10 Most Surprisingly Successful NXT Graduates

5. Alexa Bliss

Not unlike Becky Lynch, Alexa Bliss showed expressive traits and big personality that took her from a bit player in NXT to a dominating presence in both Raw and Smackdown Live’s Women’s divisions.

The Goddess who stands at ‘Five Feet of Fury’ has steadily improved in the ring, but it is her undeniably excellent facial expressions and character that has propelled her to the heights she has achieved since being called up. William Regal could hardly do much better than Alexa’s looks of disgust, frustration, and sheer evil, and there is no greater comparison than that. Her ability to sneer or dismiss her opponent with utter disdain is endlessly entertaining and not only gives her gravitas which belies her size, it crucially makes her into something larger than life. That quality is one of the most important things a wrestler can have in WWE.

While still having room to improve between the ropes if she wants to have the truly ‘Trish Stratus’ type of impact she seems destined for, Alexa radiates confidence and control in her role. Her diminutive stature hasn’t held her back one bit, and she has plenty of years ahead of her to cement a career trajectory that seemed completely outside of her grasp before she graduated NXT.

Now a 2-time champion on both Raw and Smackdown, Alexa is clearly the biggest success story of the women’s division on the main rosters. To illustrate that fact, Alexa is the one gracing the current No Mercy ad campaign to boot. No small feat.

 

4. Elias

By any stretch of the imagination, Elias was largely a failure in NXT. He was almost instantly rejected and reviled by the fans despite having a legitimate musical aptitude which usually garners instant affection from the Full Sail crowd. His matches were formulaic and simple to the point that no one was finding anything unique or entertaining there, either. All in all, Elias brought few attributes to the table others didn’t far exceed him at and his win-loss record reflected the bleak outlook.

That is why Elias’ success since arriving on Monday Night Raw after Wrestlemania 33 has been such a surprising revelation. It is only eclipsed by even more stunning surprises higher on this list due to him still being so early into his main roster career.

Elias’ introduction to the WWE Universe at large was uncharacteristically restrained, The Drifter appearing skulking among the crowd or backstage for mere moments of the show for several weeks. This created a strange intrigue that already eclipsed his meager prospects. Subsequently, he got literal spotlight segments in the middle of the ring where he directly antagonised the fans with his songs and then interacted with a superstar as high profile as Finn Balor. These steps only helped Elias capture some legitimate standing on the main Raw roster right off the bat.

The smart decision to not have Elias decisively lose to the former Universal Champion in their feud helped him maintain momentum rather than send him crashing down the card as many predicted. In an unexpected but welcome and surprising turn of events, his segments have been gathering cheers as much as boos due to his skill on the guitar, especially recently when he got chants of ‘encore’. Elias capitalised and played to them extremely well to the point he is in a unique position on the roster that could send him in any of a dozen directions with a chance to further improve his standing.

He may eventually come back down to earth due to his steadily improving but still limited move-set, but the man has given himself a chance and with improvement in key areas could end up becoming the ultimate surprise of NXT graduates. As of now, he is far from likely to drift away.

 

3. Jinder Mahal

Jinder Mahal competed in the very first NXT Championship tournament, ultimately losing in a match against Seth Rollins (in hindsight a strangely significant match given their futures) and competed on the brand sporadically until his initial release. Up until 6 months ago, he still would not have warranted mention but ‘surprise’ doesn’t quite do justice to the Modern Day Maharajah’s ascent on Smackdown Live since Wrestlemania this year.

From his thud of a return to WWE in 2016 where he was an advocate for peace and tranquility, to being the third wheel in lackluster anger management sketches with Enzo Amore (remember those?), to being the lesser member of a loosely defined tag team with Rusev, Jinder was not on anyone’s radar heading into the second quarter of 2017. While he had evidently gotten into tremendous shape and given himself the nickname ‘Hardbody Mahal’, it hadn’t affected his middling matches or below average winning percentages.

That all changed when out of nowhere he won a 6-pack challenge match over the likes of more fancied opposition to face Randy Orton for the WWE Championship at Backlash. One even more monumentally surprising win later, and Jinder Mahal was not only the 50th WWE Champion but he is now one of the most successful wrestlers to ever go through NXT and attain success on the main WWE rosters. Even more surprising in many ways because his main roster success came after so much of a delay and even with an exit from the company hindering him to boot.

