8. Dana Brooke
Dana Brooke has only been on the WWE main roster for a few months, and her planned trajectory was immediately changed due to an injury sustained by her former NXT tag team partner, Emma. She was quickly repackaged with WWE Women’s Champion Charlotte, becoming somewhat of an enforcer.
Brooke looked decent with early wins over the likes of Becky Lynch, Paige and even Natalya, and the duo of her and Charlotte picked up a big PPV tag team victory at WWE Money in the Bank, but she has yet to find her footing on the main roster. She does have a great, marketable look and even just a few years ago she likely would have been one of the top stars in the women’s division, despite needing a lot of work in the ring. Her peers are stepping up the game in WWE, and the powers-that-be may have done Dana a disservice by moving her up from NXT before she was fully ready to compete on that level.
Given more time and a fair bit of protection (keep her ring time limited to house shows and Main Event for a few months), she has all the tools to become a great star. For now, Dana Brooke bottoms out our list of 2016 debuts.
7. Apollo Crews
The incredibly athletic and powerful Apollo Crews, formerly Uhaa Nation on the independent wrestling scene, was brought to the main roster by Shane McMahon the night after WrestleMania 32. While he has been relatively protected, his mildly impressive win streak was kept to low card stars like the Social Outcasts, Stardust, Tyler Breeze and Viktor.
Crews took a huge step up with a singles victory over former world champion Sheamus at WWE Money in the Bank in June, followed by a tag team win over Sheamus and Alberto del Rio on Raw, but has yet to establish a direction for himself coming out of the brief program. He also hasn’t shown much in the way of promo skills as of yet, which may limit his creative potential going forward. Right now, he’s kind of just…there.
6. Aiden English & Simon Gotch
The Vaudevillians have a unique gimmick that worked well enough in the smaller, more intimate NXT setting, but English and Gotch haven’t exactly translated that success to the mainstream, global WWE audience. Despite decent booking and programs that should have gotten over, crowds have responded with general apathy towards the old school shtick since moving up to the main roster.
It’s not all bad news for the Vaudevillains though! The throwback duo is exceptional inside of the ring where it counts, and have shown they can wrestle with virtually every team in WWE right now. Their short feud with the New Day was off-and-on entertaining, showing that the potential is definitely there. If they are able to hit their stride and find something that clicks with the WWE Universe, English and Gotch have a great future before them. They may just want to think about tweaking the gimmick a little…
5. Baron Corbin
Baron Corbin made a surprise main roster debut at WrestleMania 32 in the annual Andre the Giant memorial battle royal and, to the shock of nearly everyone, ended up winning the whole thing. He then made an impact on Raw the next night, beginning a feud with Dolph Ziggler that could have been a great stepping-off point for the young star, but because the two were booked in an obnoxious amount of televised singles matches on Raw, Smackdown and PPV with very little difference between any of them, fans had a hard time investing. Corbin’s very green promo skills didn’t help either.
There are a lot of upsides to the “Lone Wolf” though, and he certainly has a future in WWE if handled correctly over the next few years. At six-foot-eight weighing in at 275 pounds, covered in cool looking tattoos, Corbin has one of the best natural looks in pro wrestling today. He also has a unique and powerful set of suplexes and slams in his kit, and is fairly consistent and precise in his execution within the ring. I genuinely enjoy watching Baron Corbin work, he just needs to figure out how to get the fans to rally against him.
4. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson
Two of the biggest names of the New Japan tag team scene over the past few years, Gallows and Anderson making their WWE main roster debut, skipping NXT entirely, was a big deal for the 2016 wrestling landscape. While their in-ring work is always solid and their alliance with AJ Styles consistently yields good television, their booking has been questionable, at best.
Part of the issue with Gallows and Anderson is simply that WWE doesn’t have anywhere near the level of competitive tag team scene as New Japan, a promotion that also has the benefit of multiple large babyface stables that frequently offer up feed to the Bullet Club. WWE also hasn’t handled the Club well at all, booking the three-time IWGP Tag Team Champions into way too many losses, losing the stigma of a formerly unstoppable, dominant group of heels.
All that being said, Gallows and Anderson have still been more “on” than “off” since debuting in WWE, and their potential is virtually limitless. And on the off-chance things don’t work out for the Club, the “Machine Gun” Karl Anderson easily has the total package – look, promo skills, in-ring work – to become a major singles star.
