Characters / WWE New

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Lists the various WWE wrestlers active during the New Era, from April 4, 2016 to April 2, 2023. Please limit associated tropes to that wrestler's time in WWE.

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Cedric Alexander (Cederick Johnson) 2016-

See also: The Hurt Business

• Awesome Moment of Crowning: Won the Cruiserweight Title at Wrestlemania 34.
• Beard of Evil: As a heel.
• Blessed with Suck: Geez, ever since he got his contract, the guy hasn't been able to catch a break. Trying to claw his way up in the Cruiserweight Division was already difficult enough with guys like Brian Kendrick, TJ Perkins, and the returning Neville in front of him, but then he has to deal with betrayals from tag team partners and even his own girlfriend throwing him under the bus. And then a Real Life injury took him out of the ring for several months. Eventually subverted by him winning the Cruiserweight Championship at Wrestlemania.
• Deadly Euphemism: Downplayed, as nobody dies in wrestling. Hopefully. That said, if he (and others) start talking about the "Cedric Alexander Institute of Chiropractic Medicine", just know that it's not a place you want to go to get your back looked at. In a nutshell, the "Institute of Chiropractic Medicine" is to Cedric Alexander what "Suplex City" is to Brock Lesnar.
• Dyeing for Your Art:invoked During his stint in the Cruiserweight Classic, much was made of the fact that he had cut about fifteen pounds to make the 205-pound weight limit - and presumably to help his agility against a generally quicker weight division.
• Face–Heel Turn: On the September 7 episode of Raw, Alexander attacked his tag team partners Ricochet and Apollo Crews during a six man tag team match against The Hurt Business and celebrated with the group, thus joining them and turning heel for the first time in WWE.
• Happily Married: To wrestler Aerial Monroe, who has made a couple of appearances on WWE programming and is currently signed with All Elite Wrestling as Big Swole.
• Heel–Face Turn: After weeks of trying to get in on MVP and Omos' good side, Cedric has had enough, and decides to distract both Omos and MVP in a 2-on-1 handicap match at Hell in a Cell, allowing Bobby Lashley to win the match. While the distraction wasn't for Lashley, it was for himself, as the two former Hurt Business members embrace.
• Lightning Bruiser: He's one of the larger competitors in the Cruiserweight Division (barely clearing the max weight threshold as mentioned above) but doesn't give up much speed or agility to the rest of the field.
• Official Couple: With Alicia Fox; apparently (in storyline) they started seeing each other some time between the Cruiserweight Classic and the start of 205 Live. It didn't last long.
• Spirited Competitor
• Took a Level in Jerkass: After his Face–Heel Turn became this and also he's always mocking Shelton Benjamin.
• Tournament Arc: Introduced to WWE in the WWE Cruiserweight Classic.

Mustafa Ali/Ali (Adeel Alam) 2016-2023

See his dedicated character page for his list of tropes.

Andrade "Cien" Almas/Andrade (Manuel Alfonso Andrade) 2015-2021, 2024-

See his dedicated character page for his list of tropes.

Karl Anderson (Chad Allegra) 2016-2020, 2022-

See his dedicated character page for his list of tropes. See also: Bullet Club.

Austin Aries (Dan Solwold, Jr.) 2016-2017

See his dedicated character page for his list of tropes.

Finn Bálor (Fergal Devitt) 2014-

See his dedicated character page for his list of tropes. See also: Bullet Club and The Judgment Day

Tyler Bate 2017-

See British Strong Style.

Aleister Black (Thomas Budgen) 2016-2021

See his dedicated character page for his list of tropes.

Wesley Blake (Cory Weston) 2013-2021

• Bash Brothers: With Murphy until they went on a losing streak and broke up.
• Cowboy: From San Antonio, Texas at that.
• Fun with Acronyms: The sometimes-used team name of Blake-Alexa-Murphy Factor. Ironically this could have still fit anyway as Blake And Murphy Factor if Alexa weren't involved.
• Last-Name Basis: He and Murphy started being announced to the ring this way since winning the tag straps up until they split. His canonical first name Wesley was almost never used during this time.
• Level Grinding: Believe it or not, their progress as a jobber tag team saw them quietly edge ever closer to victory as time went on before they finally broke through and became more effective.
• Real Men Wear Pink: And they also put their hair in pigtails.
• Those Two Guys: With Buddy Murphy, before they became the Tag Team Champions.
• Took a Level in Badass: They went from jobbers to the Tag Team Champions in two weeks.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: After separating from Murphy and Bliss (the latter of whom was drafted to the Smackdown roster) and embarking on a singles career he suddenly became a lot more arrogant. And given the type of personalities BAMF had, this is saying quite a bit.
• Two Guys and a Girl: With Murphy and Alexa Bliss.
• Wild Card: He and Murphy both won and defended the tag titles before making anything close to a statement either way on the face and heel scale.
• The Worf Barrage: How many of their matches came across when they were jobbers. They could hang with the Lucha Dragons and the Vaudevillains in the ring, they just could never put them down for three.

