vs. Aiden Park
- The Outrunners (Truth Magnum & Turbo Floyd) vs. Logan Cruz & Tyshaun Perez
- Baliyan Akki vs. Rico Gonzalez
- Blake Christian vs. Serpentico
- Dalton Castle vs. Dante Casanova
- Kiera Hogan vs. Megan Meyers