Ranking Every NXT Call-Up's Main Event Potential After 2024 WWE Draft

NXT's role in WWE has evolved over time, but more than anything else, it is the brand that tests stars. Once talent is deemed ready for the big time, the wrestlers make the leap to Raw or SmackDown.

This year, seven performers were selected from the gold brand, pushed into the spotlight over talent currently working on the main roster.

Here is the full list of NXT call-ups in this year's WWE draft:

• Carmelo Hayes (Night 1, Round 1, Pick 3 to SmackDown)
  
• Kiana James (Night 1, Round 4, Pick 4)
  
• Baron Corbin (Night 1, supplemental pick)
  
• Ilja Dragunov (Night 2, Round 4, Pick 3 to Raw)
  
• Lyra Valkyria (Night 2, Round 5, Pick 3 to Raw)
  
• Blair Davenport (Night 2, Round 6, Pick 4 to SmackDown)
  
• Dijak (Night 2, supplemental pick)
  

All of these wrestlers were chosen for a reason. They have the talent to thrive in just about any situation.

However, there is also a clear hierarchy of potential among the call-ups. A certain few could change the entire wrestling business while others may not be young or exciting enough to become main event acts.

The following is a ranking of all seven NXT call-ups organized by their potential to take over the industry.

7. Dijak

Dijak has begun his second attempt at a main roster run as a new member of Raw, and this time he has a better chance to succeed.

At 37 years old, though, he is hardly competing with most of this list in terms of pure potential.

It is a shame that he could not be this Dijak four years ago when he was first called up as a part of Retribution under the name T-Bar. He was stuck with a gimmick so bad that everyone involved has mocked it upon reflection.

The angle took away years of opportunities for Dijak, who was required to rebuild himself on the gold brand.

Hard Justice became a popular figure in NXT by embracing a hardcore style. He would push his opponents from Ilja Dragunov to Eddy Thorpe to embrace his level of violence.

While the gimmick verged on corny often, Dijak's sheer commitment to his Sin City-inspired aesthetic and unabashed heel persona. He has gladly mocked any child in attendance to get heat and build up the babyface feuding with him.

Per Corey Brennan on Fightful Select, Dijak has yet to re-sign with WWE with his contract expiring this year. But he was called up for a reason, and even those in All Elite Wrestling monitoring the situation likely expect he will re-sign.

Dijak should become a regular presence on the red brand where he can create a fun niche of hard-hitting matches on Raw alongside the likes of Sheamus, Bron Breakker, Gunther and more on a talented roster.

There is no reason he should not be featured, though he may never be a main event act like others on this list.

6. Baron Corbin

The story of Baron Corbin has been fascinating to watch since the days when he was admired as a rising star in WWE.

In 2016, he was called up for the first time from NXT at WrestleMania 32 and won the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal. He won Money in the Bank in 2017, seemingly indicating he was set to become a world champion.

However, he lost his cash-in to Jinder Mahal, becoming one of just five wrestlers out of 30 in WWE history to lose their cash-in attempt. It was an embarrassing moment that sent him down the card, and it may be a booking decision that he will never recover from.

The Lone Wolf's career has been a series of decent highs and almost career-ending lows. He won the United States Championship and King of the Ring. He was also Kurt Angle's final opponent, though many fans would reject his role in that match.

He was the "Constable" of Raw between 2018 and 2019, which ended with the McMahon family blaming him for all of WWE's failures at that time.

Corbin's run in NXT was one of the best resets any main roster star has experienced with the gold brand. He found his spark, delivered some of the best matches of his career and formed a beloved tag team with Bron Breakker that should have lasted longer.

He returns to SmackDown revitalized as a veteran with a new spark, hopefully finally getting a run as a babyface.

Corbin may be 39 years old, but he already has a resume to back up his credibility. He just needs to maintain the spark in NXT that made fans accept him.

5. Blair Davenport

No one in WWE really knows what it has in Blair Davenport yet. She has been in the wrestling business for 12 years with a veteran's resume at the age of 28 years old.

Her WWE career began in 2021, but much of her success came before then. In particular, she spent several years in World Wonder Ring Stardom where she won multiple championships.

She almost got her big break in AEW but was released due to COVID-19 travel restrictions in 2020. This opened the door for WWE to offer her a contract, and she joined NXT UK in 2021.

Unfortunately, NXT UK was retired in 2022 just as Davenport looked poised to capture the NXT UK Women's Championship.

Her run with the gold brand has been uneventful, challenging for titles but never winning. But she did win the women's Iron Survivor Challenge, but this remains her only WWE accolade over nearly three years.

That could well change on the main roster. With her experience, Davenport can wrestle long competitive matches against anyone and cut strong promos against any competition.

She looks the part of a dangerous heel at a time when the WWE women's division could use fresh names.

She is a fascinating dark horse who could quickly make NXT look silly for not crowning her as its women's champion when the opportunities were there.

4. Kiana James

Kiana James may not be the most well-known name coming up from NXT, but she could quickly find herself on the same trajectory as Tiffany Stratton.

