Well ok, let’s talk about this shall we because Jesus Tap-Dancing Christ, even a week on I’m still steaming, STEAMING about the Karrion Kross call-up.
We’ll get into it in more detail deeper into the list (spoiler, it’s high on the list because of course it is) but God WWE is such a backwards company sometimes.
It is quite literally backwards to see stars see their stock rise when they GO BACK to the developmental brand, it’s so backwards to feel sorry for people leave developmental and venture to the land where the big bucks are made because we’re afraid that their drawing power will be diminished and it’s backwards because the company have occasionally demonstrated that they actually do know how to do this sometimes.
It’s a five worst list, but also a five best because sometimes WWE has proven they know exactly how to create new stars in a single night, oh boy this was a frustrating list to make, but here goes nothing.
To be clear, this isn’t a list about long-term call-ups, seeing NXT stars like Asuka slowly diminished over time, this is about the main roster debuts, the first few weeks, heck maybe even the first night.
I’m Adam hailing from partsFUNknown and here are the 5 Worst & 5 Best NXT Main Roster Debuts.
Worst 5. The Viking Raiders
Except that wasn’t their name was it. No it wasn’t. No it f**king wasn’t.
Prior to signing with WWE, the men now known as Ivar and Erik were Hanson and Rowe AKA, War Machine, which is a stupidly cool name, if a little provocative to Disney’s Lawyers, easily the most terrifying faction in all of entertainment. Rhodey says hi.
Perhaps understandably their names in NXT were changed, they were still Hanson and Rowe, but now they were War Raiders, which is harder to say out loud than you think it is, but hey it’s still good, it’s still good, they were undefeated, hugely dominant, put on tag classics with Black and Ricochet, the main roster thought, cool we’ll have them, debuted them, not as War Machine, not as War Raiders, but as … pause for dread … The Viking Experience.
It’s still good it’s still good, it’s gone, I know. (Simpsons ref) F**king… Viking Experience, ironically sounds like a ride at Disneyland, not even a good ride, like an Epcot ride.
And just like that, your dominant, undefeated former NXT Champs are a party city laughing stock. Good job.
In a rare case of WWE backing down under scrutiny, their names were changed AGAIN, to the Viking Raiders but the damage was done. Also, WWE then called their finisher the Viking Experience, because f**k us that’s why
Best 5. Baron Corbin
Poor Baron Corbin, I actually think what they’re doing with him at the moment, divorced dad showing up to his ex-wife’s wedding to her new partner and just eating a whole bunch of vol au vents and being sad, is pretty interesting, but hopes were once high for the Lone Wolf of NXT.
At WrestleMania 32, comfortably one of the worst WrestleManias, Bazza Corb Corb showed up in the Andre the Giant Memorial Midcard Purgatory, and then won the whole damn thing in a fairly pleasant shocker, finally dumping out Kane.
The Andre Battle Royal might have lost a whole bunch of its shine in the last few years, but hey this one made the main card, that’s gotta count for something right, and walking onto the main roster and in your very first match, winning a giant trophy with a legend on it by eliminating another legend to what was actually a pretty damn sizeable pop, that makes a hell of a statement.
Worst 4. The Ascension
I don’t understand this one. I don’t understand it.
So as hard as it is to believe it if you’ve only seen the appropriately named Wasteland that the Ascension occupied on the main roster, but in NXT the Ascension were something.
They ruled the NXT tag division as champions for an entire calendar year, and got over as roughneck clubbing pair of german-tinged uberbastards.
They debuted on Raw in December 2014 and that was decent enough, they beat Miz and Mizdow in fairly short-order, but then WWE made a BAFFLING left turn with how they presented the team.
On only their second week on the main roster, Ascension started directly comparing themselves to other facepaint tag team legends, Demolition and the Road Warriors (which first of all is weird because the Road Warriors were called Legion of Doom in WWE but hey ho) but then commentary, particularly JBL went on and on about how The Ascension were a bin bag of s**t when compared to either team, mocked them for only beating jobbers and generally doing their best to bury them as hard as possible.
