10 Wrestlers Who Never Recovered From Awful Debuts
2. The Ascension
In another case of an act working a treat on NXT, but unfortunately not resonating with a main roster audience, here we have Konnor and Viktor of The Ascension.
The pair completely dominated the NXT Tag Team division during their time on the black and yellow show, holding the NXT Tag Team Championships for almost a full year. Then, a few months after their reign had reached its end, Konnor and Viktor were given the nod and made their official WWE debuts on Monday Night Raw during the last red show of 2014.
Yet, when the Road Warrior-esque team turned up to take on the duo of The Miz and Damien Mizdow, they weren't greeted with the warm response they were no doubt hoping for.
Going from edgy and cool to dated and goofy in a matter of minutes, The Ascension struggled to elicit much noise from the live crowd and it became clear early on that WWE didn't have much faith in the performers or the gimmick on show.
Admittedly, there were a few limp attempts to mark the team out as a credible threat during their surprisingly long stay on the main roster. But, Konnor and Viktor never really adjusted to life on Raw and Smackdown after their poor arrival, and their releases inevitably came in December 2019.