By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
-WWE announced during Monday’s Raw that Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn will be returning soon from their injury layoffs. Owens underwent double knee surgery, and Zayn underwent surgeries on both shoulders.
-WWE also announced the following NXT acts will be working on Raw or Smackdown soon: Lars Sullivan, EC3, Nikki Cross, Lacey Evans, and the Heavy Machinery tag team.
Powell’s POV: WWE did not indicate which brands the wrestlers will be working for. Owens and Zayn seem likely for Raw since that’s where they were based prior to their surgeries. It’s possible we will see additional call-ups following the NXT Takeover event that will be held during Royal Rumble weekend. I could see it being a case of WWE not wanting to announce prior to Takeover that wrestlers working in featured matches on that event will be leaving the brand.
Check below for the new Pro Wrestling Boom Podcast with Jason Powell and guest Konnan, who discusses his return to the ring for MLW and shares the crazy story of how he started in pro wrestling.
Throwing all these names on the main roster at once will likely only add to the congestion on the main roster. Aside from Lars and EC3, I see all these names getting quickly lost in the shuffle. Happy for EC3 though. He was never a good fit for NXT. Hes beyond the developmental phase that the weekly show is based around, and his matches arent the kind that fans want out of Takeover events, which he rarely was used on. He should have gone straight to the main roster after leaving Impact
I’d disagree, a bit. I can 100% see Heavy Machinery having a short push, and a fun little run on the main roster; but I think you’re right that they’ll eventually get lost on the main roster. They’re a tag team, and Vince loses interest in those.
Nikki, I’m not sure on. She’s so talented. She knows her character. It’ll just be a question of if creative understands her character?
Lacey Evans is a star in the making, however. She’ll be a Champion one day, I think. I loved her NXT work after her character shift. She’s just tremendous.
Predicting an attractive, leggy blonde will be a future WWE Women’s Champ is the shortest limb one can go out on
Wow it only took me eight hours to realize that sounded like a terrible pun. Go me.
It doesn’t matter what talent gets added to a Vince McMahon produced show. McMahon is the problem, not the talent.
I think EC3 and Nikki Cross wind up on Smackdown. The others I’m not sure about. I’d like to see Heavy Machinery added to SD as well to bolster a rather predictable tag team division consisting of The Usos, The Bar, New Day and Sanity.