Credit: WWE.com
While most WWE Superstars are eventually “called up” from NXT to the main roster, it seems brands like NXT and NXT UK will grow in popularity to the point where some big stars won’t have to move to Raw or SmackDown Live.
Nikki Cross, Heavy Machinery, EC3, Lars Sullivan, and Lacey Evans will all be called up from the NXT system to the WWE main roster in the near future, as vignettes have played for these superstars for several weeks. While WWE may be more aggressive with calling up wrestlers from its other brands in order to “freshen up” the product as All Elite Wrestling stars to take shape, not every superstar will change rosters.
Recently, Triple H, who is seen as the leader of WWE’s NXT brand both in the United States and now abroad, told Inside The Ropes that some wrestlers could spend their entire time with the promotion in NXT without making that “jump” to the main roster product.
Transcription via Robert Gunier of Wrestling Inc:
"“I think there will be some talent that will be incredibly successful, will be global names, will be global, household names that will probably never leave that NXT system because that’s their home base and that’s where they fit, and they’ll have incredibly successful, meaningful careers. And probably over those careers they’ll gravitate through different locations within the globe, maybe without never being on RAW or SmackDown, but that not being any lesser to their careers.”"
Some fans have lamented NXT call-ups, stating that these wrestlers just don’t have the same aura on the weekly main roster product, which doesn’t rotate talent as frequently on weekly shows and is more saturated due to the volume of shows and the amount of main roster talent. With rumors that NXT could air on Fox Sports 1 and with a Performance Center in the United Kingdom, these two brands are clearly more than “developmental” and can sustain true stars of the wrestling business.
So let’s take a look at five superstars in NXT and NXT UK who could remain with those brands for the duration of their time in WWE.