Opinion: Last night's RAW wasn't the right time to debut the new NXT stars
Last night on RAW, four NXT superstars made their debut on the red brand. Those superstars were Ricochet, Johnny Gargano, Tommaso Ciampa, and Aleister Black. However, the only problem is that last night was the wrong time to debut these guys.
The first problem is the timing. These call ups happened in the middle of February, on the road to WrestleMania. While it isn't known if these call ups are permanent or just a one-off appearance, in WWE's video where Triple H makes the announcement, the caption is "Triple H introduces WWE's newest superstars", which sounds like a permanent call up to me. While Ciampa and Gargano are champions in NXT, that doesn't mean much since Kevin Owens was NXT Champion when he was called up, and did double duty.
If these are indeed permanent call ups, where do they fit into the WrestleMania plans? I feel like fans would be upset if they weren't in high profile matches, but at this point, that is highly unlikely. If they were called up after WrestleMania, not only do they get a bigger reaction, but you can immediately put them into any feud you want since fresh storylines usually begin after WrestleMania.
Speaking of reactions, another reason this wasn't the right time to call these guys up is that the crowd last night in Lafayette, Louisiana was terrible. They didn't react to any of the NXT stars at all, nor did they react for the main roster wrestlers either. If you are going to debut new Superstars, you should do it in a big town that appreciates them. The next two RAW's are in Atlanta, Georgia and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, both of which would have been much better places to debut them.
The final issue is that WWE just called up several NXT stars not even two months ago in the form of Heavy Machinery, EC3, Lacey Evans, Nikki Cross, and Lars Sullivan (who has yet to debut yet). They haven't done anything substantial yet, nor do they even have a definitive brand. So why call up even more NXT stars if you aren't even sure what to do with the ones you called up not even two months ago? While it's great to have fresh faces on WWE TV, now was not the right time to call these guys up, especially since these are huge names down in NXT.