Rick Boogs (Eric Bugenhagen) 2017-2023

• Air Guitar: Rocks out for the crowd and gives encore on his air guitar.
• Autobots, Rock Out!: Plays a slide guitar to herald Shinsuke Nakamura's entrance.
• Careful with That Axe: Surely you wouldn't expect a huge guy like Boogs to let out high-pitched, almost falsetto screams.
• '80s Hair: He rocks a glorious mullet - at least he did until a tweak to his gimmick that brought a haircut with it.
• Expy: Their gimmicks are very different but he bears more than a passing resemblance to Rick Rude, particularly when the latter cut his hair short late in his career. Their ring names even sound enough to be easy to mistake for each other - which probably wasn't accidental.
• Large Ham: Eric has no inside voice, being always intense.
• Muscles Are Meaningful: Possesses a bulky, muscular physique and is depicted as being extremely strong. Unfortunately, trying to display how strong he was by lifting both of The Usos onto his shoulders at once caused him to blow his knee out. He returned to WWE a year later and, absurdly, even bigger than he had been before the injury.
• Porn Stache: As an ''80 rocker' character, he has a bushy mustache.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!: He prefers to be referred to as "Rick... BOOGS!"

Humberto Carrillo (Humberto Garza Carrillo) 2018-

• Badass Cape: Wears one to the ring.
• Latin Lover: As a member of Los Lotharios.
• Masked Luchador: Used to be one under the name "Último Ninja".
• Wrestling Family: Part of the Garza family.

Tommaso Ciampa (Tommaso Whitney) 2022-

See his dedicated character page for his list of tropes.

Apollo Crews/Apollo (Sesugh Uhaa) 2015-

• Accent Relapse: Spoke in clear American English as a face, but after his gimmick change to a heelish chieftain-type character, he picked up an African accent due to his African (specifically Nigerian) heritage. This was undone when he returned to NXT as a face.^note Many children of African immigrants in the United States are in fact able to speak fluently in both American and African accents, using the former when out in public and the latter with their elders at home.
• Celebrity Resemblance: Uhaa's been mistaken a few times for Terry Crews, hence the ring name.
• Evil Costume Switch: After his heel turn, he's wearing wrestling tights.
• Face–Heel Turn:
  • His 2017 alliance with Titus O'Neil, though at this point he was more of a Punch-Clock Villain, as he didn't really do anything villainous and seemed to only barely tolerate Titus' antics.
  • In 2021, on the February 19 episode of Smackdown, Crews lost to Shinsuke Nakamura in a match. After the match, Crews attacked Nakamura and Big E, thus turning heel.
• Genius Bonus:
• Giant Mook: Post-heel turn, has one in Commander Azeez, who stands at nearly 7' tall and makes Apollo (himself not the smallest guy by any stretch) look tiny.
• Heel–Face Turn: After Titus turned face.
  • Heel–Face Return: After being absent from the main roster, Apollo returned to NXT as a babyface.
• Incoming Ham: "APOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!"
• Lightning Bruiser: He's 6 foot 1, weighs 240 pounds, has a noticeably thick upper body that makes him look more like 260, but he moves scarily fast for someone his size. Best shown with his Finishing Move—he uses a gorilla press drop to show his strength, followed by a combination of moonsaults and shooting star presses to show his agility. Keep in mind, this is a standing moonsault.
• Only One Name: The 'Crews' was dropped at some point in 2018, only to be brought back several months later.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: In his return to NXT, notice that one of his eyes were turning red, indicating that something is wrong with Apollo. Turns out he took a Darker and Edgier route.
• Shout-Out: The name is a shoutout to Apollo Creed and Terry Crews, the latter of whom Uhaa very closely resembles. His name has caused a few verbal blunders with several people saying Apollo Creed on accident, while The Miz did it on purpose.
• Spirited Competitor: His main character trait outside his remarkable athleticism is he's a good guy driven to be a champion.
• Straight Man: Titus O'Neil can be... a bit over the top, which gives the very even-tempered Apollo Crews this vibe. It's not uncommon for Crews to wordlessly watch some of Titus's antics with a bemused "WTF?" look on his face.
• Warrior Prince: Styles himself as this in his heel gimmick, citing his grandfather's status in Nigeria.
• Wearing a Flag on Your Head: His heel wrestling gear features the colors of the Nigerian flag.

