Success in NXT does not guarantee success on WWE`s main roster.The bottom halves of Raw and SmackDown`s rosters are a testament to an unfortunate truth: just because a gimmick worked in a small venue at Full Sail University, does not mean it will translate to a massive arena with less intimacy and higher stakes.The Ascension held the NXT Tag Titles for 344 days--longer than any other tag team in NXT history. Today, Viktor and Konnor are perennial enhancement talents; the last time they won a 2-on-2 tag team match was on February 8, 2016, over two years ago. Or take Bo Dallas, for instance. The third-generation Superstar held the NXT Championship for 261 days. Now, he`s a whipping boy and lackey for The Miz; he`s the ringside replacement for Maryse ever since she went on maternity leave. If a former NXT champion has that much difficulty? Imagine how difficult it is for the average NXT midcarder--a guy who never even held an NXT title--to get over on Raw or SmackDown. Such is the struggle of Elias Samson, who got his name shortened to Elias after debuting on Raw.WWE has never treated Elias like a main event player. In fact, he tried out for the company four times before they offered him a contract. Once he got to NXT, he served as enhancement talent for Baron Corbin. And even when he started his unique `drifter` gimmick, Elias lost the majority of his feuds--most notably to Kassius Ohno, who defeated him in a `Loser Leaves NXT` match. It would have been reasonable to assume that Elias would fight on Raw for a month or two before being released. If he couldn`t even get a title shot on NXT (let alone win an actual title), what chance did he have of succeeding on the main show? WWE did something smart: They didn`t make a big deal over him. For the first couple of weeks he was on Raw, Elias didn`t even have any matches. The backstage camera would occasionally catch him in the background, strumming his guitar and humming to himself, but that was it. It was a master str ...
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