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With the recent release of The Revival from WWE, one would be remiss not to take a second look at their career on the main roster and try and discover where it all went wrong. Instead, I’ve decided to talk about the 5 other NXT tag teams who made it to the main roster, but didn’t quite make it to the level of The New Day…not even close, in fact. Anyway, here’s that list. Enjoy.

The Lucha Dragons

The Lucha Dragons were a unique tag team that has happened a few times in NXT where a main roster member (Sim Cara) went down to team with a developmental talent (Kalisto). They formed The Lucha Dragons, who were a top team during the initial period of NXT when they first started appearing on the WWE Network, winning the NXT tag titles from The Ascension (I’ll get to them) at NXT Takeover: Fatal 4-Way. They’d lose the belts to Blake & Murphy and sort of drift between NXT and the oft-forgotten Main Event before making their official debut in WWE on the RAW after WrestleMania 31. 

The team would be in the main roster tag team mix for quite some time, but failed to win the tag team titles. Then Sin Cara got injured, which led to Kalisto competing in singles matches. Thing is, Kalisto as an individual succeeded more than the Lucha Dragons did as a tag team, winning the United States Title twice while Sin Cara was on the shelf.

Sin Cara would return, and the two would compete in separate singles matches at WrestleMania 32. The two would have one more short run, defeating the Dudley Boyz in a pre show match, then announce they were disbanding going into the 2016 roster draft. Sin Cara and Kalisto would continue on different paths after the split.

Kalisto would win the WWE Cruiserweight Title, then later join up with Lince Dorada and Gran Metallik to form Lucha House Party, which you may remember as Lars Sullvian’s punching bags and nothing else.

Sin Cara would be given his release in December 2019. He would return to wrestling in Mexico and change his name, making him the second Sin Cara to do that.

The Vaudevillains

Simon Gotch and Aiden English were another NXT tag team experiment that seemed to be working in the confines of Full Sail University. Another throwback team, the Vaudevillains were reminiscent of wrestlers from the 20s and 30s like Farmer Burns or the Gotch brothers one of them is named after. Their intro was unique and their look was definitely different even from anything else in NXT. They would be perennial contenders against teams like the Lucha Dragons, The Revival, and Blake & Murphy. They would eventually win the NXT Tag Team Titles before losing them to the Revival.

The only thing they seemingly had going against them was their size. Regardless, the two debut on SmackDown in April 2016, defeating the Lucha Dragons. They would be in the mix immediately, being put in a tournament to find the new number 1 contenders for the WWE Tag Team Titles, making it to the finals where Enzo Amore infamously forgot how ring ropes work. The Vaudevillains would become number 1 contenders, but lose title matches on two separate occasions.

They would then be drafted to SmackDown in July 2016 and…be put in another tournament, this time for the new SmackDown tag team titles. They would be eliminated in the first round by the Hype Bros tag team of Zack Ryder and Mojo Rawley.

Which wasn’t a good sign.

They would then lose a chance to be on the SmackDown tag team Survivor Series by falling to Breezango.

Again, not looking good.

The team would sort of float around for months after this, which includes Simon Gotch getting into a fight with Sin Cara…at catering…for real. The Vaudevillains would compete in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royale at WrestleMania 33, which they surprisingly didn’t win. This would be their last match as a team as Simon Gotch had been released by the WWE 3 days later. And just like the wrestlers they were modeled after, the Vaudevillains were dead.
Gotch would change his name to Simon Grimm, then change it back to Simon Gotch (because WWE gave up on the trademark, showing how little even they cared), and then sign with MLW.

Aiden English would go on to surprisingly popular tag team with Rusev before he turned on him. He then became an announcer on 205 Live, which is a job, I guess. But even that wouldn’t last as English would fall victim to a mass roster purge colloquially known as “Black Wednesday” (2020 version).

American Alpha

There probably isn’t a sadder story of a failed NXT tag team call up than American Alpha. Amateur standouts Jason Jordan and Chad Gable comprised the young and exciting tag team American Alpha. Jordan’s surprising agility mixed with Gable’s natural charisma made this tag team one to watch during a pivotal moment in NXT history. After winning the NXT Tag Team Titles from The Revival and losing them back to them two months later, American Alpha was called up to the main WWE roster. 

Jordan and Gable would debut, defeating fellow NXT alum the Vaudevillains, and even though they were set to go to the finals of the inaugural (this time) SmackDown tag team title tournament, American Alpha was unable to compete for the belts due to Chad Gable’s (kayfabe) knee injury. But after returning from Gable’s gimmicked injury, American Alpha would eventually win the Smackdown tag titles anyway.

Then….it happened.

It’s been said that Vince McMahon doesn’t really care for tag team wrestling. And, as someone who has never met him let alone had the balls to sneeze in front of him, I can’t definitively say how true that is. However, the company he runs does tend to take tag teams and split them up for no other reason than “because”.

And that’s what happened here, in July 2017 Jason Jordan was sent to RAW while Chad Gable was kept on SmackDown, ending American Alpha as a team. 

But it doesn’t end there.

Jordan was transferred to RAW to play his new role as Kurt Angle’s illegitimate son. You read that right. After a push in this new role, including winning the RAW Tag Team Titles with Seth Rollins, substituting for an injured Dean Ambrose. Jordan’s last match would be a tag title loss to Cesaro and Sheamus at Royal Rumble 2018. Jordan was written off WWE television shortly thereafter and Jordan would undergo surgery for a severe neck injury. The injury would end Jason Jordan’s in ring career and he has since transitioned to a producer role.

