9 ideal debut feuds for incoming NXT call-ups

WWE's method of debuting NXT superstars on the main roster has received a lot of criticism over the years, but 2018 has arguably been the nadir. Its class of call-ups thus far - Billie Kay and Peyton Royce, The Authors of Pain, SAnitY, Ember Moon, and Andrade "Cien" Almas, have meandered. Akam of the Authors of Pain just jobbed to Apollo Crews after doing nothing much for months. Ember Moon has done nothing. SAnitY has been thoroughly normalized. Only now is Andrade "Cien" Almas looking like he's coming out of the wilderness.

Hilariously, Kay and Royce are doing their jobs the best, which is being irritating heels for babyfaces to look good when defeating (now if only WWE would get the hint that that's Carmella's proper role as well).

It isn't enough to say that the talent shouldn't be called up, because we know they will be. Instead, all big call-ups from NXT should have feuds that are waiting for them on their arrival.

With that in mind, let's do some work the creative team on the main roster evidently doesn't do and think about some potential call-ups which can happen between now and next year's superstar shakeup following WrestleMania 35. Who should they feud with?

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#1 Aleister Black vs. Randy Orton

Only a devil can tangle with a viper.

Randy Orton has turned heel again and it's glorious. His promo from last week was better than any segment he's been in for years. Hopefully, it means his ring work will be equally inspiring. Fans can almost forget how good he is, because when he tries, good things happen.

Meanwhile, the day after that promo from the Viper, Aleister Black dropped the NXT Championship to Tommaso Ciampa in a shocking development. He'll have an opportunity to get the gold back in Brooklyn, but one has to imagine that his attempt will be unsuccessful. It's likely that the triple threat in the Barclays Center the night before SummerSlam is Black's NXT finale.

Where should he go from there? SmackDown Live. Who should he run into? Randy Orton.

The Viper opened the door, too, by lambasting the "indie guys from bingo halls" that the fans adore. Aleister Black fits that description, but the true intrigue of the feud would be that after Randy Orton's transformation back into a heel with no redeeming qualities, how would he respond to someone equally as dark as him? How would he respond to someone who even uses his darkness as fuel for a cause?

It's anti-hero vs. villain, and SmackDown would greatly benefit from it.

With both men possessed of a quiet killer instinct and a nearly guaranteed one hit kill with their respective finishers, this feud would be an excellent way for Black to make an impression and give Orton motivation to bring out his best qualities as a performer.

#2 Shayna Baszler vs. Sasha Banks and Bayley

Shayna should be seeing red.

Shayna Baszler is getting supremely arrogant. That usually isn't a good thing for a heel in NXT. Sure, Asuka was playing that role last year, but the Empress had a reason for her increasing cockiness - she was undefeated for nearly two years and held the NXT Women's Championship for over 500 days.

Shayna Baszler is not Asuka. She has a huge black mark on her record, and it comes at the hands of the woman she'll defend her title against at TakeOver: Brooklyn. Kairi Sane's victory over her in the final of last year's Mae Young Classic has not gone unnoticed by the champion, no matter how much she poo-poohs it, and regardless of her getting her win back in February.

Kairi Sane will probably get the better of Shayna Baszler in their rubber match in Brooklyn. Her name being added to the Osaka Raw show, which will take place afterward, is an even firmer indicator. Baszler's path to the main roster is clear from then on out. Raw is her likeliest destination.

But does she feud with Ronda Rousey right away? That would be counterproductive. That match deserves a big platform, and rushing Baszler into it would inevitably cool her off as soon as she comes up to Monday nights. Instead, the Royal Rumble would be the ideal platform for Rousey vs. Baszler.

Baszler needs something else to do for the time being. She needs a way to establish how dangerous she is. Perhaps her presence is such a threat that it forces two people who have tension with one another to unite for the common good? I can think of a couple of people like that.

