7 Wrestlers WWE Called Up In The WORST Way Possible
Getting the nod for a jump from NXT to Raw or SmackDown? BLOODY NIGHTMARE.
One of the more enjoyable aspects of WWE life after the departure of Vince McMahon is that talent being called up from NXT have a much better chance of success. Years of hard work from talent and NXT creative, building stories and characters that form the nucleus of what they hope will be a long-lasting and successful career, is no longer at the whim of a man in his 80s. That, to quote DDP, "is a good thing".
The talent on this list wasn't so fortunate.
For these people, so many of their efforts were rendered useless in the most pivotal period of their entire careers. Their debuts and subsequent openings saw them starting their runs handicapped by terrible creative, unnecessary rebrands and negligent booking.
So, as all of our hopes are with the likes of Sol Ruca, Joe Hendry, and 'All Ego' Ethan Page as they begin their main roster sprints, spare a thought for this list of performers who had their call-ups wrecked almost instantly. For all of the online criticism, it's comforting to remind ourselves that some things have improved drastically under this creative regime.
7. DIY (Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano)
Some people are just made for each other, and Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano feel destined to create war together forever, both as opponents and as a team. Their union and consequent feuds in NXT are the stuff of legend and have a real case to be the best rivalry ever put together in WWE's developmental system.
The pair debuting as a tag team and taking on the likes of The Revival and Sheamus and Cesaro isn't a bad thing in isolation. DIY are a great unit who can put on thrilling matches with anyone they are faced with. The problem is that they had been embroiled in one of the most bitter, fierce, emotionally draining feuds for 2 YEARS in NXT, only for this to be entirely forgotten for the sake of Vince McMahon thinking that they would fit better as a tag on WWE's main roster.
This was a disaster.
To spend literally years building up a blood feud between 2 of the hardest-working and most believable talents in the whole of WWE only to act like it didn't happen sent a terrible message to fans of both the main roster and NXT. It said "NXT doesn't matter" in bold neon letters.
If the stories being told and the personas being created in NXT were just going to be dropped as soon as talent hit the main roster, then why would fans invest in it at all? Through no fault of Ciampa or Gargano, this was a massive misfire that was a detriment to both men, no matter how good DIY would go on to be.