Harry Smith Talks WWE Return, News On NXT Stars Working SmackDown Dark Matches

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PWMania.com Staff
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Harry Smith (aka Davey Boy Smith Jr., DH Smith) has announced that he is back in WWE.

As PWMania.com previously reported, Friday night’s Money In the Bank go-home edition of SmackDown from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas featured two pre-show dark matches with Smith and WWE NXT Superstars in action – Smith and Austin Theory vs. Odyssey Jones and Xyon Quinn, plus Aliyah vs. Xia Li.

In an update, the tag team bout was won by Smith and Theory, while the singles match was won by Li.

Smith spoke with Megan Morant for a post-match backstage interview, which you can watch below. Smith talked about being away from WWE for a decade, making himself a better wrestler around the world, and how he is now back. Morant asked Smith what it felt like being the first Superstar to come through the curtain.

“You know, it’s great to be back in the WWE, especially in front of the WWE Universe, live here in Houston, Texas,” Smith said. “The atmosphere, the ambience, the energy that you can feel from a live WWE audience, nothing can touch that and that’s why Harry Smith is back in the WWE. The past 10 years I’ve been going around the globe, making myself the best competitor that I can be, all over in Japan, all over in Europe, and that’s why I’m back in the WWE, to show exactly how much Harry Smith has grown over this past time.”

On a related note, it appears Smith fooled fans into thinking he was headed overseas for an international tour before flying into Houston, Texas for tonight’s SmackDown episode. Smith tweeted on Thursday and acted as if he was flying out for shows in Russia and Egypt.

“Ready for my flight takeoff today! Very excited about this journey to Egypt and Russia! [grinning face emoji] [Egypt flag emoji] [Russia flag emoji] [thumbs up emoji] [wrestling emoji] [airplane emoji],” he wrote.

Smith then played it up in a follow-up tweet when a fan told him to have safe travels. He wrote, “Thanks. Long flight ahead [winking face emoji]”

It looks like WWE will be billing Bulldog Jr. by his “Harry Smith” name.

Smith, a former WWE Tag Team Champion, previously worked for the company from 2006-2011, and since then he has found significant international success. There had been speculation on his return after the two sides expressed interest in recent months. Smith, his sister and mother inducted his father, “The British Bulldog” Davey Boy Smith into the WWE Hall of Fame earlier this year.

Theory worked the RAW roster for a few months in 2020, beginning in March, but disappeared from the storylines in June. He was back in NXT by August 2020 but there’s no word on if he’s being called back up.

Aliyah is expected to join the RAW roster in the next week or so, in a trade that sent Mandy Rose back to NXT. Li, who will challenge NXT Women’s Champion Raquel Gonzalez next Tuesday night, is also apparently considered for a call-up.

Quinn, also known as former Australian rugby star Daniel Vidot, signed with the company in May 2018 after quitting rugby to pursue a pro wrestling career. Quinn has worked around 30 matches since debuting at a NXT live event in November 2018, but still has not made his NXT TV debut. He did work the April 24, 2020 SmackDown episode, losing to current WWE United States Champion Sheamus. Jones (fka college football player Omari Palmer) is a participant in the ongoing NXT Breakout Tournament, but has not worked his first round match yet. He was signed in February 2019, and has worked a handful of NXT live event matches since November 2019. Jones wrestled Robert Roode in a July 2 SmackDown dark match, and made his TV debut for the company on the July 9 205 Live show, defeating Grayson Waller.

Quinn tweeted a pre-show backstage photo of he and Jones in their gear.

“Houston… we have a problem,” he wrote as the caption.

Quinn also tweeted a photo from a backstage photo shoot and wrote, “Never worry about what they say BEHIND your back, they’re BEHIND you for a reason.”

You can see both photos below.

Stay tuned for more on Smith’s WWE return and Friday night’s dark match competitors. You can see related tweets and Smith’s interview below:

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