Diamond Mine has fianlly been revealed.
The long awaited stable made their debut on the June 22 episode of NXT, and were surrounded by many questions, which Fightful Select answered in the following days:
In speaking with many in NXT and the Performance Center, there has been a long, working plan for NXT to emphasize the Cruiserweight Division and the title more on their programming. NXT officials have been high on Kushida ever since he came in, as has the roster around him. We saw it start with Kyle O'Reilly, but we're told to expect NXT to integrate more storyline, some bigger names, and angles into the Cruiserweight division, especially this Summer. NXT was certainly not aware of the mass releases coming to 205 Live when we were told that, but Diamond Mine was a huge part of the push.
Fightful has learned that Diamond Mine has been planned for months, even well before Roderick Strong "quit" in storyline on NXT TV. There were actually plans to debut the stable well before, but it was moved back on more than one occasion for it to take center stage on an epsiode of NXT. We'll reiterate at no point during any parts of the planning to involve Tessa Blanchard or Parker Boudreaux, which were purely fueled by fan speculation. We have heard that other members had been discussed, however -- specifically Arturo Ruas and Marina Shafir.
Until mid-June, Ruas was penciled in to debut with the Diamond Mine group, but was informed a few days ahead of time that plans had changed for him. There were also plans for Marina Shafir to be involved as a "female enforcer" of sorts, and many on NXT were under the impression that was still going to happen once they debuted, just at a later date.
We'll keep working to learn more about Diamond Mine.
This article first appeared on our premium service, Fightful Select. Subscribe to get exclusive news every day, and a half-dozen weekly podcasts.
To directly support us and our continuing breaking news, interviews, and the like, subscribe to FightfulSelect.com. You'll get exclusive news sent to you directly before anyone else, and dozens of podcasts monthly including Alex Pawlowski's Sour Graps, Sean Ross Sapp's Q&A, Retro Reviews and more
