There's nothing like the big show, or is there? NXT call-ups to the WWE can go either way - some careers are launched into stardom overnight, and some straight into the dumpster. Adam Blampied breaks down the 5 best and 5 worst NXT call-ups in NXT history.
0:00 - Introduction
WORST
1:19 - #5
3:20 - #4
5:44 - #3
8:01 - #2
10:14 - #1
BEST
2:37 - #5
4:37 - #4
6:43 - #3
9:10 - #2
11:37 - #1
#WWE #WWETop10 #NXT
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0:00 - Introduction
WORST
1:19 - #5
3:20 - #4
5:44 - #3
8:01 - #2
10:14 - #1
BEST
2:37 - #5
4:37 - #4
6:43 - #3
9:10 - #2
11:37 - #1
#WWE #WWETop10 #NXT
WrestleTalk Podcasts are moving here https://bit.ly/3pEAEIu
Adam Blampied's lists are moving here https://bit.ly/32JJsCv
Wrestling Daily has moved here https://bit.ly/3j3BXOZ
WrestleTalk stays here https://goo.gl/WfYA12 |
SUBSCRIBE TO THEM ALL! Make sure to enable ALL push notifications!
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/partsfunknown
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/partsfunknown/
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SportsTranscript
00:00 Well, okay, let's talk about this because Jesus tap dancing Christ, even a week on I'm still
00:05 steaming, steaming about the Carrion Cross call up. We'll get into it in more detail deeper into
00:09 the list. Spoiler, it's number one because of course it is. But God, WWE is such a backwards
00:14 company sometimes. It is quite literally backwards to see stars see their stock rise
00:19 when they go back to the developmental brand. It's so backwards to feel sorry for people leaving
00:25 developmental and venturing to the land where the big bucks are made because we're afraid that
00:28 their drawing power will be diminished. And it's backwards because the company have occasionally
00:33 demonstrated that they actually really know how to do this right. It's a five worst list and also
00:38 a five best list because sometimes WWE have proven, you know, exactly how to create new stars
00:43 in a single night. Oh boy, this was a frustrating list to make, but here goes nothing. To be clear,
00:49 this isn't the list about long-term call ups, seeing NXT stars like Asuka slowly diminished
00:54 over time on the main roster. This is about main roster debuts, the first few weeks, heck,
00:59 maybe even the first night. I'm Adam hailing from parts of unknown and here are the five worst and
01:04 five best NXT main roster debuts. Which superstar do you think got the rawest deal when making their
01:10 main roster debut? Let us know in the comments. Make sure you subscribe to parts of unknown as
01:13 well if you haven't already. It's super easy to forget to do so, but honestly, doing so really
01:18 helps us out a lot. Worst number five, the Viking Raiders, except that wasn't their name, was it?
01:23 No, it wasn't. It really f***ing wasn't. Prior to signing with WWE, the men now known as Ivar
01:29 and Eric were Hanson and Rowe, aka War Machine, which is a stupidly cool name, if a little
01:35 provocative to Disney's lawyers. Easily the most terrifying faction in all of entertainment,
01:39 Rody says hi. Perhaps understandably, their names in NXT were changed. They were still
01:44 Hanson and Rowe, but now they were War Raiders, which is actually hard to say out loud than you
01:49 think it is, but hey, it's still good. It's still good. They were undefeated, hugely dominant,
01:53 put on tag classics with Black and Ricochet, for example. The main roster thought, cool,
01:57 we'll have them, debuted them, not as War Machine, not as War Raiders, but as, pause for dread,
02:04 the Viking Experience. It's still good. It's still good. It's gone. I know. F***ing Viking
02:11 Experience. Ironically sounding like a ride at Disneyland, not even a good ride, like an Epcot
02:16 ride. And just like that, your dominant, undefeated, former NXT Tag Champions are a
02:22 party city laughingstock. Good job. In a rare case of WWE backing down under scrutiny, their
02:27 names were changed again, this time to the Viking Raiders, but the damage was done. Also,
02:32 WWE then continued to call their finisher, the Viking Experience, because f*** us, that's why.
