The weekend was as good as advertised. Could have had a little better ending, but all in all Survivor Series weekend was arguably the best that WWE has put on in quite some time.
The wheel keeps spinning though and we now start looking ahead to the next big stop – the start to The Road to WrestleMania, the Royal Rumble.
This year, WWE has turned the model of having an NXT:TakeOver, Big 4 PPV, Raw and SmackDown in the same city/area to make it all seem like one big event. After WrestleMania and SummerSlam, we were given several NXT Superstars making their main roster debut. Stars like Shinsuke Nakamura, Bobby Roode and others have started their main roster journey the night after one of the Big 4 shows.
There is no reason to think that tonight and/or tomorrow will be any different. So let’s take a look at some of those most probably stars to make their debuts.
3 – Kassius Ohno
Up until Saturday night, this list was made for Andrade “Cien” Almas. Then he had to go and (VERY much deservingly) beat Drew McIntyre at TakeOver and win the NXT Championship. So with the loss, maybe McIntyre would take Almas’ place on the list. I mean, he is a former Intercontinental Champion and seems to be the most main-roster ready despite just spending a few months with NXT. Then he had to go an possibly tear his bicep. No reason to make a debut when you can’t do anything in the ring.
So we look to the next best veteran on the roster – which appears to be Kassius Ohno. After making a big impact with his NXT return earlier this year, Ohno has seemed to be just the veteran who is helping put over the main and/or younger talent like Bobby Roode and most recently Lars Sullivan.
Ohno even has a potential storyline waiting for him if WWE chooses to go this way. Not many though that Ohno was originally supposed to join Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose as The Shield when they made their debut in 2012. WWE chose Roman Reigns as the third man instead and Ohno would soon leave Full Sail. Ohno could make his debut tonight, possibly joining up with Sheamus and Cesaro to take on The Shield.
2 – Authors of Pain
It seemed like a foregone conclusion that the Authors of Pain would make their main-roster debut after SummerSlam. Much like Bobby Roode, the Paul Ellering led duo lost their championship at TakeOver : Brooklyn and had seemingly done everything they could down in Orlando. However, the powers that be decided to bring War Games back into our lives and what better trio to include than AoP and Ellering. Now that War Games in in the rearview, the Authors of Pain should be ready to make their debut.
But where?
Right now, Raw doesn’t really make sense. The Authors of Pain are a dominant heel tag team. With Sheamus and Cesaro holding the Raw tag titles, and no real face team on Monday Night, we’ll see AoP on Tuesday. I can see The Usos in the ring celebrating the fact that they beat Raw’s tag champs at Survivor Series and that they are the new standard in tag teams. Cue the music and watch the mass of destruction known as Akam and Rezar come to the ring and manhandle The Usos.
1 – Hideo Itami
Finally!
Hideo Itami signed with WWE around the same time as Kevin Owens and Finn Balor. Obviously the latter two have seen more success, but they haven’t had to deal with the amount of injury based bad luck that Itami has. However, since returning from his latest injury earlier this year, Itami has put on amazing performances against top names like Bobby Roode, Kassius Ohno and Aliester Black.
Since his encounter with Black at TakeOver : Brooklyn in August though, Itami has been scarce on NXT TV. With nothing to do in Orlando, it makes sense for Itami to finally take his place on the main roster.
Unfortunately, rumors have been circulating that once Itami does make his inevitable debut, it will be with the 205 Live roster. It has already been announced that current Cruiserweight Champion Enzo Amore will be having a bit of a championship celebration tonight on Raw. This is the perfect setup to have a new star debut to challenge the champion.
Meh, that’s a bit of a buzzkill.
Not completely though. Itami has the skills to show Vince that he belongs with the likes of Seth Rollins, Finn Balor and others on Raw. Reports have also been going around that Neville will be returning soon on the condition that he will NOT be soley relegated to 205 Live and get a bit of a mid-card push. Hopefully this will be the same for Itami…without having to leave the show for a while.
SO WHAT DO YOU THINK? WILL THESE STARS BE ON RAW OR SMACKDOWN LIVE SOON? WILL SOMEONE ELSE BE COMING UP FROM NXT? LIKE OUR PAGE ON FACEBOOK AND FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @FROM_THETOPROPE AND LET US KNOW!
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