8 Wrestlers Who Stayed In NXT Far Too Long
6. Tyler Breeze
Tyler Breeze’s main roster struggles come through misuse more than anything else. He’s a strong worker with decent charisma and a solid heel gimmick, but he has been given little opportunity to showcase his talents. A star in NXT, he quickly became a jobber on the main roster, but at least he’s slotting into a fun role as one half of SmackDown’s resident fashion police, Breezango.
Breeze entered WWE developmental when FCW became NXT (2012), and he peaked in September 2014. He, Sami Zayn, Neville, and Tyson Kidd made for an exciting main event scene at Full Sail University, but Breeze fell out of title contention after falling at TakeOver: Fatal 4-way. He played “jobber to the stars” for guys like Hideo Itami and Apollo Crews, and was eventually called-up to the main roster 13 months later.
As soon as he stopped competing for the NXT Championship, Breeze should’ve been on his way to Raw and SmackDown. It’s not like his skills were under-developed by that point: the guy was regularly having some of NXT’s better matches, and certainly wouldn’t have looked out of place on the bigger stage. We all know how his main roster career has turned out, but his NXT purpose had expired at least a year before his call-up.