Former Alabama State Champ Makes Pro Wrestling Debut

With competition brewing in the wrestling world, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) thought its developmental brand, NXT, needed a facelift. In this makeover, NXT is staying to its original concept of being a true developmental brand where their young athletes can learn and grow into next main eventers of tomorrow. In the latest batch of WWE Performance Center recruits, there were several second generation wrestlers. One in particular is former Alabama state wrestling champion Ben Buchanan.

Buchanan is the son of former WWE Tag Team Champion Bull Buchanan. On Tuesday night, Ben Buchanan competed on the inaugural episode of the all-new NXT 2.0 as Brooks Jensen.

Jensen teamed with Josh Briggs, another newcomer in his own right, in a losing effort to former NXT Tag Team Champions Marcel Barthel and Fabian Aichner of Imperium in the second match of the night. Briggs competed in this year’s NXT Breakout Tournament. He lost to  the eventual winner of the tournament, Carmelo Hayes.

Ben Buchanan wasn’t the only second generation superstar to compete on NXT 2.O on Tuesday. Bron Breakker, son of WWE and WCW legend Rick Steiner, took down LA Knight in under four minutes. Knight later competed in a fatal 4-way match to crown the new champion of NXT after Samoa Joe vacated the title due to injury.

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The match featured another second generation star, Cal Boom. Bloom is the son of Wayne Bloom, pro wrestler during the old renaissance of wresting in the late 80’s and 90’s. The younger Bloom competed as Von Wagner in the main event of Tuesday’s show after replacing an injured Kyle O’Reilly. The match was won by a previous champion, Tommaso Ciampa.

The former Ben Buchanan, the former 285-pound state champion from Ranbourne, Ala., didn’t fare well against Imperium and seemed to have not quiet made the transition to the pro wrestling just yet. Putting him to tag team with another young to mask what he hasn’t learned yet could be beneficial to both superstars. His dad, real name Barry Buchanan, curved out a near 20-year career of being a tag specialist. Could this the future for the younger Buchanan?