Probably the most surprising call-up of the seven picked in the draft, the 26-year-old never quite finished her journey in NXT.

The Businesswoman arrived on the gold brand in 2022 with limited experience but obvious potential, showing quickly that she was up for every challenge. She was consistently used on television in NXT despite rarely holding gold.

James won the NXT Tag Team Championships alongside Fallon Henley around the time she turned the corner in the ring. The reign was short but signaled her ascent toward gold.

She established herself so well as the devious businesswoman in NXT that by 2024, she was taking in an understudy in Izzi Dame to train up.

James and Dame found their groove as an alliance and looked poised to push the former into the NXT Women's Championship picture before her call-up.

While James will be required to start over without Dame in her corner, she has shown herself to be a resilient character performer. She is also among the most versatile in-ring performers on the main roster.

James' ceiling is unclear, but that may just be because of how high she can reach. She will be one to watch as long as WWE is unafraid to hit the ground running with her on Raw.

3. Carmelo Hayes

The final three is the toughest part of this ranking as they will be genuine main event stars in the long run.

Carmelo Hayes is a money star with a major chance to blow everyone away with the opportunities coming to him.

The moment The A Champion arrived in NXT in 2021, it was clear he was a star. Arriving just before the NXT 2.0 rebrand, he rode the company's youth movement wave to the top.

He won the NXT Breakout Tournament and preceded to capture the North American Championship. His two reigns totaled 272 days, longer than anyone else in company history.

Hayes only let go of that title to move onto the NXT Championship, dethroning and taking Bron Breakker's spot as the top man on the gold brand.

While he gave way to the unstoppable rise of Ilja Dragunov and took a backseat in NXT to his friend Trick Williams' growth, he stands out as one of NXT's greatest names.

WWE was so behind Melo that he competed on SmackDown before he got his call-up. On the night of his call-up, he main-evented the blue brand against Cody Rhodes.

The A Champion delivered great matches in NXT but also had some duds along the way. His best storytelling tendencies are outside of the ring rather than inside, though he has shown he can deliver with the best competition.

He has made up for any disappointing moments with his undeniable charisma and memorable promos, and that is what matters most on the main roster.

It is clear WWE sees a star in Melo, already a top name at 29 years old. He was picked in the first round of the first night of the draft for a reason.

On most lists, Hayes would be top. However, the two names ahead of him on this list are also megastars in the making that have small advantages over him in terms of potential.

2. Lyra Valkyria

When WWE truly committed to the women's division in 2014, building stars like Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks and Bayley, it created new idols for the next generation.

One of those was Lyra Valkyria.

After seeing the rise of the Four Horsewomen, she began training in 2014 at Fight Factory Pro Wrestling, the training school founded by Finn Bálor in Dublin where Lynch began her own journey.

Over the next 10 years, The Valkyrie achieved her dream, joining NXT UK where she went nearly undefeated. The end of the brand led to her move to NXT and a memorable rise to the NXT Women's Championship.

Valkyria even defeated one of her idols, Lynch, to capture the gold. While she lost the title sooner than expected to Roxanne Perez, the timing may have been intentional to set her up for a main roster call-up.

The Valkyrie is moving up while still fresh and carrying the prestige of a recent championship run, and it seems likely she will work with The Man once again soon.

If Lynch was ever going to have a defined tag team partner in WWE, it would make sense for it to be a fellow Irishwoman who idolized her growing up.

Only 27 years old, Valkyria already comes off as a title contender due to her impressive in-ring skills and solid promo work. Under the tutelage of The Man, though, she could become a staple of WWE for over a decade to come.

Alongside NXT peers Perez and Tiffany Stratton, Valkyria is following the example of the Four Horsewomen a decade prior as a former NXT women's champion that looks to take over the main roster.

1. Ilja Dragunov

For those who don't know the name Ilja Dragunov, that will change quickly. He is one of the best wrestlers in the world today, and his level of competition just increased massively.

The first Russia-born champion in WWE history has held both the NXT UK and NXT titles since his arrival in 2019.

In that time, he has delivered some of the most exciting matches in the history of both brands. His work with Carmelo Hayes, Trick Williams, Dijak, Tony D'Angelo and Bron Breakker helped raise the stock of some of the gold brand's rising stars.

However, it has always been The Mad Dragon's work with Gunther that stood out most. The two came up in the same promotion, Westwide Xtreme Wrestling in Germany, before bringing their rivalry to Progress Wrestling in England.

This feud helped them both work their way into NXT UK, giving a new audience a chance to watch their epic work together.

Their battles for the NXT UK Championship remain two of the greatest NXT has ever produced, but the best may be yet to come as both will reunite on Raw in 2024.

While he may not have been one of NXT's top stars from the outset, Dragunov became the ace of the promotion through hard work and eventually usurped Hayes in NXT.

His in-ring work alone is good enough to make him just as successful as Gunther in WWE, and his promos carry a unique intensity that fans will see from no one else in the company.

This whole NXT call-up class is impressive, but at just 30 years old, no one can touch The Mad Dragon's unique potential to take the wrestling world by storm.