Ari Sterling Reportedly Replaced Ariya Daivari on WWE NXT TV Due to Daivari’s Release

– According to a report by Fightful Select, Ari Sterling (aka Alex Zayne) replaced the recently released Ariya Daivari for a match against Cameron Grimes on a June episode of WWE NXT TV. As noted, Daivari was released from the company last June.

Per the report, Daivari was originally scheduled to face Grimes in the match, but he was released just before the match was scheduled to take place. The plan for the TV match was to have Grimes face an established heel to help further his ongoing babyface push. However, WWE had to get a last-minute fill-in after releasing Daivari. While Sterling had previously worked as a heel in NXT, he had primarily been working as a babyface on 205 Live before he got the TV match against Grimes.

A short time later, Ari Sterling was also among 12 NXT talents released by WWE in August after receiving the NXT TV spot against Grimes.