Bully Ray Praises WWE NXT Star's Ability To Slip 'Out Of The Gimmick'

Ever since he first burst onto the "NXT" scene back in 2021, Tony D'Angelo has very much been a "what you see is what you get" kind of guy. That's to say that D'Angelo has very much been the mobster character he plays, to the point that he's occasionally even thrown some of D'Angelo Family members off a bridge. But recently, Bully Ray has been seeing some stuff that suggests D'Angelo could be breaking away from the mafia life.

The biggest sign came this past Tuesday on "NXT," when D'Angelo was nowhere to be found during Channing Lorenzo and Luca Crusifino's loss to Brooks Jensen and Niko Vance, instead staying backstage to chat with Izzy Dame. On "Busted Open After Dark," Bully compared this a bit to Tony Soprano seeing a therapist on "The Sopranos," and thinks conversations D'Angelo had with Dame allowed him to slip out of his gimmick more than usual.

"It kind of humanized him just a little bit," Bully said. "Like, when he was talking to Izzy, he wasn't coming off like a mafia don. He wasn't coming off like the head of the family. He was talking like a dude who seemed to be interested in this girl. And then when he got confronted by the family, they're like 'Where the hell were you T? What's going on?' He's like 'Oh, you know, Izzy was chewing my ear off.' And just by the tone, it sounded like that he was happy about Izzy chewing his ear off. Like, he enjoyed her company. And for a minute, he was humanized, because he forgot about his family. His attention was diverted."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Busted Open After Dark" and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription