Who Are The Vaudevillains?

Who are The Vaudevillains, the latest NXT stars to debut on the main roster?

On Monday Night Raw, WWE debuted multiple new stars from NXT in Baron Corbin (first showed up at WrestleMania 32), Apollo Crews, and the team of Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady.

During the show, another announcement was made about an impending debut that is set for WWE SmackDown. The Vaudevillains will be on the blue brand on Thursday to have their first match.

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Fans who have never watched NXT probably wondered just who this tag team was? WWE also didn’t provide any type of background on these two, which won’t help the ones who don’t know who they are.

So The Vaudevillains is a team from developmental that consists of Aiden English and Simon Gotch.

English had been in Florida since the Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) days in 2012. He floundered for a few years in an actor gimmick that was a bit over the top. So when Gotch came to NXT in 2014, English was paired with him and they have stayed a tag team ever since.

For their first year together, English and Gotch had a slow rise in the NXT Tag Team division, often being stuck behind teams like The Lucha Dragons, The Ascension and Blake and Murphy.

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However, The Vaudevillains would finally get a chance at the NXT Tag Team Championships after defeating Amore and Cassady in a No. 1 Contender’s match.

So at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn in Aug. 2015, they faced Blake and Murphy, who held the titles at the time. After what can be considered one of the most exciting tag team matches at an NXT live special, Gotch and English won gold.

Just a few months later, Dash and Dawson would defeat them on an episode of WWE NXT for the titles. Belt changes often never happen on the weekly show, so it was surprising to see this happen. They lost a rematch too.

So The Vaudevillains have a well-defined character, which is something a handful of other Superstars can’t say they have. Their personas aren’t over the top either and don’t limit them much. They also have a catchy entrance that fans will probably clap along with.

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Kids will probably like Gotch’s handlebar mustache. With both Superstars, though, the men will appreciate the “manliness” of their characters due to their great showmanship.

A criticism with this team may be their lack of standout matches. The only notable one is the bout that we already noted from NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn. Outside of that, they’ve been about average at best.

The second one is the face and heel turn swaps. While that’s maybe more to blame on the NXT brass than anything, not fully getting over as babyfaces or heels could be a red flag. The work they did in the latter role worked better, though. The fact that they have such concrete gimmicks may limit how far they could go as faces or heels too.

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So on Thursday, main roster fans will get to experience The Vaudevillains. They should be able to last as a tag team in WWE, but the question is just how far they can go.