WWE: Predicting the First Championships for NXT’s Newest Call-Ups
Lars Sullivan
It’s odd that WWE opted to include Lars Sullivan’s name amongst the announced call-ups on Raw, being that vignettes for him first aired during Survivor Series a month ago, but they did. Thus, his prospects must be considered, alongside the rest of the crew.
Sullivan’s character is actually quite unique in the annals of wrestling history, with the big man playing what would initially appear to be the archetypal “monster” character, but adding the twist that he boasts brains in addition to his brawn. The idea of a character who is capable of total physical destruction, as well as cutting eloquent promos, is rather novel, and it seems likely that Sullivan will be able to get quite a bit of mileage out of it.
Sullivan is also a solid in-ring performer, surpassing the likes of Braun Strowman at the time of his call-up. In addition, Sullivan shares with EC3 the distinction of having taken part in the veritable classic that was the TakeOver: New Orleans ladder match, which was awarded five stars by Dave Meltzer.
With announcers gushing over Sullivan as a major free agent in a manner unseen since John Cena, it seems that top management is high on him in a huge way. Assuming no more unsavory details surface regarding his online history, it seems like Lars Sullivan is a can’t-miss main roster prospect. While it may be tempting to predict an immediate world championship run for Sullivan, WWE would be smarter to build him as a monster over time.
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Using a character like Goldberg as a template, WWE could have Sullivan capture the United States Championship and plow through the competition, building an undefeated streak en route to a WWE Championship win. This idea is preferable because it allows WWE to see exactly what it has in Sullivan who, unlike EC3, is still largely an unknown commodity outside of NXT. Should he fail to get over as anticipated, it is far easier to scale back a United States Championship push than a Jinder Mahal style WWE Championship push.
Prediction: United States Championship