10 WWE Signings That Didn't Live Up To The Hype

9. Sami Callihan

solomon crowe
WWE.com

Another independent standout signed to much fanfare by WWE, many believed that Sami Callihan was going to be the man to take over from Sami Zayn as the darling of NXT, before heading to the main roster to even greater success. If Apollo Crews suffered by jumping to the main roster too quickly however, Callihan suffered from the very opposite issue.

Given the name Solomon Crowe (disappointingly not Joey Splashwater), Callihan spent what felt like forever working NXT live events, with no call to TV in sight. A few months after his first live appearance word leaked of Crowe working a hacker gimmick, and whilst many were skeptical, the idea was unique enough to work.

It would be over a year before he made his NXT TV debut however, attacking CJ Parker (now NJPW's Juice Robinson). By this point the ship had not only sailed on Crowe, but it had managed to complete its journey and return to port to pick up the latest collection of big independent signings. Solomon Crowe's opportunities on NXT were limited to say the least, and in December of 2015 he asked for his release.

There is a big chance that we'll see Sami Callihan return to NXT and WWE in the future, but for now his tenure must be described as disappointing.

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Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.