After a decade away, Harry Smith (Davey Boy Smith Jr.) has returned to a WWE ring.
On July 16, WWE returned to the road for the first time since the onset of the COVID-19, which limited them to the Performance Center and ThunderDome for over a years time. Ahead of their show in Houston, Texas, Smith made a surprise appearance, working a dark match with Austin Theory against Odyssey Jones and Xyon Quinn (Daniel Vidot).
Furthermore, Aliyah, who split from the Robert Stone Brand this past Tuesday night on NXT. is working a dark match against Xia Li. Xia is set to challenge Raquel Gonzalez for the NXT Women's Championship next week.
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Smith signed with WWE in 2006 and spent five years with the company before his release in 2011. During his time in WWE, he won the WWE Tag Team Championships alongside Tyson Kidd. Since his WWE release, he's found success in various promotions including NOAH, NJPW, and MLW.
In February, Smith Jr. confirmed talks with WWE, saying there were plans for him to join NXT UK, but they fell through due to COVID.
After SmackDown went off the air, WWE released a backstage interview (seen in the video above) in which he said the following:
"You know, it's great to be back in the WWE, especially in front of the WWE Universe live here in Houston, Texas. The atmosphere, the ambiance, the energy that you can feel from a live WWE audience, nothing can touch that. 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. That's why I'm back in the WWE, to show how much Harry Smith has grown over this past time."
PWInsider reports that Smith was signed as early as this past March, but he and WWE kept the signing quiet until the timing was right for him to officially appear.
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