Time will tell if he is a flash in the pan or a fixture in the upcoming years, but at only 31 years old he is on the younger side and potentially still yet to hit his prime, so Jinder could yet attain even higher altitudes within WWE now that he is in the record books with some of the greats. Sometimes “surprising” doesn’t even properly cover it.

 

2. Xavier Woods

Xavier Woods is a testament to what you can do when you focus on your strengths and highlight them until the rest of you catches up. More than that though, he is deceptively legitimising himself over the course of his run with The New Day and could be the surprise breakout star of the three of them that no one saw coming.

Xavier Woods was a middle of the road act in NXT, his big hair and smile making him notable enough but not significant even among the lighter field at the time compared to latter NXT rosters. Nevertheless, he graduated to the main roster and quickly languished in programs with Brodus Clay and R-Truth, racking up losses that seemed in line with his NXT prospects. His progress seemed to be commensurate with those sporadic NXT achievements with no end in sight, but then The New Day happened.

After a rocky start, Xavier and The New Day exploded in WWE, gaining championships and records as an ultra successful unit, Xavier establishing himself as the main mouthpiece of the group. Along with his consistently entertaining presence in and around the ring, thanks to his series of catchphrases and trumpets named Francesca, as well as his online profile as a likable video game enthusiast, Woods is growing his exposure inside and outside WWE, usually a difficult prospect for even the highest tier superstars.

Critically for Xavier, on WWE programming the common factor to The New Day’s early progress was that when they won Xavier was on the outside with his trumpet, and when New Day lost he was in the ring taking the pin or submission. He was presented as the weak link physically while being invaluable as a manager type when they succeeded. That has changed significantly in recent times and is the main reason Xavier appears so highly on this list.

Xavier has gone from being primarily the main man on the mic and the third wheel in the ring to being the toughest presented member of the faction as he kicks out of numerous finishing situations after devastating offense, along with adding new spectacular moves to his repertoire like the rope-walk flying elbow drop. In their previous tag team championship reign, Woods actually scored the winning pinfall for the first time in his career, and the significance of that should not be overlooked. All of a sudden Xavier Woods could be argued to be the most dangerous member of The New Day, and that development stands him on the precipice of a big future.

Xavier Woods has shown a natural character progression from manager to champion, not overly dissimilar to DDP before him, and that has him on a subtle but significant trajectory to capturing major gold in the future if he can keep the momentum he has created up to now.

 

1. Braun Strowman

A few months into his main roster career, the prospect of Braun Strowman being much more than the designated heavy for the already heavy-laden Wyatt Family was slim. Now he is one of the most consistently excellent things on WWE Raw each week and a perfectly viable contender to Brock Lesnar’s Universal Championship. Not bad for a man who began in NXT as one of Adam Rose’s Rosebuds.

Where other superstars excel by hiding weaknesses and highlighting strengths, Strowman is the definition of it. His initially limited abilities quickly evolved into a skillset that has been hugely entertaining to watch, most of all when directed at Roman Reigns. Strowman’s bellows of “I’m Not Finished With You” provided some of the purest entertainment Raw has seen from a man his size in ages. His monstrous voice along with his hulking presence would be enough for WWE to want to make the most of him, but his towering feats of strength complete the package, giving the ‘Brawny Strongman’ credence with the way he launches other superstars with ease all over the arena. From Kalisto to Apollo Crews to Big Show, Strowman lives up to his billing as the ‘Monster Among Men’ no matter the stature of the ‘men’ in question.

WWE so far seems to have done nearly everything right with Strowman, from the little things like adjusting his haircut so he looks less like a fully grown mutant baby, to the major things like having his character actually remember continuity, like when he saved Kevin Owens’ Universal title reign because he had been promised a title shot if he did. Those things added together with his monstrous talent evolving daily have Braun on the cusp of capturing the highest current title in WWE, and he would not look out of place with it around his waist.

For those reasons, Braun Strowman is definitely the most surprising success story to come out of NXT.