There was a big surprise revealed to all of us during Survivor Series weekend. The reveal had nothing to do with NXT TakeOver, nor did it have anything to do with Survivor Series itself. At least, not yet. The surprise, of course, was the promo airing for Lars Sullivan, coming soon to the main roster.
Now, I don’t know about you, but my first thought about this call-up was…well…colorful.
I get it. Lars Sullivan has a look, or rather, the look. He is favored by some of the top officials in WWE. They see this scary looking guy, and they see dollar signs. They see an athletic freak the likes of which are hard to come by. As the old saying goes (mostly used in basketball circles), you can’t teach size. Well, Lars Sullivan has certain qualities about him that he was born with. So in that respect, I totally appreciate where the push may be coming from.
My problem with the call up is this: is he still too green? Some folks get called to the big shows and it works great. A fine example could be Kevin Owens, or if you wanted, you could include members of Shield . In short, the list goes on a fair bit. There have been plenty of NXT call-ups who have done exceptionally well.
On the flip side of the argument, you could offer up numerous examples of NXT call-ups with less than stellar track records. A couple, off the top of my head? Tye Dillinger and The Ascension. You could include some others too-Adam Rose, perhaps. Even members of the B Team had their share of struggles. So which group is Lars Sullivan going to be in?
Boom
He’s a big man, he moves incredibly well in the ring, and he wants to be dominant. I personally am not one to put others out there, but you could see him getting around the network-perhaps as a way to avoid subscribers, or perhaps just because its what fans want to do. If someone high in the food chainead: Vince McMahon) thinks Lars Sullivan is going to be a most valuable asset then he will be treated as such. WWE is clearly in support of Sullivan, so they are going to do whatever it takes to make this all work.
Bust
He’s a big man, who moves well, but is just too green. Perhaps that raw, unfinished look appeals to some. But perhaps the raw skills prove to be a bad thing. Maybe he tries something and hurts a much bigger star. Maybe WWE thought he needed to be brought up now, for whatever reason-it’s not like the main roster isn’t missing a bunch of top guys, after all.
In the end, whether Lars Sullivan makes it or not will be dependent upon several factors. Will he work harder than he ever has before? Will WWE Creative give him good scripts to follow? Will he attract his own fans along the way? I think it’s way too early to think about boom or bust designations, in all honesty. I am certainly not expecting things to go one way versus the other. What I can do is hope-that the big man integrates will with the rest of the roster, and gives off many positive experiences.