Steve Cutler (Steven Kupryk) 2014-2021

• Semper Fi: Maclin was a legit former Marine before becoming a professional wrestler. This carried over into Cutler's wrestling "character."

Ariya Daivari 2016-2021

• Foreign-Language Tirade: When something pisses him off, he starts shouting in Persian.
• Rich Bastard: He seems to live the high life outside of the ring.
• Wrestling Family: Ariya's older brother Shawn, a wrestler who was known in WWE primarily as a manager for Muhammad Hassan and later Kurt Angle, was known simply as Daivari.

Lince Dorado (José Cordero) 2016-2021

• Gold-Colored Superiority: Wears a gold mask and his ring name translates to "golden lynx."
• Masked Luchador
• Shout-Out: His entrance attire is modeled after that of Jushin Thunder Liger.
• Unnecessary Combat Roll: ...Or rather "Unnecessary Forward Handspring", which he does at the start of a match to psych out his opponents.

Pete Dunne/Butch (Peter England) 2017-

See British Strong Style.

James Ellsworth (James Ellsworth Morris) 2016-2017, 2018

• Ascended Extra: He was initially just the first jobber Braun Strowman destroyed on Raw. However, he endeared himself with the fans and management, who brought him back for a storyline on Smackdown before giving him a fulltime contract.
• Butt-Monkey
• Face–Heel Turn: Turned on Dean at TLC 2016, dropping a ladder with Dean on it and allowing AJ Styles to take the title, reasoning he can beat AJ once again for the World Championship.
• Gender Flip: His relationship with Carmella is a gender-inverted play on the traditional male wrestler/female valet pairing. This even goes as far as him trying to physically interfere in matches on Carmella's behalf. No one bats an eyelash at this because Ellsworth is so small and ratty and the girls can kick his ass easily.
• Lantern Jaw of Justice: Inverted and parodied. He's well-known for his lack of chin, which makes him look somewhat ratty.
• Laser-Guided Karma: After betraying Dean Ambrose, Dean no longer helps him and he is easily defeated by AJ Styles in their fourth and final match.
• Jobber: What he debuted as, and basically still is, with all his current wins coming from Dean Ambrose's interference.
• Pretty Fly for a White Guy: Shades of this after becoming Carmella's manager. He even name-drops this trope in a WWE.com interview.
• Revenge: Got revenge upon Braun Strowman at Survivor Series 2016 by grabbing his leg from underneath the ring and preventing him from reentering before the referee finished his ten count.
  • Also fell victim to this from both Ambrose and AJ Styles in December. One SmackDown Live episode opened with a 15-minute segment of Styles beating the tar out of Ellsworth. Another saw Ambrose hit him with the Dirty Deeds for his role in screwing Ambrose out of the title.
• Small Name, Big Ego: After defeating AJ Styles three times, he thinks he can do it again. Problem is, all the times he won was because of Ambrose.
• Straw Misogynist: He sincerely believes that women aren't suited to wrestle, claiming that he lets Carmella compete "because it makes her happy".
• Verbal Tic: Ellsworth often ends his remarks with a "duh". Duh.
• Very Punchable Man: He was hired out of all of Braun's early jobbers specifically for being the one that looked nothing like a wrestler that wins matches should look. As of mid-2017, he's typically seen eating punches from the women's division.
• Would Hit a Girl: Well, "hit" is a bit of an exaggeration, but he's willing to shove Becky Lynch.

