It is hard to believe that 2016 has come and gone already, but that is a fact. The Royal Rumble is up next on the pay per view schedule, and the Road To WrestleMania is starting to kick into gear. What keeps the sport of professional wrestling fresh is the fact that there are new stars created all the time.
With the creation of the Performance Center, there have been many Superstars who have been able to start from the beginning and breakthrough in NXT and eventually on either Monday Night Raw or SmackDown Live with a lot of success, because they were well prepared from the beginning.
This article contains five WWE Superstars who broke through in different and unique ways. A couple of these Superstars established themselves in NXT for a couple of years before getting the call up in 2016.
Read on to see who I have come up with for the five breakthrough WWE Superstars of 2016!
#5 Alexa Bliss
Alexa Bliss may be only 5-foot-1, but she is a stick of dynamite. While she didn’t capture the NXT Women’s Championship during her tenure there from 2014-2016, she was able to capture the WWE Smackdown Women’s Championship from Becky Lynch at the beginning of December 2016, only a few months after her main roster debut.
Bliss was a surprise pick in the WWE Draft this past July, but her badass personality, great promo skills, and excellent in-ring work not only gained favour with the WWE Universe but with WWE Management as well.
#4 James Ellsworth
It has been over 20 years since there has been someone of the level of enhancement talent (or jobber) in any sort of prominent role in the WWE. In the mid-90’s Barry Horowitz was best classified as a jobber, but actually had a run of wins.
Fast forward to 2016 where we have the debut of James Ellsworth, who got demolished in his debut against Braun Strowman. A couple of months later, Ellsworth was hand-picked by AJ Styles to be his opponent for his WWE World Championship, and his popularity would skyrocket.
With the help of Dean Ambrose, Ellsworth would even get a few victories over Styles, including a ladder match where he won a SmackDown Live contract.
#3 Braun Strowman
Braun Strowman is one of the most destructive forces in the WWE right now. He is destroying everything in his path and has to be one of the favourites to win the Royal Rumble in 2017. Oddly enough, his main roster debut was as a happy gladiator as part of the Rosebuds when Adam Rose was promoted to the main roster.
When Luke Harper went down with a knee injury early in 2016, Strowman would be unveiled as a member of the Wyatt Family; however, it wasn’t until he was split from them in the WWE Draft that he began to take off.
We didn’t get to see much from Strowman in the ring as a member of the Wyatts, but since this summer’s draft, you can see that he’s a skilled man in the ring not only in power but speed as well.
#2 Heath Slater
One veteran makes this list of breakthrough WWE Superstars in Heath Slater. He made his debut back in 2010 as a member of the Nexus when they invaded the WWE after the first season of NXT. For the few years after Nexus disbanded, Slater has been booked as a jobber in comedy segments and never really had a significant push.
The WWE Draft in 2016 helped out Slater’s popularity even though he didn’t get drafted, as they were some of the most entertaining segments after the fact. As Slater was trying to get a contract on SmackDown he befriended ECW alumnus Rhyno and they formed a tag team.
If they won the tournament for the Smackdown Tag Team Championships, he’d get a contract. They would go on to win and have a decent 84-day reign with those titles.
#1 Baron Corbin
The main roster debut of Baron Corbin was quite interesting as the WWE sort of snuck him in with the crowd of competitors for the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 32 this year. Though he didn’t get his own entrance at WrestleMania, Corbin came out on top and became the third winner of the relatively new WrestleMania tradition.
Since his big WrestleMania win, Corbin has been in some major feuds with the likes of Dolph Ziggler and Kalisto. Don’t be surprised if Corbin becomes WWE World Champion or at least WWE Intercontinental Champion in 2017.
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