5 Best & 5 Worst NXT Call-Ups

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.

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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

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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.

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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.

• Karrion Kross
• Adam Blampied
• nxt
• wwe

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