Top NXT Wrestlers Heading To WWE Main Roster Soon?
Former tag champs, singles champion bandied about for runs on top shows.
While the Raw after WrestleMania 38 didn't feature the traditional call-ups of NXT superstars to the main roster, it looks like some wrestlers could be on their way to Raw and SmackDown, some as soon as this weekend.
Fightful Select reports that Imperium could be main roster-bound as soon as this weekend, per internal discussions in WWE. The duo - yes, duo, as Fabian Aichner would not be part of this rumored call-up - would debut on SmackDown, with Gunther and Marcel Barthel being presented as a team. These discussions are given credence by the developments on NXT 2.0 Tuesday night, when Aichner walked out on Barthel in a tag match, and then Gunther lost clean to Bron Breakker in an NXT Championship contest.
Fightful also reports that LA Knight and Raquel Gonzalez are being discussed for main roster call-ups, with Gonzalez more expected than Knight, who reportedly is being considered as a manager. Knight lost his singles match against Gunther at NXT Stand and Deliver on Saturday, while Raquel and Dakota Kai lost their newly won NXT Women's Tag Team Championship on Tuesday.
Gonzalez, also a former NXT Women's Champion, would be a big asset to the women's division... with the caveat that she's booked properly. Knight as a manager who occasionally wrestles would be an interesting proposition, as his promos have been getting a tremendous reaction in NXT, but his matches are average.
Imperium is the wild card here. As WALTER, Gunther theoretically should be an immediate top-level star on the main roster, wrecking dudes and getting into title feuds. But as Gunther, there's a decent chance he and Barthel are simply a tag team to be fed to the Usos. Even if they knocked off the longest-reigning SmackDown tag champs, that would represent a step down for the big Austrian in terms of potential to reality.
Of course, all of these pitches are just that - pitches. And things could change 100 times.