02:37 Best number five, Baron Corbin. Poor Baron Corbin. I actually think what they're doing
02:41 with him now at the moment, divorce dad, showing up to his ex-wife's wedding to her new partner,
02:46 and just eating a whole bunch of volovonts and being sad, is pretty interesting. But hopes were
02:50 once high for the lone wolf of NXT. At WrestleMania 32, comfortably one of the worst WrestleManias,
02:55 let's not forget, Bazaar Corb Corb showed up in the Andre the Giant Memorial mid-card purgatory,
02:59 and then won the whole damn thing in a fairly pleasant shocker, finally dumping out Kane.
03:03 The Andre Battle Roar might have lost a whole bunch of its shine the last few years, but hey,
03:07 this one at least made the main card. That's got to count for something. And walking onto the main
03:11 roster, and in your very first match, winning a giant trophy with a legend on it by eliminating
03:15 another legend to what was actually a pretty damn sizable pop, that makes a hell of a statement.
03:21 Worst number four, The Ascension. I don't understand this one. I don't understand. So
03:27 as hard as it is to believe if you've only seen the appropriately named wasteland that The Ascension
03:32 occupied on the main roster, but in NXT, The Ascension were something. They ruled the NXT
03:36 Tag Division as champions for an entire calendar year, and got over as a roughneck clubbing pair
03:41 of German tinged uber bastards. They debuted on Raw in December 2014. That was decent enough.
03:47 They beat Miz and MizDown fairly short order, but then WWE made a baffling left turn with how they
03:52 presented them. On only their second week on the main roster, Ascension started directly comparing
03:57 themselves to other face paint tag team legends, Demolition and The Road Warriors, which first of
04:02 all is weird because The Road Warriors were called Legion of Doom in WWE, but hey ho. And then
04:06 commentary, particularly JBL, went on and on about how The Ascension were a bin bag of sh*t when
04:12 compared to either legend team, mocking them for only beating jobbers and generally doing their
04:17 best to bury them as hard as possible. Why? Why you bastards? The angle paid off a few weeks later
04:22 with Ascension being humiliated by a bunch of legends, including JBL and excluding Demolition
04:26 and Road Warriors, to an annoying amount of crowd response and honestly ruining an NXT tag team
04:32 long term for a single nostalgic segment WWE. You are f*cking insane.
04:37 Best number 4, Paige. Let it never be forgotten that the women's revolution in WWE didn't begin
04:42 with the four horsewomen, it began with Emma and it began with Myst every single day, and TD the
04:47 motherf*cking Paige. And hell, for a time it seemed like WWE knew exactly the star it had in its
04:52 hands, because she debuted on the main roster in one of the best NXT call ups ever. In 2014,
04:56 the night after WrestleMania 30, which saw AJ Lee retain her Divas Championship in just a
05:01 terrible thresh of slaps, hair pulling and reality TV stars, the Black Widow took to Raw to gloat,
05:07 Paige appeared, was given a match for the championship and won it to a thunderous
05:11 ovation and one of the best "I've just won a match" facial reactions of all time. Instant
05:16 megastar and pretty much the blueprint for future NXT call ups. Wait until you're in front of the
05:21 smartest, most hardcore crowd of the year, debut someone they know, love and respect,
05:25 and have them make an immediate impact. After a rather bleak showcase of the division the
05:29 previous night, WWE electrified their women's roster almost in an instant. Shame Emma didn't
05:35 get the same treatment of course, like it wasn't awful, but remember Emma's debut?
05:40 She was a lady in the crowd with a sign. Sorry Emma.
05:45 Worst number 3, Charlotte. No we're not talking about the July 13th episode of Raw 2015,
05:50 when Charlotte, Sasha and Becky Lynch all made waves in the wrestling industry by being called
05:54 up on the same night by Stephanie McMahon, a god that created women in her own image.
