Predicting WWE’s Post-WrestleMania 33 Call-Ups from NXT

Adam O'Brien

WWE.com

Who’s going to be promoted from NXT during WrestleMania week?

It’s actually surprising how many of the regular stars you see on Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live every week only emerged on the scene last year.

Enzo Amore, Big Cass, Apollo Crews, Baron Corbin, The Vaudevillains, Nia Jax, Bayley, Finn Bálor, Alexa Bliss, Mojo Rawley, American Alpha and Carmella all got called up in 2016, and although they’ve seen varying levels of success in front of the company’s primary audience, they make up a large portion of the WWE’s contemporary roster.

The majority of these promotions took place during two distinct raids of NXT — the WWE draft in July, which promised a total of six call-ups from the WWE Performance Center, and the usual post-WrestleMania period where names are brought up to enhance the product as the company embarks on a brand new season.

As we stare down the final stretch to WrestleMania 33 in Orlando, and speculate what the card is going to look like, who’s going to appear at the event and who’s going to walk out with the company’s titles, it’s just as important for WWE to be weighing out its best options going forward into the summer and the rest of 2017.

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A big part of that involves promoting a handful of NXT’s brightest prospects, those who the brand can afford to lose at least, so as to spice up the product and give the company’s existing performers new options to work with.

So, which of NXT’s stars are ready to make the move to the big leagues?

Let’s take a look at the leading candidates right now.

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.

4. Tye Dillinger – SmackDown Live

Though Tye Dillinger has already technically made his WWE main roster debut, “The Perfect 10” has yet to make the permanent transition to the live weekly touring schedule of either of the company’s primary brands.

This was a very smart move on WWE’s behalf.

Dillinger had a strong showing from the apropos #10 position in the Royal Rumble match, in which he was able to take the fight to Braun Strowman, of all people, lighting up San Antonio with a flurry of “10” chants from everyone in the audience.

But we are in the height of WrestleMania season, and with Samoa Joe having made his official debut on Monday Night Raw, there’s only so much room for new recruits from NXT to get any decent billing ahead of the huge spectacle in Orlando, Florida.

It seems like WWE is waiting until after ‘Mania is over and done to use Dillinger for all he’s worth, which really eases the pressure behind this kid. It also postpones his real debut for WrestleMania week — be it Raw or the more likely home of SmackDown Live, both of which are sure to feature the raucous post-Mania crowd this year – which will do wonders in terms of fan reception when his music inevitably hits.

The “Perfect 10” gimmick is easily the best thing to ever happen to Dillinger, given how his signature chants have already made their way to live television even in his absence, and it will be the infectious nature of that gimmick that gets Tye Dillinger to unforeseen heights in terms of popularity when he makes his presence felt.

We’ve seen murmurs before about a rivalry between Tye Dillinger and The Miz, which would be a fantastic way to kick-start this man’s tenure on SmackDown Live.

As mentioned, Tye is more commonly known for being a glorified enhancement talent in NXT — he developed his character as a way of getting over despite having to constantly lose big matches at TakeOver events, and it’s worked tremendously.

But now that Dillinger is on the verge of a breakthrough to the main roster, there is serious potential for him to shake off that reputation for losing and actually become a credible name in the upper mid-card on SmackDown Live at the very least.

WWE.com

3. #DIY – Raw

It’s safe to say that Monday Night Raw’s tag-team division is in dire need of some refreshment at the moment, and there’s one babyface team in NXT that would fit in perfectly; former NXT Tag Team Champions, Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano.

#DIY is a team of two individuals who could make just as much of an impact by themselves, as a team or even against one another — as proved by their phenomenal match against one another in the opening round of the WWE Cruiserweight Classic.

Ciampa’s hard-hitting style, topped off with a fine arsenal of power moves sees him as the much more brutal competitor, while “Johnny Wrestling” has a much more aerodynamic technique backed up with a flurry of insane kicks.

Combined with their tendency towards technical wrestling, Gargano and Ciampa’s styles complement one another to perfection, and it has resulted in a tremendous underdog alliance that led to #DIY participating in not one, but two of the greatest tag-team matches in NXT history against The Revival last year.

The WWE struck gold when they aligned Gargano and Ciampa together, and there’s no reason why that won’t translate well to the main roster.

Putting #DIY on Raw would not only benefit them, but it would give Anderson and Gallows a phenomenal opportunity to play the dominant heel role while Gargano and Ciampa organically fall into that of the underdogs. Done right, it could be one of the most captivating feuds of the summer for the Raw brand.

Source: WWE.com

2. The Revival – SmackDown Live

With the way SmackDown Live’s tag division is going right now, surely this is the only logical destination for Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder upon their main roster debut.

It took them a lot longer than once expected, but American Alpha are standing firmly on top of the mountain on Tuesday nights, having not only defeated The Wyatt Family to capture the SmackDown Tag Team Titles in December, but going on to overcome every team on the roster in a tag-team turmoil match at Elimination Chamber.

Hell, Chad Gable and Jason Jordan got battered beyond belief after eliminating The Usos and they still somehow managed to get one over on The Ascension — one of the most dominant tandems in NXT history — to retain the championships.

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The Usos may be looking for another shot at the gold, but the fact that American Alpha has beaten everyone there is to beat means that the management on SmackDown Live is going to have to outsource, and where better to look than at the top guys?

Dash and Dawson have stepped forward over the last year as one of the best heel tag-teams in all of WWE. They are old school, and have some of the best tag-team psychology we’ve seen out of the WWE in quite some time, which makes the flow of their matches that much more exciting when the stakes are high.

The Revival’s in-ring dominance really allows the crowd to get behind their opponents, which works perfectly for a team like American Alpha — who work hard to build up the hot tag before Jordan comes in to clean house.

Though they’ve been somewhat overshadowed by The Revival’s later matches with #DIY, which many pegged as 2016’s Match of the Year at NXT TakeOver: Toronto, the matches that The Revival had with American Alpha early last year were incredible.

Much like Raw, SmackDown Live needs some added depth to its tag-team roster, and the re-ignition of American Alpha’s feud with The Revival would be more than enough to raise the standard in the division for the foreseeable future.

Source: WWE.com

1. Shinsuke Nakamura – Raw

“The King of Strong Style”, Shinsuke Nakamura took NXT by storm last year, from making his debut in a Match of the Year candidate against Sami Zayn before WrestleMania 32, to capturing the NXT Championship on SummerSlam weekend.

He introduced the brand to a harder-hitting technique that sees Nakamura’s immense arsenal of power moves take a backseat to his even more vicious strikes — his patented Kinshasa in particular, which he used to knock off the best and brightest of NXT, and even served to dislocate the jaw of Samoa Joe last summer.

Over the last year, he’s used his unparalleled charisma to become one of the most awe-inspiring athletes on the brand, and along with Joe, Nakamura has become one of only two men to capture the holy grail of NXT on two separate occasions.

His entrance alone is hypnotic, and perfectly accentuates his unique personality as he waltzes his way to the squared circle in preparation for battle.

He’s accomplished all of this and more in the span of a year, and now that he’s done the favors for Bobby Roode in a tremendous outing in San Antonio last month, there’s nothing left for Shinsuke Nakamura to achieve in developmental.

Save for maybe a passing of the torch match against Kassius Ohno — who is believed to be next in line for an NXT Championship opportunity — Nakamura’s time as the face of the brand is behind him, and it’s now time to look to the future.