5 Best & 5 Worst NXT Call-Ups

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.

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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…

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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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• Karrion Kross
• Adam Blampied
• nxt
• wwe

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