Folks, it's official: Jonah, aka Bronson Reed from NXT, has left the ranks of the indies, Impact Wrestling, and New Japan Pro Wrestling behind once and for all – at least for now – to return to the greater WWE Universe. All of his work establishing himself as a Vader-esque big man with an absolutely lethal finishing move, the Tsunami, has been appreciated, as have his decisions not to say a bad word about WWE as a whole and especially Paul “Triple H” Levesque following his firing, and now, he'll be able to reap the rewards of his hard work.
On paper, Reed had everything going for him ahead of his main roster debut; The Miz and Dexter Lumis were in the middle of a grudge ladder match on RAW that saw some minor audience muting for chants of “holy sh*t,” and just when Johnny Gargano's Kayfabe son-in-law looked like he was going to secure the bags – literally – to earn six-to-eight months of Corey Graves' salary – his words – Reed surprise-returned in front of the Iowa crowd to take him down and keep Miz in good regards with Maryse a few days before Christmas.
Alright, so pairing Reed up with The Miz isn't exactly adding Solo Sikoa to The Bloodline, but Tommaso Ciampa was beyond over when he was working with “The A-Lister” and would likely be an even bigger star today if he wasn't placed on the shelf with an injury. Would Reed receive a similar reaction to other returning stars like Mia Yim or the future members of Damage CTRL? Unfortunately, the answer is decidedly a no, as Reed took out Lumis in the ring, and the audience didn't seem to know who he was.
BRONSON REED IS BACK!!!#WWERaw pic.twitter.com/UmcOYDAzkI
— WWE (@WWE) December 20, 2022
See what I mean? That's fewer cheers than Otis earned for just being a bigger dude from the midwest.
Will things turn around for Reed? Or will he find himself a barely used performer after being a focal point of Impact and a top dog in NJPW? Only time, as they say, will tell.
Bronson Reed always welcomed a return to working with Triple H in WWE.
While Reed officially made his debut on RAW on the final live show of the year, he was expecting to do so much earlier, as, according to the man himself just after his release on Sami Callihan's podcast, he was hoping for a main roster call-up when he was ultimately fired instead.
“Yeah, it’s crazy to me,” Reed said h/t Fightful. “I had some of the biggest names in the business contacting me after and they were scratching their heads. It just seemed like it came out of left field, and I was actually waiting for a call to be moved to RAW or SmackDown and then I got released.. so, very shocking to me. But as you said, it was like a weight was lifted off my own shoulders. I sort of feel like the shackles are off for a lack of a better term. I can do what I want to do and I’m very lucky to have companies like IMPACT Wrestling that have sort of nurtured that as well.”
So why did Reed find himself released when he looked like a prime candidate to become a main roster guy? Speaking with Steven Fall of NBS Sports Boston back in August, Reed chalked it up to being a “Triple H guy” when “The Game” was on the outs power-wise after losing the Wednesday Night Wars to AEW.
“That could be a reason why, which sort of sucks because Hunter has such a great mind for wrestling and he's done so much for that company, for WWE,” Reed said h/t Wrestling Inc. “He was so instrumental to all the guys at “NXT” when it was the black and gold brand at helping them … reaching their potential. He was very hands-on with the talent, and I had no bad words to say about Hunter or my time at NXT.”
“But it did seem like that shift is a reason why a lot of us did get released,” Jonah said. “You see a lot of guys that Hunter did put his faith into like myself or Keith Lee or Karrion Kross, these guys that he made into champions all of a sudden be released.”
Fortunately for Reed, Levesque returned to power, actually usurping the book away from his father-in-law once and for all, and as a result, many of “his guys” from NXT are back too. While the deals have been signed and the money has been agreed to, now the real challenge begins, as everyone can't be at the top, especially when there are so many new mouths to feed.
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