Every Original WWE NXT Black & Gold Roster Member - Where Are They Now?
29. Kassius Ohno
What was he doing at the time?
A somewhat unexpected arrival in the final days of Florida Championship Wrestling before the entire operation was rebadged as the new (and vastly improved) NXT, Kassius Ohno brought along with him what was then a potentially nightmarish "indie darling" tag. That mindset would be one of the biggest things Triple H sought to change upon really getting into the developmental weeds, but old habits took a while to die hard, and the artist formerly known as Chris Hero subsequently became somebody not expected to flourish.
For a while, he proved a lot of doubters dead wrong.
A highlight of the early black-and-gold broadcasts, he defeated Mike Dalton in under three minutes on one of the earliest NXTs, reflecting his status as a pushed commodity and potential eventual NXT Champion if and when the show was ever to get its own title. Alas, plans change, pal.
What is he doing now?
Before making it on to Raw or SmackDown (or even to the aforementioned top of the Full Sail mountain), he was surprisingly released from the system entirely. He revealed in the aftermath that internal concerns had been raised over his conditioning, and that he'd ultimately not heeded a 30-day warning to turn the situation around.
A brief return in 2017 seemed to heal a lot of old wounds - Ohno returned in the well-rounded veteran spot, elevating wrestlers on and off screen on NXT and NXT UK before his 2020 release. He landed in AEW as a coach in 2023, and as of 2026, has been surrender cobra'ing through backstage areas ever since.