8 Times WWE Dropped The Ball With Alex Riley
6. Not Winning NXT Season 2
From Daniel Bryan to Wade Barrett to Skip Sheffield, there were several rookies involved in the inaugural season of NXT that had the potential to be stars. But that wasn't quite the case with the subsequent season, aside from Alex Riley.
It's no coincidence Bryan was eliminated first from NXT because he wasn't hand-picked by officials to be the winner. Likewise, they weren't high on Kaval, either, but he was the one who continued to rank higher in the fan polls over Riley despite losing the majority of his matches.
Riley had the look, charisma and the mic skills to be a breakout heel. That was his season to win. After all, even prior to when he was ultimately eliminated from the competition in shocking fashion on the season finale, he was already accompanying Miz down to ringside for his matches, so it was apparent officials had plans for him in the long-haul.
Although he didn't win the contract, he ended up on Raw anyway. Meanwhile, the eventual winner Kaval was released a mere three months later. The show's credibility tanked from that point forward, and thus Riley would have been better off the victor.