If Sasha Banks and Bayley aren't going to be feuding with one another, and if there won't be any tag team titles for the women to be unveiled at Evolution, why not add a new dimension to this constant start/stop story and put over how dangerous Baszler is at the same time?

It's far better than having them go to Dr. Shelby or having random matches against the leaderless and purposeless Riott Squad.

#3 Lars Sullivan vs. Braun Strowman or Roman Reigns

Monster Mash.

Raw needs some credible heels, badly. It's going to get worse when Brock Lesnar presumably leaves. If Braun Strowman or Roman Reigns walk out of Brooklyn with the Universal Championship, who do they have to defend it against? The only top-caliber heel on Monday nights that could conceivably be in title contention is Drew McIntyre. That isn't enough.

When looking at the current NXT landscape, there's not much for Lars Sullivan to do. The NXT title picture will be dominated by Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano for the remainder of the year. He doesn't fit as an opponent for the North American Championship with Adam Cole and The Undisputed Era in that scene. He and Velveteen Dream are both heels (even though Dream is getting more beloved by the day). Aside from a contest with Keith Lee, the yellow brand doesn't have room for him.

Sullivan is better suited to Monday nights. He would serve as an ideal first challenger for Roman Reigns or Braun Strowman after SummerSlam, assuming they don't fight each other, of course!

#4 Nikki Cross vs. Asuka

Wouldn't this be grand?

With SAnitY on SmackDown and the next Mae Young Classic imminent, there's not much left for Nikki Cross in NXT, nor is she needed there anymore. SmackDown needs her far more, as it lacks a top heel in its women's division. The Carmella experiment has been an insulting and disastrous failure.

One of the casualties of that experiment, Asuka, is trying to rebuild herself by blasting through the IIconics. If Becky Lynch is any indication, that experiment worked, but it won't last for long.

Nikki, crazy woman that she is, will need a fight, and these two had one of the most memorable matches in the history of NXT's women's division with their last woman standing match. Before that, she fought Asuka to a draw at the peak of the Empress' power.

The blue brand would serve both competitors well by rekindling that magic. The SmackDown version probably won't be as crazy as its NXT counterpart, but it would get both women over when Asuka badly needs it and when SmackDown needs a top female heel.

#5 EC3 vs. Bobby Lashley

Changing the game?

With his top-shelf mic skills and sculpted physique, EC3 is one of those rare stars more accustomed to Vince's main roster eccentricities than the work-driven, logical, and compressed format of NXT. One must imagine he's not too long for that brand.

Better accustomed to Monday nights, I expect him to show up on the #RawAfterMania next April. It was on that same episode a year prior where a certain return happened with massive fanfare but with little staying power.

Bobby Lashley has meandered. Even a victory over Roman Reigns hasn't done him much good. He was in an awful filler feud with Sami Zayn. He's now in a filler feud with Elias which should be more entertaining because of the latter's virtues, but no one buys him as a serious threat. A heel turn would be well-advised, but WWE seems dead set on pushing him as the same boring babyface that failed in his first run with the company.

Therefore, Lashley needs someone to play off of.

EC3 is supposed to be the top 1%. He has the physique to at least look like a threat to Lashley, and he has the mic skills to carry the segments. The matches wouldn't be amazing, but EC3 can be the strong heel with the gift of gab that would make a babyface Lashley look his best.

#6 Kairi Sane vs. Sonya Deville

Ahoy! Please pray for her!

As I wrote earlier, I expect Kairi Sane to defeat Shayna Baszler at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn and become the new NXT Women's Champion. However, even at this moment of her greatest triumph, her tragic fall will have already been written in the stars.

During her reign, she'll butt heads with a blast from her past, a woman who was aggrieved at the opportunity that Sane seemed to take from her last year.

Io Shirai has arrived in WWE and must be considered one of the two overwhelming favorites to win the Mae Young Classic tournament (the other being Deonna Purrazzo). She'll be exposed to the WWE Universe very quickly at Evolution on October 28th.

