This Wednesday night saw the WWE NXT brand take a massive step into the future, airing live on the USA Network in its new two-hour format.

We saw a wild show-closing brawl that took out half the roster, a major championship change hands, two new contenders crowned and a 6-second victory from one of the black-and-yellow brand’s most promising newcomers – but none of that could prepare us for the potentially landscape-changing arrival of Imperium.

For months the faction, led by the unstoppable Austrian juggernaut and current WWE UK Champion known as WALTER, has been plaguing the NXT UK brand. Now it would appear that they’ve come looking for something in NXT proper; although what they found was KUSHIDA.

The Japanese junior heavyweight ace rushed the ring this evening to boldly try his hand at taking down the entirety of Imperium. He actually managed to clear the other charter members – Alexander Wolfe, Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel – and get in a few surprising shots on WALTER, before scurrying from the ring to fight another day.

Apparently we’re heading towards a collision between two of the best international talents in the world. Who knows, maybe whoever loses the inevitable match will have to stylize their name without caps going forward…