(Gentleman) Jack Gallagher (Oliver Claffey) 2016-2020

• Born in the Wrong Century: His dress style, mustache, and mannerisms are straight out of Britain's Edwardian Era.
• But Not Too White: Yeah, nope. Just compare his picture to... well, basically anyone else's on this particular list. He's not Sheamus pale, but he's pretty close.
• Companion Cube/Parasol of Pain: His umbrella, which he names "William." It gets broken with comical frequency by rivals; in the span of two months, he's already to William III.
• Dastardly Whiplash: As a face, it was subverted—he's got the requisite swirl, but he was actually quite the gentleman. Post-heel turn, it's played straight.
• Face–Heel Turn: He joined up with Brian Kendrick out of seemingly nowhere in fall 2017.
• Finishing Move: A vicious running dropkick in the corner of the ring.
• HARD. HEAD.: Regularly uses headbutts as part of his offense. And when they hit home... good God, they reeeeeeeeaaallly hit home.
  • Cast from Hit Points/Awesome, but Impractical: Predictably, this tends to daze Jack as well. Actually, it's a bit surprising the move's pushed so blatantly at all, given that WWE in recent years have banned certain wrestlers' finishers because they depict targeting the head and could cause injuries if imitated in real life.
• Heel–Face Turn: Gulak and Gallagher both attempted to mentor Humberto Carrillo, but while Gulak was guest-commentating a Gallagher-vs-Carrillo match, he got fed up with Carrillo's high-flying tactics and attacked him, at which point Gallagher took his side and headbutted Gulak. The regular commentators had been needling Gulak earlier about how Carrillo viewed Gallagher as his real mentor, while Gulak was just beating his usual anti-high-flying drum.
• I Am Very British: Actually played up a lot. In his Cruiserweight Classic interview piece, he uses his real Manchester accent.
• Lethal Joke Character: His foppish demeanor makes it hard to take him entirely seriously, but he's also very technically sound and can literally tie you into a human pretzel.
• Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: Takes this philosophy into the wrestling ring. In case there was any question about being this gimmick, WWE eventually appended "Gentleman" to his ring name.
• Literal Ass-Kicking: One of his signature spots is to roll up his victim by essentially tying their limbs into a knot, then run up and deliver a soccer-kick (although he'd likely call it a "football" kick) directly to his opponent's backside.
• Odd Friendship: Has a loose alliance with Austin Aries, despite their vastly different personalities.
• Quintessential British Gentleman: Basically his gimmick.
• Red Baron: "The Extraordinary Gentleman."
• Sharp-Dressed Man: After his Face–Heel Turn he started wearing a nice shirt-trousers-waistcoat combo in the ring.
• Unperson: After he was released from the WWE, the company made no mention of him or his history whatsoever.

Johnny Gargano 2022-

See his dedicated character page for his list of tropes.

Angel Garza (Humberto Garza Solano) 2019-

• Awesome Moment of Crowning: Won the NXT Cruiserweight Championship in December 2019. (And successfully proposed to his Real Life girlfriend, to boot!)
• Battle Strip: Hides the standard-issue wrestling briefs under a pair of long tear-away pants. Typically stops in the middle of a match after he's downed his opponent to show the goods. Hilariously, this is always treated by the announcers and audience as scandalous even though half the male wrestlers wrestle in briefs. Tends to garner a certain reaction from certain segments of the crowd, though.
• Bullying a Dragon: Decided at one point to pick a fight with Tommaso Ciampa. For perspective, this was immediately after Ciampa went down to the ring and backed down the entire Undisputed Era. Now, Garza was new, and maybe he hadn't seen the sadism Ciampa was capable of in previous years. But if the dominant Power Stable with all the championship belts and a penchant for gang beatings won't fight a guy, that should be a giant red flag that he's not somebody you want to piss off.
• Dashing Hispanic: Even as a villain - he's handsome and extremely charismatic.
• Distracted by the Sexy: Depicted as a playboy with a weakness for beautiful women, as seen when the presence of Demi Burnett (of The Bachelor fame) drove a wedge between himself and his tag team partner Andrade. Oddly, this didn't seem to extend to the quite beautiful Zelina Vega.
• Finishing Move: An inverted Full Nelson Bomb he calls "The Wing Clipper". He has an alternate submission version where he holds his opponent in the Full Nelson instead of releasing them.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Nigel McGuinness theorizes that Angel is so disdainful of his cousin, Humberto Carillo, because he made it to WWE before him.
• Masked Luchador: Started his wrestling career as one.
• Tournament Arc: Debuted in the 2019 NXT Breakout Tournament
• Wrestling Family: The Garza family has boasted several professional wrestlers that are famous both in America and their native Mexico. Humberto Carillo, who has wrestled in NXT and on 205 Live, is his second cousin.

