The next name rumored to be on WWE's extensive shopping list is Punishment Martinez. His ROH contract officially expired over the weekend.

Ever since Triple H has had NXT and has effectively been in charge of new signings to WWE, no promotion on Earth has been safe when it comes to protecting their top talent. New Japan, Ring Of Honor, Impact Wrestling, all of those promotions and more have had wrestlers effectively poached from them by WWE.

Many of WWE's recent top stars have a history with ROH in particular. It's where CM Punk really made a name for himself, the company in which Seth Rollins honed his skills as Tyler Black, and current WWE Title rivals Samoa Joe and AJ Styles also cut their teeth there once upon a time. Now it would seem that another top ROH talent is WWE-bound.

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That man is Punishment Martinez. Up until extremely recently, Martinez was the ROH Television Champion. However, at the Death Before Dishonor tapings, Martinez wrestled what would appear to be his last match for the promotion, losing and dropping the title to Jeff Cobb. It has also been reported by The Wrestling Observer that Martinez's ROH contract came to an end on September 29, 2018, and has not been renewed, making him a free agent.

Many fans might be unfamiliar with Martinez's work, especially if you only watch WWE. He isn't one of those wrestlers like Styles, Bobby Roode, and Kenny Omega who has wrestled a match or two in WWE before either. He got his big break in ROH in 2015 and has wrestled between there and New Japan ever since, battling the likes of Jay White, Silas Young, and even WWE's Lio Rush over the past three years.

If Martinez is indeed on his way to WWE then he will be a major coup for the company, and will most likely land in NXT. Even though he has been with ROH and New Japan for the past three years and has wrestled in some relatively high profile matches, it feels as if we have only really started to scratch the surface of his persona and in-ring ability. He may be 36, but that is no longer that old in WWE any longer.

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