6 Former NXT World champions who succeeded on the main roster
NXT is WWE’s developmental territory and is run by the current WWE CEO Paul Levesque (Triple H). Almost every new WWE recruit has to spend some time, at least a few months, in NXT so that they could become ready for the main roster.
Over the past few years, NXT has evolved a lot. Many people consider NXT as a brand of its own. NXT has put on some amazing shows in the past couple of years and the NXT pay per views (NXT Takeovers) are considered to be better than the main roster pay per views following them.
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While Main Roster’s last 5-star match (On Dave Meltzer’s scale) took place 7 years ago, NXT has put on three 5-star matches this year alone. NXT has been a home to several new Superstars, both newcomers and known Indie Sensations. Over the past 6 years, 14 superstars have held the NXT Championship, out of which 2 are still in NXT.
While some former Champions like Bobby Roode, Finn Balor etc. failed to make an impact on the main roster, others managed to succeed. Here, we will discuss 6 former NXT Champions who succeeded on the Main Roster.
#6 Big E
Big E defeated Seth Rollins in 2013 to become the 2nd NXT Champion. Big E made his main roster debut in December 2012 while he was still a part of NXT. Big E formed an alliance with Dolph Ziggler and AJ Lee.
After Ziggler left the alliance, Big E and AJ Lee continued to team up for some time. After that, Big E turned face and won the Intercontinental Championship from Curtis Axel and went on to hold the title for a few months.
After losing his Intercontinental Title and feuding with various Superstars in 2014, Big E formed a stable with Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods, called The New Day. Since 2014. New Day has won the Tag Team Championships on 5 different occasions.
The New Day also holds the record for the longest reign as World Tag Team Champions, with a reign of 483 days. The team has been around since 2014, making it one of the longest lasting trios of the modern era, and is showing no signs of breaking up. Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods are also the current Smackdown Live Tag Team Champions, in their 3rd reign.