WWE Rumors: Punishment Martinez is NXT Bound
Ring of Honor held their annual Death before Dishonor show. We saw the Ring of Honor World Television title on the line as Punishment Martinez took on Chris Sabin. Punishment Martinez was able to get the win over Sabin to retain his belt. After the match, Jeff Cobb came down to the ring. He would end up taking out Martinez and hold the belt in the air.
The feeling then was that we were heading for a program between the two heading into their next event.
A report states that Jeff Cobb and Punishment Martinez would end up having a title match during the next set of tapings and Cobb ended up winning.
In those same reports, Punishment Martinez’s contract with ROH has expired. With his contract expiring, the feeling is that we will see Martinez in NXT by either the end of 2018 or early 2019. If this is true that Punishment Martinez is WWE bound, that is a significant plus for the “developmental” brand. For starters, he would continue the line of ROH superstars moving to the WWE. Over the years, we have seen guys like Seth Rollins, Cesaro, Ohno, Daniel Bryan, and others made a move from ROH to the WWE.
Punishment Martinez is a homegrown ROH talent. He began his career at the Monster Factory in New Jersey. The ROH system built Martinez from the ground up.
One thing I’m curious to see is how long he stays down in NXT. A ton of guys has been signed from other promotions since Triple H got more power in WWE. AJ Styles got brought right to the main roster. Samoa Joe built himself up through NXT. I suspect Martinez will be in NXT for a bit of time. The WWE will need to help introduce him to the WWE crowd.
This is currently just a rumor. Take this with a grain of salt.
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