05:58 Thanks Steph for everything. No we're talking about the secret main roster debut of Charlotte
06:02 that WWE would be very happy if you please forgot about. On December 8th 2014, Charlotte strolled
06:08 onto Raw wearing her NXT Women's Championship no less, received a goddamn video package about how
06:14 great she was, got an on screen graphic hyping her title defense against Sasha Banks at Takeover
06:19 R Evolution in 3 days time before wrestling to Natalya and losing in 3 minutes. What? WWE,
06:27 you explicitly framed this match as an advert for NXT Takeover, the NXT Women's Championship,
06:33 and why when you have the champion literally wearing the belt to the ring,
06:37 why would you have her lose? It doesn't make any sense, Natalya wasn't even feuding with anyone.
06:41 Best number 3, Finn Balor. And talk about an instant megastar. 2015 was the year that NXT
06:50 really broke through as a brand. The first arena takeover at Takeover Brooklyn,
06:54 the historic Banks vs Bayley feud, the debut of 3/4 of the horsewomen being explicitly framed as
07:00 a rescue mission for the main roster women's division. And as that year 2015 rumbled on,
07:04 Finn Balor was the flagship star of NXT, the NXT champion, the face that launched a thousand weird
07:10 hats made of belts. When Balor was finally called up to the main roster in 2016, they heralded it
07:15 like the coming of Galactus and just doubled down on him every single week. Like yeah you can do
07:21 that. Debut a star, tell us they're good and have them prove it. It works. On the July 19th episode
07:27 of Smackdown, the very first Smackdown Live, in the much hyped WWE Draft, Raw picked Finn Balor
07:32 as their third choice. Above John Cena, above Roman Reigns, above Brock Lesnar. Check out the
07:38 big dick on Finn the very next week on Raw. Finn debuted to a huge ovation. The next week after
07:43 that he wrestled two matches, including beating Roman Reigns clean to become a number one contender
07:48 to the Universal Championship, which he won a few weeks later at SummerSlam. Talk about faith in a
07:53 new star. Unbelievable stuff. The wheels came off following a heartbreakingly timed injury,
07:59 but it is still a call up for the ages. Worst number two, Dominik Dijakovic, Mercedes Martinez,
08:05 Shane Thorne and Mia Yim. I mean thanks for the hard work everyone. Cheers for building your name
08:09 brand in NXT after a hard hitting match, after a hard hitting match, after one of the best
08:13 matches of the goddamn year with Keith Lee at TakeOver. Really appreciate it. Anyway, pop this
08:17 mask on. Have we got some juicy new names for you? You can make a serious case for Retribution
08:22 being the worst WWE faction of all time. You really could. They accomplished nothing, didn't
08:26 even get a pay-per-view main card match as a unit, and half of them are still lumbered with those
08:31 stupid f***ing names. Dijakovic had one of the best feuds in NXT history with Keith Lee. Who,
08:38 says WWE? All I see is T-Bar. Mercedes Martinez had wonderful matches with Rhea Ripley. Sorry,
08:44 that's retaliation to you. Mia Yim had some awesome street fights with Candice LeRae,
08:48 ladder matches with Io Shirai. Turns out she was in for a reckoning. Shane Thorne became Slapjack,
08:53 Dio Madden became Mace, and everything was so uniquely terrible that half of the faction has
08:58 fled in shame back to NXT, where we're all desperately trying to pretend it never happened.
