Whatever WWE is doing with Apollo Crews isn’t working

The WWE has already attempted a few different gimmicks for Apollo Crews during his tenure with the company since he signed with the company back in 2014.

To this day, none of those gimmicks have worked.

In the early stages, Crews had a couple of notable matches, including a Money in The Bank qualifying match (which he lost to Chris Jericho) back in 2016. Not much longer after that, Crews was given Titus O’Neil as his manager, which was a disaster from the jump.

As a tag team, their only highlight was defeating the Raw Tag Team Champions on a random episode of WWE Raw in early 2018 in a non-title match. A few months later, they would be disbanded and Crews would return later in the year, solo once again.

Without hesitation, Crews won a battle royal on Raw, which made him the number one contender for the Intercontinental Championship. He lost in that title match later that night to Dean Ambrose. Shortly after, he would then be drafted to SmackDown in 2020, where he would win the United States Championship.

The birth of The Nigerian Prince

Then, came the inevitable heel turn. Eventually, we would see the birth of a new character for Crews in 2021. Welcome, The Nigerian prince Apollo Crews. It even sounds weird to type that. Declaring himself “Nigerian royalty” gave Crews a whole new persona that worked — for a while. During this era for Crews, we saw his promos improve significantly, and would eventually dethrone then-Intercontinental Champion Big E (whom he once helped win the title) for the gold at WrestleMania 37.

Surprisingly, Crews held the IC Title for 124 days until Shinsuke Nakamura ended his reign in August of 2021. Once again, Crews would switch shows due to the draft in 2021 and return to Raw.

Crews returns to NXT to execute a task he had to accomplish.

Things didn’t last on Raw and Crews would return to NXT this past summer with a fresh, new gimmick. Don’t get me wrong, the excitement level was high when Crews made his surprise return to NXT and made it known he came back to win the NXT Championship. Instantly, he became one of the brand’s biggest names and the biggest threat to take the title from Bron Breakker.

Initially, his new character was accepted with open arms and his promos improved significantly. What was even more noticeable was how much he improved in the ring. He is one of the most athletic superstars in WWE and since his return to NXT, has had incredible matches with Grayson Waller (casket match), JD McDonagh, Carmelo Hayes, and, of course, his NXT Title match with Breakker.

Still, it isn’t working with Crews in NXT. The way he was brought back and the hype behind it made people believe he was going to be the guy to win the NXT Title and Breakker would make the move to Raw or SmackDown. As we mentioned before, that was “the reason Crews went to NXT in the first place.”

The anticipation was at an all-time high when he made his return. Once he got his match with Breakker, it was all laid out for him to fulfill his prophecy, and whether it was under the new Triple H regime or not, plans changed. He lost the match and lost in a second consecutive match with Carmelo Hayes.

So, why bring him to NXT in the first place? It’s been quite the frustrating journey as a fan of Crews’ in-ring ability to watch WWE continuously fail to find the right package for Crews. There’s a way his new character works, but if he isn’t going to be the NXT Champion, when that’s why he came back, his return becomes irrelevant.

Crews is an incredible talent that just hasn’t gotten booked correctly. If WWE can find a gimmick that works for both of them, Crews could become one of the top guys in the company. He has proven he can work as a heel and a babyface, but a little consistency with his character could help straighten his issues out. Hopefully, they keep his current character and he wins the title he returned to win.