Reason Popular WWE Star Wasn’t Called Up To Main Roster With Faction Revealed

WWE

The reason that a popular star wasn’t called up to the main roster from WWE NXT with the rest of the faction has been revealed.

Although Nikki Cross is now a fixture on the WWE main roster, she wouldn’t make the move from NXT with her SAnitY teammates.

Eric Young, Killian Dain and Axel Tischer would all be called up in WWE Superstar Shake-Up of April 2018 and would debut on the main roster in that summer.

Nikki Cross, however, would remain in NXT until her debut in November 2018.

Former head writer of WWE SmackDown Brian “Road Dogg” James recently discussed the decision on his Oh… You Didn’t Know podcast, revealing:

“Look, I always think about stuff like this and this, you have to look at it from a business standpoint is how many people am I gonna bring up that I have to send on the road every live event?

“Do I have to buy four tickets? Do I have to buy six? Do I just buy two that are working?”

Clearly looking at this from a financial as opposed to a creative perspective, James considered the financial reasons and bringing an extra and unnecessary person on the road.

James would go on to further explore the business side of the decision, saying:

“For the viewer, that feels funny. Like, ‘Oh, they came up and she didn’t.’ But so much thinking went into that before that decision was made.

“It was all weighed out in monies and dollars and cents because it’s a business and so you gotta think about that stuff before you just make those decisions.

“It was decided that she won’t come up now. She’ll come up later on her own in the women’s division so, I think she showed up later with them or something and that went for a minute and then he wanted to go in a different direction so, look, I love Big Damo, Eric Young, huge fan of EY. Friend as well. Just couldn’t be happier with all those guys.

“It just didn’t work out and that’s not their fault.”

Axel Tischer and Killian Dain would be released from their WWE contracts in May and June 2021 respectively.

Eric Young was released in April 2020 but re-signed with the company in November 2022, though hasn’t been seen on WWE television.

Since moving to the main roster, Nikki Cross has been WWE Raw Women’s Champion and WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion.

She was also the eleven-time and final WWE 24/7 Champion.

Transcript from Post Wrestling.

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• nikki cross
• SAnitY
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