NXT names to team with WWE main roster stars: Who else could form alliances on Raw & SmackDown?

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A number of recent WWE main roster call-ups have seen former NXT stars align themselves with established Raw and SmackDown wrestlers.

These include Tatum Paxley, who wrestles alongside Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss, as well as OTM, with Lucien Price and Bronco Nima forming the 946 faction with Royce Keys.

With rumors swirling about more call-ups from NXT, there are several other stars who we could soon see join forces with recognisable faces on the red and blue brands.

Here are three NXT stars who could soon team with main roster names.

Naraku & Bakusai (Shinsuke Nakamura & Kyoki)

After weeks of teases, Shinsuke Nakamura formed a new tag-team on SmackDown with Kyoki, the star formerly known as Hiromu Takahashi in NJPW.

While the duo were successful in their tag-team debut against Kit Wilson & The Miz on August 28, they were unable to take down The MFTs on September 18, with Haku interfering to force a disqualification.

With the duo outnumbered on Friday’s show, we could see Kyoki enlist the help of his former Los Ingobernables de Japon teammate, Naraku.

With Kyoki skipping NXT, this would be an interesting way to reference his past with the star formerly known as “EVIL”, while also helping Shinsuke Nakamura achieve his goal of causing the downfall of The MFTs.

Jackson Drake & Je’Von Evans

This may seem like a rogue choice, if you don’t know of the pre-WWE history between Raw’s Je’Von Evans, and NXT North American Champion Jackson Drake.

Evans and Drake are lifelong best friends who previously teamed together as “The Wrestling Prodigies” from 2019 to 2023.

While most of the duo’s matches as teammates took place in independent promotion Fire Star Pro-Wrestling, Drake and Evans (fka Jay Malachi) notably teamed with Oliver Sawyer against Jay Lethal, Jeff Jarrett and Satnam Singh on the February 28, 2023 AEW Dark episode.

AEW’s Shawn Dean previously noted that he scouted Drake and Evans after watching the duo have “the best three minute match I’ve ever seen in my life” in FSPW.

With Je’Von Evans and Jackson Drake clearly having a lot of in-ring chemistry, it would make a lot of sense to see the duo team up on WWE TV.

Zilla Fatu & The Bloodline

Zilla Fatu is the latest member of the Anoa’i/Fatu family to debut in WWE, making his first appearance for the company on the August 11 edition of NXT.

While Zilla is currently finding his footing in NXT, there has been some speculation about him joining his cousins in the Bloodline on Raw.

With Royce Keys, Lucien Price and Bronco Nima repeatedly targeting The Usos, and recent friction between Jacob Fatu and Roman Reigns, the Bloodline faction is in need of someone to seal the cracks.

We could see Zilla Fatu follow in the footsteps of Solo Sikoa and have a brief stint in NXT, before being taken under his wing by his real-life family member, Roman Reigns.

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