Daily DDT
Fansided

Natural Heel Column: The Rise and Fall of The Ascension

By Sherron Watson

facebooktwitterreddit

Once thought of as a future force in the tag team division, The Ascension has become obsolete. 

Konnor and Viktor were, and still are, the longest-reigning NXT Tag Team Champions since the brand took on its’ current format. Since being promoted to the main roster The Ascension have lived a torrid nightmare. They’ve been uninteresting and uninspiring.

What is their gimmick meant to be exactly? Road Warriors 2.0? Illuminati? A key issue for these two is that the pair are still, over 6 months since their debut, yet they’re still suffering from a complete and total identity crisis. After all, how can you get behind a pair of performers who don’t seem to know their own selves?

ALSO ON DAILY DDT: SummerSlam’s Greatest Performers

Truly committing to one gimmick Personally, I like the Illuminati idea is vital as it would give a platform to build storylines and promos around, instead of continuing in the aimless direction they have been on since December. With that being said, their promo delivery isn’t stellar, so if they are given more cohesive characters they need to enhance their conveyance.

On top of their gimmick’s inability to get over, their wrestling talents also leave a lot to be desired. Fast pace and exciting workers currently fill the tag division (New Day, Lucha Dragons, PTP etc.) and as bigger brawler’s Konnor and Viktor look rather sluggish and somewhat sloppy. This is not the fault of the pacer teams though as a brawler vs. high flyer has worked many a time is the past.

Instead it comes down to the Ascension not cutting the mustard inside the ring. If only there were a place for them to hone their skills before getting to television, maybe some kind of developmental system? Oh wait, there is! NXT!

Down in Florida, 90% of the Ascension’s matches went as follows: entrance and squash, entrance and squash, entrance and squash, you get the idea. Now, correct me if I am wrong but this doesn’t feel like the best way of handling people in need of enhancement/improvement. Sadly, this case is one of the few times NXT has failed to deliver a main-roster-ready act for us to feast upon.

Exposing the lack of depth in the shallow NXT tag team ranks, which has only started to expand since the Ascension departed. Sending this team back to developmental to compete in a more buffed division would obviously help but it does unfortunately feel a little too late for an already soiled team where the members have been signed by WWE for a prolonged period.

Sherron’s Final Thought: Maybe WWE shouldn’t have had Konnor and Viktor embarrassed by old legends and maybe they should have toned downed JBL’s ‘burial’ on commentary. Bad booking cannot be reversed now, but this team could still be salvageable should they be given focused gimmicks and more time within the ropes to improve against quality opponents.

Next: Five More People Should Be Ban From Events

More from Daily DDT

Home/WWE