Gunther (Walter Hahn) 2022-

See his dedicated character page for his list tropes.

Hideo Itami (Kenta Kobayashi) 2014-2019

See his dedicated character page for his list of tropes.

Samoa Joe (Nuufolau Joel Seanoa) 2015-2022

See his dedicated character page for his list of tropes.

Jason Jordan (Nathan Everhart) 2011-

See his dedicated character page for his list of tropes. See also: American Alpha

No Way Jose (Levis Valenzuela Jr.) 2015-2020

• Afro Asskicker: His hair is reaching almost Carlito levels of voluminous.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He's a fun-loving guy, but make no mistake, he can and will bring the fight. Austin Aries found this out the hard way.
• Dance Battler: Incorporates several dance moves into his offense.
• Expy: Initially drew Fandango comparisons due to his salsa dancing gimmick... except you find out later that his gimmick wasn't meant so much to be (exclusively) a dancer as a partygoing reveler. In that way, his gimmick edges much closer to that of Adam Rose, complete with a weird cadre of costumed followers (in Jose's case doing a conga line with him).
• Fun Personified: Is always smiling, dancing, and having a good time.
• Life of the Fiesta: His ring gear even says "Fiesta" on it.
• Lightning Bruiser: He's very agile and fluid, as one would expect of a Dance Battler. He's also 245 pounds.
• Megaton Punch: Employs something of a pop-up KO punch in his arsenal. Think Cesaro meets Big Show.

Ludwig Kaiser (Marcel Barthel) 2022-

• Catchphrase: "NEIN!" ^note (German for "no.")
• As Long as It Sounds Foreign: Kaiser isn't a name in Germany, but rather a title - specifically the royal title for their emperors.
  • Awesome Mccoolname: As a result, though, the "name" translates loosely to "Ludwig/Louis (the) Emperor."
• Evil Versus Evil: He wrestled against Butch.
• Hammy Herald: In the brief period before Imperium reunited, he served as this for GUNTHER.
• Non-Indicative Name: He's German, not French. Marcel Barthel is his real name, too.
• Villain Team-Up/Tag Team: With Fabian Aichner. And then again with the newly-turned WALTER to form the Power Stable Imperium.

Mike Kanellis (Michael Bennett) 2017-2020

See his dedicated character page for his list of tropes.

LA Knight/Max Dupri (Shaun Ricker) 2021-

See his dedicated character page for his list of tropes.

Karrion Kross (Kevin Kesar) 2021, 2022-

See his dedicated character page for his list of tropes.

Keith Lee 2020-2021

See his dedicated character page for his list of tropes.

Dexter Lumis (Samuel Shaw) 2022-

• All Girls Want Bad Boys: Indi Hartwell has a crush on him, much to Johnny and the rest of the Way's displeasure.He doesn't hide his feelings for her either. When the Way finally warmed up to Dexter and accepted his eccentricities, she and Dexter got married.
• Combat Sadomasochist: Relishes choking out and torturing his opponents but also enjoys taking massive hits from them. This trait makes him a particularly disturbing opponent to fight against.
• Creepy Good: His demeanor and presence are extremely disturbing, like the pro wrestling equivalent of a psycho killer. But his first major move was to assist Velveteen Dream against the Undisputed Era, while on the main roster his first target was The Miz.
• The Dreaded: His creepy demeanor and ruthless tactics have traumatized some members of the NXT roster (and eventually the Miz) into outright pants-crapping fear.
• Embarrassing Middle Name: If you want to know, it's Gaylord.
• Family of Choice: Even before he married Indi Hartwell, he started drawing pictures of him and The Way as a family despite their initial animosity with him.
• Finishing Move: An arm triangle choke named the "Silence".
• Friend to All Children: On the main roster after Dexter defeated The Miz, he gives his money to children.
• Hidden Depths: About the only way to get a heavily-muscled, silent stalker character with Icy Blue Eyes over as a face— Lumis, despite his quirks, has shown a talent for artistry and has been shown to have feelings (in this case, romantic feelings) and a desire to act on them. Although, Lumis being who he is, this has had mixed results.
• Kubrick Stare: Just look at his profile picture.
• Official Couple: With Indi Hartwell after being married in the first episode of NXT 2.0.
• Punk in the Trunk: Once stuffed several members of The Undisputed Era in the trunk of his car and drove off with them to stop them from aiding Adam Cole during a match. Roderick Strong still doesn't like talking about it.
• Starving Artist: According to Johnny Gargano in his Oct. 31 2022 "Tell-All" interview, poor Dexter fell on hard times in-Kayfabe when he lost his job in the WWE. If Johnny's re-enactment is any indication, then Dexter was reduced to painting for passers-by on the streets in exchange for cash. This was exploited by The Miz, who payed Dexter large sums of cash for the former to play the role of a celebrity stalker following his 2022 return.
• The Quiet One: Rather unnervingly, in a format where promos are a big part of getting oneself over and standing out from fellow wrestlers, Lumis hasn't been seen speaking on screen at all in the near-two years since his debut. He's finally uttered his first words on TV during his wedding: "I do".
• Serial Killer: Very, very strongly gives off this vibe, particularly of the unstoppable Michael Myers vibe. He's only ever said two words in his entire WWE career, he stalks people to accomplish his ends, and his preferred way to end matches is to choke out his opponent and creepily stroke their hair.
• Stalker without a Crush: Gives off this vibe, both to enemies and allies...
  • Stalker with a Crush: ...Except if it's Indi Hartwell.
• Thousand-Yard Stare: Has one, which when combined with his Icy Blue Eyes and expressionless face, makes him very unnerving.
• Wedding Smashers: Downplayed. He almost got his own wedding called off by choking out the priest officiating it because said priest took offense to Dexter staying silent. Thankfully, the recently-ordained Beth Phoenix was there to take the unconscious priest's place.

