5 Former NXT Stars You Forgot Were On The Main Roster

Not everyone can be booked as strongly as Roman Reigns: occasionally a few stars slip through the cracks of the main roster and find themselves directionless in creative limbo. Many of NXT’s most promising talent ended up in this unfortunate predicament, with the majority of them failing to ever catch any form of momentum and be left to wait out their days on the occasional episode of Main Event. Some being former NXT Champions and others never really being given an opportunity to shine on the big stage.

We’re going to run down 5 former NXT stars that you totally forgot were even called up. Despite some minor successes here and there, ultimately these performers have found themselves in that horrible 10th circle of hell, the constant battle for screen-time in a traffic jam of talent.

 

1. AOP (Akam and Rezar)

Akam and Rezar were one of the rare cases of homegrown talent among the NXT locker room. The Authors of Pain came together and dominated the tag team division alongside their legendary manager Paul Ellering. They were crowned Tag Champions and were set up for quite the run as part of the main roster. It was hard not to see why Vince would become enamoured with them. After all, he’s been booking foreign monster heels since his first day on the job. Although things never really worked out for AOP on the main roster, ever since dropping Ellering as their manager, the two monsters quickly got lost in the shuffle.

Granted, the Authors did stumble upon the Raw Tag Team Championships during their initial run, but had one of the most forgettable title reigns of the modern era. The team suffered from being a man-down shortly after dropping the titles to the team of Chad Gable and Bobby Roode and have yet to resurface as part of Monday Night Raw.

NXT Tag Teams have never fared well on the main roster, even the more popular tandems of American Alpha and SAnitY found themselves split up after very brief appearances. But surely they’ll get it right with The Undisputed Era, right?

 

2. No Way Jose

The dancing dynamo from the Dominican Republic lasted about a fortnight before being shipped down to Main Event. No Way Jose barely made it out of the gate before Vince lost interest in him. Jose was doomed from the start with his very unoriginal gimmick — dancing wrestlers never seem to be taken seriously and it’s hard to argue that he wasn’t destined to struggle on the main roster.

No Way Jose has since found solitude as part of the 24/7 Championship scene and his #VoteForJose movement on social media. Where he has yet to pick up a 24/7 title reign, Jose has the chance to get himself over with what brought him to the dance – his charisma and natural charm. His personality is infectious, and if he’s going to get anywhere on the main roster, he needs to ride that smile all the way to the promised land.

That being said, I can’t even remember the last time I saw Jose in a match. I highly doubt we’ll be seeing him compete outside of live events anytime soon.

 

3. Bo Dallas

It’s hard to believe that Bo Dallas was once NXT Champion. The son of I.R.S managed to get himself over as one of the best heels on the developmental scene during the peak of his run. His genuinely infuriating ‘inspirational’ gimmick seemed to be a great fit for the main roster, and to WWE’s credit, they’ve tried on numerous occasions to try and give it some legs, but it’s never done Dallas any favours.

Bo is a fantastic talent and it’s a shame to have seen that go to waste on the main roster. Dallas’ semi-successful tag team with Curtis Axel has netted him some big victories over the likes of Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt, but ultimately the B-Team lived up to their moniker of being second to the top-tier performers on the main roster.

It’s a surprise that Bo is still kept off television, even after proving to be a fun character, he still can’t find a place in the undercard. Dallas could make for the perfect enhancement worker, or even a great managerial role. The possibilities for someone with limitless charisma are endless.

 

4. The Ascension

I have to take any opportunity to remind everyone that there are actually Ascension fans out there, and I happen to be one of the few that still proudly wear their merch to shows. Konnor and Viktor are another one of those NXT Tag Teams that just couldn’t get off the ground, despite having one of the most impressive runs prior to their main roster debut. The Ascension remain the longest reigning NXT Tag champs of all time, yet also hold the title of being the main roster’s biggest joke of a team.

After being utterly buried in their 2015 run by The New Age Outlaws and other legendary teams, The Ascension never managed to claw back any momentum. A few brief appearances here and there over the years have garnered them a reputation for being a couple of fun guys who make for a good laugh every now and then, but unfortunately that’s not going to bring back their status of being one of the most threatening units in professional wrestling.

With Tyler Breeze and Fandango making their return to the NXT Tag Team scene, it begs the question of whether The Ascension could head back to Full Sail and hit the reset button on their careers. I’d mark.

 

5. Robert Roode

Quite possibly the most criminal of misuses on the main roster was the rise and fall of Bobby Roode, or Robert Roode as he now likes to be called. ‘The Glorious One’ had it all going for him during his time in NXT. Je won the NXT title and headlined a handful of TakeOver events against the likes of Shinsuke Nakamura and Drew McIntyre. Roode fit the mold of a WWE superstar and was one of the most talked about call-ups in 2016. However, outside of his still-incredible theme song, Roode never really managed to get over in the same way once he dug his heels in on SmackDown Live.

Roode did manage to pick up the United States title around WrestleMania season, but eventually dropped it to Randy Orton after only a month. Since then, Roode sort of faded into the background. He did have a very brief run as Raw Tag Team Champion alongside Chad Gable, but the whole teaming felt very forced and despite having a few critically-acclaimed matches with The Revival on live events, they never really won the fans over on TV.

It seemed that Roode was undergoing a bit of a character-reboot with his new facial-hair centric persona, but Robert Roode has fallen into obscurity and has yet to make it onto an episode of Raw. It’s absurd that a talent of this caliber was left to fester on Main Event as Bobby Roode was a huge get for NXT and WWE as a whole, but became another name that was signed just for the sake of it.