On June 1, 2010, it was announced that Cottonwood would be part of the second season of "WWE NXT", with John Morrison as his storyline mentor. He debuted on the June 8 episode of "NXT", teaming with Morrison to defeat Titus O'Neil and Zack Ryder. Christianson's performance in the "Talk the Talk" challenge on the July 6 edition of "NXT" earned him a clip on the following episode of E! Television's episode of "The Soup" in the "What your Boyfriend is Watching" segment.