10 Worst First Days For WWE NXT Call-Ups
1. Karrion Kross
During one of his once-iconic Attitude Era rants, Jim Cornette had just rattled off a pretty great line about Roddy Piper and Hulk Hogan depriving ringsiders of oxygen during their 1997 "Age In The Cage" Halloween Havoc main event when he punctuated his joke by noting that "it would have been funny if it wasn't so sad".
This line perhaps best sums up Karrion Kross' first day on Monday Night Raw.
July 19th 2021 was the NXT Champion's 36th birthday, and making the leap from a smaller show to the company's former flagship was certainly cause for celebration, in theory. Little did he probably realise that he'd be out there in less time than it took to blow the candles out on his cake.
A loss to Jeff Hardy in just 1:40 was a miserable, humbling experience made even worse by the lack of smoke and mirrors in his entrance, total disappearance of Scarlett from his act and a cheap f*cking roll-up for the finish. Kross had to cut a promo after the fact amounting to an approximation of "ah well I'll get him next time and that's the real quiz!" but much like Hardy's bizarrely beloved old theme, he's gonna need More Than Words to make some new believers after this.