WHY? Why you bastards? The angle paid off a few weeks later with Ascension being humiliated by a bunch of legends, including JBL, to an annoying amount of crowd response, but ruining an NXT team long-term for a single nostalgic segment, WWE you’re f**king insane.
Best 4. Paige
Let it never be forgotten that the Women’s Revolution in WWE didn’t begin with the Four Horsewomen, it began with Emma and it began with missed-every-single day, Anti-Diva, motherf**king Paige, and hell for a time, it seemed like WWE knew exactly the star it had in its hands, because she debuted on the main roster in one of the best moments of one of the best ever episodes of Raw.
In 2014, the night after WrestleMania 30, which saw AJ Lee retain her Divas Championship in just a terrible thresh of slaps, hair pulling and reality TV star, the Black Widow took to Raw to gloat.
Paige appeared, was given a match for the championship and won it to a thunderous ovation, and one of the best ‘I’ve just won a match’ facial reactions of all time. Instant megastar, and pretty much the blueprint for future NXT call-ups.
Wait until you’re in front of the smartest, most hardcore crowd of the year, debut someone that they know, love and respect, and have them make an immediate impact.
After a rather bleak showcase of the division the previous night, WWE electrified their women’s roster almost in an instant.
Shame Emma didn’t get the same treatment. Like it wasn’t awful but, do you remember Emma’s debut? Sorry Emma.
Worst 3. Charlotte
Nope, we’re not talking about the July 13 episode of Raw 2015, when Charlotte, Sasha and Becky Lynch all made waves in the wrestling industry by being called up on the same night by Stephanie McMahon, a god that created women in her own image. Thanks, Steph, for everything.
Nope, we’re talking about the secret main roster debut of Charlotte that WWE would be very happy if you plz forgot it.
On December 8, 2014, Charlotte strolled into Raw, wearing her NXT Women’s Championship no less, received a goddamn video package about how great she was, got an onscreen graphic hyping her title defense against Sasha Banks at Takeover Revolution in three days time, before then wrestling AND LOSING, in THREE MINUTES, to Natalya!!
F**king why?! WWE you explicitly framed this match as an advert for NXT Takeover, why would you have the champion, literally wearing her belt to the ring, lose?!!
It doesn’t make any sense, Natalya wasn’t even feuding with anyone… I … ARGHNGH
Best 3. Finn Balor
And talk about an instant star.
2015 was the year that NXT really broke through as a brand, the first arena Takeover at Takeover Brooklyn, the historic Banks vs. Bayley feud, the debut of three quarters of the horsemen being explicitly framed as a rescue mission for the main roster women’s division, and as 2015 rumbled on Finn Balor was the flagship star, the NXT Champion, the face that launched a thousand weird hats made of belts.
When Balor was finally called up to the main roster in 2016, they heralded it like the coming of Galactus and just doubling down on him every single week, like yeah, you can do that. Debut a star, tell us they’re good and have them prove it.
On the July 19 episode of Smackdown, the very first Smackdown Live, in the much-hyped WWE draft, Raw picked Finn Balor as their third choice, above John Cena, above Roman Reigns, above Lesnar, above Orton.
Check out the big dick on Finn. The very next week on Raw, Finn debuted to a huge ovation, the next week after that he wrestled two matches, including beating Roman Reigns clean to become a number one contender to the Universal Championship, which he won a few weeks later.
Talk about faith in a new star, unbelievable stuff. The wheels came off following a heartbreakingly timed injury, but it’s still a call-up for the ages.
Worst 2. Dominic Dijakovic, Mercedes Martinez, Shane Thorne and Mia Yim
I mean, thanks for the hard work everyone, cheers for building your name brand in NXT in hard-hitting match, after hard-hitting match after one of the best matches of the goddamn year with Keith Lee at Takeover.
Really appreciate it, anyway pop this mask on, have we got some juicy new names for you. You could make a serious case for Retribution being the worst WWE faction of all time, you really could.
They accomplished nothing, didn’t even get a single pay-per-view main card match as a unit, and half of them are still lumbered with those STUPID F**KING NAMES.