Io Shirai and Kairi Sane have a storied rivalry stretching back for years during their time in Stardom. That rivalry will reignite with Io looking for revenge and redemption. She'll get it the night before WrestleMania 35, taking Kairi's "treasure" from her.

From there, Kairi will arrive on the main roster. Pray for her when that time comes, because of all the callups that could happen in the next year, it's Kairi I fear for the most. This is a company with a horrible track record in booking babyfaces, and Kairi is one of the most naturally lovable babyfaces in the entire organization, rivaled only by Johnny Gargano and Daniel Bryan. Beyond this, you have to factor in possible language issues.

She'll need a spot that exposes her strengths and hides her weaknesses, and while it's impossible to know who will go where in next year's shakeup, Kairi would be far better served on SmackDown, with its shorter run time and greater devotion to ring work.

A feud with Sonya Deville there to break her in would be ideal. Sonya is a talented performer with a lot of potential. Her encounters with Asuka on SmackDown were the best women's matches in the division since Carmella's reign began. However, Deville hasn't had a true rivalry to expose her potential.

A program with Kairi would not only help to establish Sonya's credibility, but would play to the former's strength as a lovable babyface while Sonya bullies and taunts her.

#7 Tommaso Ciampa vs. Daniel Bryan

Blackheart arrives.

Tommaso Ciampa has been without question WWE's greatest performer of 2018, and it's exceedingly unlikely that anyone will swoop in and steal that award from him before December comes.

A call-up will come sometime between now and WrestleMania 35. It depends on how long his feud with Johnny Gargano will go. When Ciampa eventually drops the title to him, there's nothing holding him back. It will be a monumental accomplishment for someone who wasn't big on the company's radar.

Ciampa has redefined what a heel should be in 2018. In an age when it's cool to cheer heels, he forces fans to hate him because he's so despicable. He truly has no redeeming qualities. You can't even cheer his music because he has none.

There's only one target for a heel like him - the main roster's most beloved babyface, Daniel Bryan. The self-proclaimed "greatest sports-entertainer of all time" needs to go after SmackDown's most beloved light. The story writes itself, especially it's after WrestleMania 35, where Daniel Bryan could very well be WWE Champion.

That might be giving the company too much faith, but if they can't figure out how to use somebody like Ciampa, they're on the opposite side of the universe from where their minds should be.

#8 Johnny Gargano vs. Andrade "Cien" Almas

And so we meet again.

I expect Johnny Gargano to win the championship from Tommaso Ciampa in November, or at the latest, January. The night before WrestleMania 35, he'll drop it to Adam Cole.

While it's possible he goes to 205 Live, with all due respect to that brand, it would be a colossal waste. Gargano has proven he can shine brightly on huge stages, and there's a big one waiting for him with his other great rival.

Whether Andrade "Cien" Almas stays on SmackDown or goes to Raw in next year's shakeup, Johnny Gargano should follow him. These two have unfinished business, and with their matches always being incredible, it would be an excellent way to put both of them over.

Perhaps it's only for a mid-card title at first, but that's fine. It will elevate them both to greater prominence as 2019 goes on.

#9 Velveteen Dream vs. John Cena

The Dream is here!

I hope I'm wrong about this one because Velveteen Dream isn't ready yet. To fully reach his potential, he should spend another year or so in NXT. Many people who have been to the top of the mountain in the industry - Hulk Hogan, Triple H, and John Cena, for example, have explained that they think Velveteen Dream could be the next megastar. They're right, but he still has some polishing to do, both in the ring and with his gimmick, which Vince won't understand.

Should he debut on the main roster after WrestleMania 35, though, a vainglorious calling out of John Cena is the only course available.

The match can wait, possibly for months, but Dream needs to put Cena in his sights. Dream demands attention. He demands the spotlight. There's no bigger way to get it for himself than against the 16-time champion, who Cena himself has said he wants to face, so there's a lot to work with there.

Told correctly, it would be a fantastic passing of the torch moment.

I just hope it doesn't happen until 2020.