09:02 And the fact they didn't even get to use their real names has become almost a blessing. Poor
09:06 Dominik. Poor, poor Dominik. Someone save him. Best number two, Seth Rollins, Roman Reigns,
09:12 and Dean Ambrose. Now that is how you debut a faction, boys. Use the NXT names,
09:18 use that recognition to say, "Oh, damn, we should be worried about these guys." Have them show up
09:21 at an important time, like the main event of Survivor Series 2012, and have them do something
09:26 important so that the people have questions. They're like the first proper NXT call-ups. They
09:31 wrote the book on how to graduate from down there to up here, and WWE showed they knew how to f***ing
09:37 book them. Make them look cool. Okay, maybe not the turtlenecks, but they disappeared after night
09:41 one. Give them something they want, justice, then have them win all the time. Their first
09:47 pay-per-view, TLC 2012, they won. The next pay-per-view, they beat up The Rock. After that,
09:51 they beat up a team with John Cena in it. They won at WrestleMania. Like, that's it. You've made
09:55 us care. You've given us a reason to look forward to seeing these guys week on week. Sure, the
10:00 success of The Shield is more down to WWE being able to hold their nerve and book them long term,
10:04 but when you name more impactful NXT main roster debuts, this is right up there at the top. Maybe
10:10 not quite at the top, but we'll get to that later because, oh no, we have to talk about worst number
10:15 one, Karrion Kross. Maybe it feels too soon for this to be number one. Maybe Kross will recover
10:21 and become better than Retribution. Hell, he almost definitely will, but I couldn't not put it
10:26 at number one because it's just so baffling. The idea that WWE would do this to a brand that they
10:31 own. You realize you own NXT, WWE. They make money for you. It's mind-boggling. Karrion Kross,
10:37 a man with a killer manager, a killer entrant, and an undefeated streak, lost all three on the
10:42 same f***ing night, being rolled up illegally by not at all protected Jeff Hardy in one minute
10:49 and 40 seconds. Look, before you say it, I get it. It could be the start of a story. It could result
10:54 in Karrion Kross going on a murderous rampage through Raw like the next Braun Strowman worked
10:59 out great for him, huh? But it's a f***ing insult, not just to Kross, but to all the people who
11:04 couldn't beat Kross, to Balor, Gargano, Dunne, Lee, because this guy is the top of the NXT mountain.
11:10 He wore their belt to the ring. He almost burst into tears after being beaten by a 43-year-old,
11:16 who in his last few televised matches has been beaten by AJ Styles, Sheamus, The Miz,
11:22 John Morrison, and f***ing Veer on main event. The idea that months of booking, of hype, of
11:27 packaging, of hard work can be written away with the stroke of a book as pencil is so terrifying.
11:33 Unnecessary and especially cruel when you compare it with best number one, Kevin Owens.
11:40 The Shield debuted and beat people, absolutely, but they used the numbers game to do it, and
11:45 most of the big names they beat weren't the one who ended up eating the pin in whatever six-man
11:49 tag they featured in. The Shield didn't pin John Cena, but Kevin Owens sure as hell did.
11:54 On the May 18th episode of Raw in 2015, Kevin Owens strolled onto the main roster,
11:59 carrying the NXT Championship, beat up John Cena, stamped on his US title, and held his beauty
12:06 loud and proud above his head. Talk about giving people at home a reason to tune into the black
12:11 and gold. Two weeks later, at Elimination Chamber 2015, Kevin Owens fought John Cena,
12:16 the biggest name in the entire industry at the time, wrestled a 20-minute match, and beat him
12:22 clean. His first match on the main roster, and Kevin Owens powerbombed the US champion
12:26 and pinned him. But not just that, Kevin Owens pinned John Cena. But not just that,
12:31 the NXT Champion pinned John Cena. Because that's what NXT should be, a proving ground,
12:37 a place where ambition, dedication, and character work pays off by giving you a name, a context,
12:43 a presence, so that when you burst onto the main roster, you're ready to kill Owens' kill.
12:48 And more than that, the main roster fans should feel lucky that they get to see you, instead of,
12:54 well, yeah.
12:57 And that's our list. What are your favourite and least favourite NXT main roster debuts?
13:01 Let us know in the comments. Don't forget to like and share this video around if you enjoyed it,
13:04 and make sure again you subscribe to PartsFunknown for more silly wrestling content. Jam that jam.