Why Is Apollo Crews Being Booked So Badly?

As Uhaa Nation, he was one of the most sought-after talents in professional wrestling. Spectators were amazed at how someone with the size of a heavyweight could perform like a luchador. He became so popular, WWE recruited him and signed him to an NXT contract. In NXT, he had some good matches against Tyler Breeze, Baron Corbin, and Finn Balor, leaving many to believe that he was going to be one of the most prominent stars in the company. While his athletic ability is nearly flawless, he was in dire need of character development. Then, all of a sudden, he blandly debuts the Raw after WrestleMania. No promos. No vignettes. No build. NOTHING.

The crowd after WrestleMania gave him his due respect based on his athleticism and indy popularity. However, the following weeks in Los Angeles and London, his popularity stock plummeted. Not because he’s changed anything in his arsenal, but because somehow WWE thought he served enough time working on his character in NXT. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, they were wrong.

Tyler Breeze, the Ascension, Bo Dallas, and even Neville to a degree have not benefited by getting called up to the main roster. Yes, there may be a financial promotion, but who wants to make more money just to accept that your character is now an embarrassment? I would not say many.

There have already been too many call-ups during the past few weeks. Sadly, Crews is the least important one of the bunch. Even real-life couple Zack Ryder and EMMA, who both returned to the main roster after being successfully re-developed in NXT, have been treated better than Apollo Crews. At least they were involved in WrestleMania, with Ryder even winning the Intercontinental Championship and EMMA being in a feud with Becky Lynch and defeating Paige on SmackDown.

Apollo Crews, on the other hand? Meaningless feud with the Social Outcasts. That will put someone over quickly.

Sadly, it does not seem as if Crews is an important investment to concentrate on right now for WWE Creative. It appears as if he is going to be nothing more than a midcard hand with an unimpressive win-loss record looking back six months from now. What made matters worse is that he lost to Samoa Joe on a recent NXT episode. VIA TAPOUT. Sure, Samoa Joe is a great heel and an asset in NXT, but his role should be more of a strong character to help build stars, instead of being booked to make then tap out. Especially if Crews was being pegged as being one of the top names of the future, but is already being headed the opposite direction.

Hopefully he gets a major character overhaul in the coming weeks on the main roster. However, it is not looking that way. I would have even been totally fine with him losing to Heath Slater on Raw and being forced to join the Social Outcasts. At least that would have been better than coming out to his generic “Go get ’em!” music, accompanied by a cheesy smile with a grimacing undertone.

Let’s see where the direction of Apollo Crews goes. I am not going to be optimistic, though, because if these three weeks are any indication, it’s not looking good.

@cravewrestling