Gable would continue to show promise as singles competitor, and forming other mildly successful tag teams with the likes of Shelton Benjamin (a team that was effectively disbanded after Gable was drafted to RAW just because) and Bobby Roode (which 2was broken up due to….you get the idea). 

Then someone reminded Vince McMahon that Chad Gable is short. Gable stands at 5’8″, which is huge sign to someone like Vince McMahon who took Taz from “the Human Suplex Machine” to “short, angry announcer” in less than two years.

So, since hes a 12 year old boy in a man costume, Vince McMahon (or someone under his employ by proxy) decided to punch subtelty in the back of the head and change his name to Shorty Gable. Yup…Shorty Gable. On national television. That was his name. Fearing this was still to subtle, the decision was then made to make his name even shorter and just call him Shorty G. And dress him in something that would make Rosey blush.

So one retired due to injury and the other is the lamest superhero ever. Don’t know who got it worse, here.

Enzo Amore & Big Cass

Enzo Amore is just awful. There, I said it. The cheetah-haired loudmouth hype man who dressed like he fell into a Goodwill donation bin and kept whatever stuck to him is probably the least likely person to ever sign a WWE contract. But, against all odds, that’s just what he did, eventually being teamed with the 7 foot tall Big Cass (and you can’t teach that).

The team would be extremely popular in NXT, even if their ring work consisted of Cass hitting big man moves and Enzo running his mouth. Put with Carmella, the three would prove to be a very popular group in front of the Florida crowd.

And when Enzo and Cass were inevitably called up to the main roster, their debut was very well received by the fans, who were already singing along with their catchphrases. But after the initial enjoyment, things began to sour for the mismatched tag team (Carmella was brought up separate from the other two). It became apparent very quickly that Enzo was a great talker, but his ring work was….let’s just say he was a great talker. And his backstage antics didn’t help anything, as he would find himself kicked off a WWE tour bus for being Enzo Amore.

This did no favors to Cass, who was grouped in with his tag team partner and judged accordingly. 

WWE would eventually do what they always do and break up Enzo and Cass, leading to a brief feud between the two. This feud would end unceremoniously after Cass legitimately injured his knee during a match and ended up on the shelf.

Enzo would be sent over to 205 Live and given the Cruiserweight Title as an attempt to create a new heel on a new brand and put him in a locker room that didn’t actively hate him.

Enzo would eventually be suspended then fired after it was made public that he was being accused of sexual assault, which he had known about for months. The WWE found out the same day everyone else did.

He wasn’t missed.

Big Cass is a slightly different story, lasting longer than his former tag team partner, but dealing with his own problems along the way. After returning from his knee injury, Big Cass would return to SmackDown and immediately go after Daniel Bryan. This would be a top tier feud between the two, but Cass’ backstage behavior, public intoxication, and disobeying a direct order from Vince McMahon (which lesser men have probably been taken out back and shot for) led to him being released from the WWE.  In all of this, it’s crazy to think that Carmella is the only one of the three still working in the WWE.

After their WWE careers ended, both Enzo (now nZo) and Big Cass (now CaZXL) would reunite on the independents, even getting involved in an attack at a Ring Of Honor show in April 2019. Their time in ROH was short lived, but the two remain good friends and compete on the independent scene.

And nZo is trying to be a rapper. The less said about that, the better.

The Ascension

People forget how over The Ascension were in NXT. Just as the brand was transitioning to the product we know today, The Ascension were THE tag team of NXT. The fans at Full Sail loved them, they were dominant, it was only a matter of time before the WWE called them up to the main roster. Two young,  big, face painted monsters, why wouldn’t WWE want them? Well, they did…and they did. At a time where WWE was just starting to transition talents form NXT prospects to RAW and Smackdown superstars, the Ascension were one of the first ones to fill these new roster spots.

And boy…did they fail almost immediately.

Konnor and Victor looked the part, they sounded the part, and hell, their ring work wasn’t all that bad. They even had a good finishing move, a modified version of Total Elimination where the spin heel kick was replaced with a running European uppercut.

But as soon as the Ascension reached the main roster, it was apparent that they weren’t ready for prime time. The new team debuted on RAW in 2014, defeating The Miz and Damien Mizdow. And, in their first promo, announced that not only were they better than Demolition, better than The Road Warriors, they were the best tag team of all time. They said this in their first promo on the main roster. 

That’s right, despite having a grand total of one main roster match, and the fact that the left NXT as a monster babyface team yet were immediately made cocky heels on the main roster with no explanation whatsoever, this was the beginning of the Ascension’s time on the main roster. They would defeat a horde of local jobbers in the next couple of weeks, but then immediate realization that they were the Powers of Pain sans the charisma, as well as the announcers constantly reminding viewers that the Ascension weren’t as good as the aforementioned teams, lead to them (gasp) not getting over. 

They would fill the Damiem Sandow “guys who run their mouth then get the Doink kicked out of them by visiting legends” role before settling in very low on the roster. They literally went from NXT Tag Team champions to main roster jobbers in a matter of weeks. Even a temporary alliance with other gimmick also-ran Stardust as The Cosmic Wasteland proved to be fruitless, ending when Cody Rhodes finally had enough of that $%#@, and the team would once again find themselves as low level cannon fodder, occasional 24/7 title extras, and veterans of the prestigious Andre the Giant Battle Royale year after year after year.

The team would mercifully be released by the WWE in December 2019 after 8 months of inactivity despite being healthy at the time.

The Ascension were the first, and in some cases the most tragic, example of a successful NXT tag team failing to live up to their potential on the main roster. 

Did I miss anyone? Is there some other tag team I should have included in this list? Comment below and let me know.