Evans made his WWE debut on the February 16, 2024 episode of NXT Level Up, losing to Brooks Jensen. At NXT Stand and Deliver, a video package aired hyping up Evans' NXT debut. On the April 9 episode of NXT, Evans made his television debut, picking up a win against Scrypts. The following week on NXT, he fought then-NXT Champion Ilja Dragunov in a losing effort, but was endorsed by Dragunov afterwards as the two shook hands. Evans soon developed an on-screen friendship with Trick Williams, who had just defeated Dragunov to become the new NXT Champion, after Williams came to his defense against Noam Dar and Oro Mensah of The Meta-Four. Evans and Williams teamed up on the May 28 episode of NXT against Mark Coffey and Wolfgang of Gallus in a winning effort. On the June 18 episode of NXT, Evans won a 25-man battle royal to earn an NXT Championship match against Williams at NXT Heatwave. However, Evans was defeated by Ethan Page later in the night after Page challenged Evans to a match, claiming that he was never eliminated from the battle royal after being attacked by Mensah. The following week, NXT General Manager Ava made the NXT Championship match at NXT Heatwave a fatal four-way match after Evans, Page and Shawn Spears, who had earlier defeated Williams in a non-title match, each had a claim to a title match. At the event on July 7, he was pinned by Page to become the new NXT Champion.