Dijakovic had one of the best feuds in NXT history with Keith Lee, who says WWE, all I see is T-Bar. Mercedes Martinez had wonderful matches with Rhea Ripley, sorry that’s Retaliation to you.
Mia Yim had awesome streetfights with Candice LeRae, ladder matches with Io Shirai, turns out she was in for a Reckoning, Shane Thorn became Slapjack, Dio Madden became Mace and everything was so uniquely terrible that half of the faction has fled in shame back to NXT where we’re all desperately trying to pretend it never happened, and the fact that they didn’t get to use their real names has become almost a blessing.
Poor Dominik. Poor poor Dominik. Save him.
Best 2. Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns, Dean Ambrose
Now that’s how you debut a faction, boys.
Use their NXT names, use that recognition to say, “oh damn, we should be worried about these guys”, have them show up at an important time like the main event of Survivor Series 2012 and have them do something important so that people have questions, they’re like the first proper NXT call-ups, they wrote the book on how to graduate from down there to up here and WWE showed that they knew how to f**king book ‘em.
Make em look cool (ok perhaps not the turtlenecks, but they disappeared after night 1), give em something they want – justice – and then have them f**king win.
Their first pay-per-view, TLC 2012, they won, the next pay-per-view they beat up The Rock, next pay-per-view they beat a team with John Cena in it, like yeah! That’s it! You’ve made us care, you’ve given us a reason to look forward to seeing these guys week on week.
Sure the success of The Shield is more down to WWE being able to hold their nerve and book them long-term, but when you name more impactful NXT call-ups, this is right there at the top, well, not quite, but we’ll get to that later, because oh no we have to talk about.
Worst 1. Karrion Kross
Maybe it feels too soon for this to be number 1, maybe Kross will recover and become better than Retribution, hell he almost definitely will but I couldn’t not put it at number one, because it’s just so baffling.
The idea that WWE would do this to a brand that they own, you realize that you own NXT, WWE, they make money for you, it’s mind-boggling.
Karrion Kross, a man with a killer manager, a killer entrance, and an undefeated streak, lost all three on the same f**king day, being rolled-up (illegally) by not-at-all protected Jeff Hardy, in 1 minute and 40 seconds.
Look before you say it, I get it, it could be the start of a story, it could result in Karrion Kross going on a murderous rampage through Raw like the next Braun Strowman (worked out great for him, huh) but it’s f**king insult, not just to Kross, but to all of the people who couldn’t beat Kross, to Balor, Gargano, Dunne, Lee, because this guy is the top of the NXT mountain, who wore their f**king belt to the ring, who almost burst into tears after being beaten by a 43-year-old who, in his last few televised matches has been beaten by AJ Styles, Sheamus, The Miz, John Morrison, and f**king Veer on Main Event.
The idea that months of booking, of hype, of packaging, of hard work, can be written away with the stroke of a booker’s pencil is f**king terrifying, unnecessary and especially cruel when you compare it with…
Best 1. Kevin Owens
The Shield debuted and beat people, absolutely, but they used the numbers game to do it, and most of the big names they beat weren’t the one who ended up eating the pin in whatever six-man tag they featured in.
The Shield didn’t pin John Cena, but Kevin Owens sure as hell did. On the May 18 episode of Raw in 2015, Kevin Owens strolled onto the main roster, carrying the NXT Championship, beat the crap out of John Cena, stamped on his US title and held his beauty loud and proud above his head.
Talk about giving people at home a reason to tune into the black and gold. Two weeks later, at Elimination Chamber 2015, Kevin Owens fought John Cena, the biggest name in the entire industry at the time, wrestled a 20-minute match and beat John Cena clean.
His first match on the main roster and Kevin Owens powerbombed the US Champion and pinned him, but not just that, Kevin Owens pinned John Cena, but not just that, the NXT Champion pinned John Cena, because what’s NXT should be, a proving ground, a place where ambition, dedication and character work pay off by giving you a name, a context, a presence so that when you burst onto the main roster you’re ready to Kill Owens Kill, and more than that, the main roster fans should feel lucky they get to see you.
Instead of … well… yeah
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