Gymnast AJ Amrhein And Another WWE Recruit Reportedly Readying For NXT

WWE is preparing to debut two new athletes in "NXT."

According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, AJ "Lexie" Amrhein — a former fitness instructor who was also a member of the acrobatics and tumbling team at Baylor University – is set to join the active roster under the name Dani Palmer. In April, Amrhein announced that she was signed to WWE following the talent tryouts held during WrestleMania week. 

Also joining WWE is Nigerian-born Isaac Odugbesan, who played football at the University of Alabama. There, he also competed in the shot put and won the 2021 Eastern finals and the 2021 SEC Outdoor Track & Field Championships. The 6-foot-4, 275-pound Odugbesan, who has so far been wrestling under his government name, was among the college athletes in WWE's inaugural Next In Line Class announced last year.

Amrhein was a spokesperson for Snap Supplements after graduating from Baylor in 2020. As for Odugbesan, as an art student at Alabama, wrestling didn't seem to be on the radar as far as future career choices he was looking into. "I've always been artistically inclined," said Odugbesan in a March 2021 interview with "Sports Illustrated." "I could always draw. That's just always been a thing for me ... If I end up using my art degree it will be to dabble in the world of animation because it's always been so interesting to me — to bring it from storyboard to life." He'll now have the opportunity to do that with wrestling personas and matches.

No concrete date has yet been established for either Amrhein or Odugbesan to show up in "NXT" programming.