Fourth Adelaide export on brink of US stardom as WWE drops cryptic Delta video

A huge rumour about a rising Adelaide talent has all but been confirmed. See the video.

Global entertainment giant WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) has dropped its biggest hint yet that it’s signed up yet another homegrown Adelaide talent.

The professional wrestling powerhouse has just aired a new teaser clip which appears to confirm rumours that have circulated for month around former Riot City Wrestling (RCW) champion, Delta, (real name Daria Hodder).

Footage aired on WWE’s NXT program today did not identify the star, but showed clips of a woman dressed almost identically to Delta as she was presented in RCW and as Melbourne City Wrestling champion.

The clip was posted to WWE’s official Twitter feed with a cryptic series of emojis.

🤔 🤔 🤔 #WWENXTpic.twitter.com/2id03i8qkG

— WWE (@WWE) October 2, 2024

Wrestling fans across Australia have expected the up-and-coming Adelaide star to appear in the US after she abruptly dropped two championship belts, with no future bookings on the agenda early this year.

It’s been widely speculated that she impressed WWE supremos during tryouts in Perth during the company’s visit to Australia in February.

Former Riot City Wrestling Grand Champion Delta. Picture: Matilda Comley/@compass_mc

WWE professional wrestler Bronson Reed (real name Jermaine Haley) from Adelaide appears on WWE Raw. Picture: WWE

Delta would be the fourth Adelaide export to hit the big time in the US, following superstar Rhea Ripley, former Wrestle Rampage heavyweight Bronson Reed and up-and-comer Duke Hudson.

It comes just a week after Bronson Reed told The Advertiser his pick for Adelaide’s next rising star.

In an exclusive interview last week, Reed said, “I have nothing to with the hiring process … I wish I did because I’d hire a lot of people in Australia”.

But he said he had helped train Tommy Knight, an independent wrestler who is a rising contender.

“He’s been wrestling in Wrestle Rampage for maybe about the last six years or so now but now he’s made more of a name for himself in Melbourne and Sydney and he’s sort of doing what I did when I was in the first few years of my wrestling career,” Reed said.

“He went to Japan recently so I’m really hoping he gets seen oversees in like the UK scene. “He’s someone I’d sign in a heartbeat. You have to watch him perform. He’s special.”

Adelaide professional wrestler Tommy Knight. Picture: Supplied

Reed himself has been on a powerful run on the WWE’s flagship TV show, Raw, where he’s engaging in a high impact feud with fellow man-mountain Braun Strowman and WWE legend Seth Rollins.

He’s also expecting to make a major showing at WWE’s next premium live event, Bad Blood, next week, but was keeping his secrets close to his chest in the lead-up.

WWE Bad Blood streams live on Kayo and Binge on Sunday from 8.30am ACDT.

Bronson Reed (Jermaine Haley) in his Port prison bars guernsey ahead of a 2021 Showdown. Picture: Twitter

WWE star Bronson Reed’s late night wait for Power’s prelim

As a Port Adelaide fan and club ambassador, Reed endured a couple of very early starts catching up with the AFL finals.

“We’ve got a small baby now who gets up early so that’s probably an excuse to do that,” Reed said.

He said Sydney WWE star Grayson Waller had not bought into the rivalry, but there had been plenty of banter between himself and fellow South Aussie WWE stars Rhea Ripley and Duke Hudson, both Crows supporters.

And he said the Port enthusiasm was inherited.

“My grandparents were Port Adelaide Magpies supporters so I was going for them in SANFL before they came into AFL,” Reed said.

https://twitter.com/BRONSONISHERE/status/1831132310487368083

“Everyone that’s a kid who grows up playing footy dreams of the AFL. I’m in WWE, I want to be in WrestleMania and that’s still a dream for me.

“The grand final is their WrestleMania so why not try your hardest, play your hardest and hopefully we get there.”

It’s been a long time between visits home for Reed, who bills himself on global television as being from Black Forest in Adelaide’s south, where he lived before being officially signed to the global professional wrestling giant and debuting in 2019.

A much-anticipated homecoming in February when WWE held its biggest Australian live event in Perth (main evented by Ripley) was derailed in bittersweet fashion.

Adelaide’s Rhea Ripley (Demi Bennett) after defending her WWE Women’s World Heavyweight title in Australia for the first time in Perth in February. Picture: WWE

Reed said he had been scheduled for a match with then-WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins, but an injury to Rollins in the lead-up to WrestleMania meant both men missed the WWE Elimination Chamber Perth show at Optus Stadium.

“Obviously you can’t do anything, this is the higher-ups making this decision, but it didn’t sit well with me which is why you saw a month or so ago, I took care of Seth Rollins, that’s always been on my mind.

“And now that I’ve got him out of the way, I’m hoping I can get these World Heavyweight Championship opportunities in the future.

“But, it was a little bittersweet but at the same time we had the baby on the way; we weren’t sure if she was going to come the next day so the plan was going to be that I was going to wrestle in Perth, fly straight back to Orlando and then she’d be born.

“But luckily she was actually born as the Perth show started, so I was where I was supposed to be, I guess”.