10 Embarrassing NXT-Era Creative Failures You Totally Forgot About
3. Solomon Crowe: Orange Hackerman
Though the promotion's business remains in the gutter, it speaks volumes of Impact Wrestling's current creative power that they've somehow turned indie-riffic crowd-brawling fetishist Sami Callihan into an acceptable TV performer - a feat WWE failed miserably at in 2015.
Little about his Solomon Crowe character made sense. Clad in an unflattering singlet and studded leather jacket, his skin was slapped in fake tan, and his hair spiked as if he were a cartoon character who'd stuck his fingers in an electrical outlet. Aesthetically, he was a heavy metal Oompa Loompa (alternatively: a Troll Doll that'd been left out in the sun too long), yet he was slapped with a hacker gimmick, which could've worked if WWE actually had him, y'know, hack stuff. Sadly, such things were mostly kept untelevised. House shows saw him use a tablet to screw with the building's lights and sound system, then spring a surprise attack, but the writers dialled back and diluted Crowe by the time he made air, and he was left without purpose.
It didn't help that Callihan (a crazed garbage wrestler at heart) was totally ill-suited to playing such a role, but Crowe was dead from the moment he arrived on NXT TV.