10 WWE NXT Flops Who Should Have Been Huge
3. Derrick Bateman
Derrick Bateman is a unique NXT flop in that he has definitely become huge over the past few years, but without WWE’s help. As Ethan Carter III, his performances have been a rare bright spot throughout one of the most difficult periods in TNA’s history. He’s one of their most important wrestlers, and someone who has proved WWE were wrong to let him go by succeeding in Impact’s main event scene.
A former FCW trainee, Bateman’s NXT run began in the reality show’s fourth season, when he was paired with Daniel Bryan. He failed, but reappeared in the fifth season, before entering a turgid romance angle with Maxine and Johnny Curtis. By 2012, Bateman became a full-time developmental wrestler once again, and was restricted to playing a losing role to the brand’s more celebrated prospects.
He was released in May 2013, and his subsequent work proves that WWE had no idea what they had in him. EC3 isn’t exactly AJ Styles between the ropes, but his charisma is through the roof, and he oozes the star-power that Vince McMahon usually demands from his top stars. Hindsight’s 20/20, of course, but he was a huge WWE developmental flop.