Predicting WWE’s Post-WrestleMania 33 Call-Ups from NXT
By Adam O'Brien
Source: WWE.com
5. Andrade ‘Cien’ Almas – Raw
Andrade Almas had a rocky start to his tenure on NXT. It did him no favors to make his debut against Tye Dillinger all the way back in June at NXT TakeOver: The End, given how over “The Perfect 10” has been over the last couple of years.
Dillinger has been used quite frequently in debut angles, but at that stage it didn’t help Almas — who was attempting to rally the crowd behind him so he could dive into his NXT career with a full head of steam. Despite a decent outing, in which he exemplified his charismatic in-ring presence, it felt like his rough start with regards to crowd support was to blame for his push never really taking off.
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It wasn’t until he turned heel in September that Almas really started coming out of his shell, leading to great performances like his most recent against Roderick Strong in San Antonio.
The trouble with Almas now is that NXT has shown very little interest in pushing him anywhere near the title picture. As a result, he could be at risk of falling into that Dillinger-esque role of taking on up-and-coming talent anytime a TakeOver rolls around, which isn’t really going to help his development.
Arriving into the depths of Monday Night Raw would give Andrade Almas a fresh start, where he could find himself near enough to the top end of the roster where the likes of Rusev and Sami Zayn compete, or he could even waltz into 205 Live as a member of the cruiserweight division and make a huge impact there.
Almas is a top-level athlete, with the ability to wrestle in almost any weight class despite being billed at 180 pounds, so he’d easily succeed in either division.