Former TNA World Champion Mike Santana made his first post-TNA appearance, showing up to the WWE Performance Center at the end of "WWE NXT" on Tuesday, following NXT Champion Tony D'Angelo retaining his gold over Naraku.Santana's music hit as D'Angelo was posing on the ropes, after taking down Naraku with a Dead to Rights through a table for the victory in their street fight. Santana came through the crowd to stare down the champion in the ring as the show went off the air.The star lost the TNA World title to Nic Nemeth at TNA Slammiversary. Shortly after the pay-per-view, reports suggested Santana had finished up with the company, and was likely headed to WWE. Other reports indicated Santana is well-liked backstage at the Performance Center, as he's worked with "NXT" before, through TNA's partnership with WWE's developmental brand established at the beginning of last year.Notably, Booker T and Vic Joseph on commentary did not say Santana's name, and WWE posted to X (formerly Twitter) that a "new face" had shown up, alongside the video of Santana's debut. WWE has been changing stars' ring names as they move into "NXT," with EVIL becoming Naraku and Nikki Blackheart becoming Reina Volcan in recent memory.
