Rookie Year: Grading the first year of several stars new to WWE's main roster in 2019

#8 Nikki Cross

The former member of Sanity, Nikki Cross

Of the six wrestlers who were promoted at the beginning of 2019, Nikki Cross was the star most ready for a push forward. She had been left out of Sanity when they debuted on the main roster and had also had her share of shots at the NXT Women's Title. Cross was often involved in multi-woman matches for the title, but always came up short.

When she did debut as a member of the main roster, it was hard to gauge how she'd be handled. Her manic mannerisms were still present, but they were more so due to excitement rather than in the service of chaos. Cross was still over due to her manic energy and that kept her relevant once she was paired with Alexa Bliss.

The whole pairing of the diminutive dynamos was one of the top storylines for most of 2019 due to everyone feeling that Bliss was using Cross. The tension was used in each woman's battle with Bayley for the SmackDown Women's Championship but the two ladies remained loyal to each other.

That loyalty paid off as the duo captured the Women's Tag Team titles from The IIconics. The duo of Bliss and Cross received perhaps the best booking any of the Women's Tag Team Champions had experienced since the belts were introduced this year. While they did lose the titles to The Kabuki Warriors, Cross was a consistent presence on TV throughout 2019.

Grade: B+