Ho Ho Lun (Wong Yuk Lun) 2016-2017

• Start My Own: Holds the unique distinction of having founded a wrestling gym and promotion in his native Hong Kong.
• Ur-Example: The first wrestler from Hong Kong to wrestle for WWE. In fact, he's the first well-known wrestler from Hong Kong period.

Dio Maddin/Mace (Brennan Williams) 2019-2023

• Badass Family: His father, Brent Williams are former NFL defensive end.
• The Brute
• Cool Mask: As a member of Retribution.
• Dreadlock Warrior
• Go Through Me: Dio stood up to the immeasurably intimidating Brock Lesnar when Brock and Paul Heyman tried to interrogate Jerry Lawler on the November 4, 2019 episode of Monday Night Raw. Dio got his ass handed to him, but it was an awesome moment nonetheless. ^note (Also put Brock over more dramatically in an odd way because it was immediately apparent that Dio is considerably larger than Brock, which is saying something, and Brock tossed him like a ragdoll.)
• Its Pronounced Tropay: After joining the Maximum Male Models, the pronunciation of his name changed to "Mah-SAY".
• Large and in Charge: He's an intimidatingly huge 6'7" and he's a former football player. It's especially noticeable on the commentary team as he towers over regular-sized dude Vic Joseph and slightly-above-average-sized dude Jerry Lawler.
• Power Stable: Retribution and Maximum Male Models.
• Shout-Out: It's possible his ring name contains two:
  • He has a background in football, where his last name sounds identical to a well-known former coach and commentator for whom the NFL's sole licensed video game series is named.
  • He's also a huge anime/manga fan, so one could hazard a guess as to where the "Dio" comes from.

Mansoor (Mansoor Al-Shehail) 2018-2023

• Breakout Character: Of the Saudi Arabian recruits picked during the Greatest Royal Rumble events, Mansoor quickly attracted the wrestling fans' attention.
• Keet: He's always full of youthful energy.
• A Hero to His Hometown: WWE leans on this heavily. As the first and (so far) only Saudi WWE superstar, whenever WWE holds events in Saudi Arabia (a couple of times a year), he makes an appearance, and typically receives a pop as loud as WWE's globally famous main-eventers. At the 2019 Crown Jewel, he even got to beat Cesaro completely clean.

Gran Metalik (Máscara Dorada) 2016-2021

• Masked Luchador
• Red Baron: "King of the Ropes":

Riddick Moss/Madcap Moss (Michael Carter Rallis) 2020-2023

• Battle Couple: With the returning Emma.
• Butt-Monkey: Especially during his time as Happy Corbin's "Sideshow", ahem... sidekick.
• The Dragon: To Mojo Rawley and Happy Corbin.
• Heel–Face Turn: After Wrestlemania 38 Corbin blamed Moss after Corbin lost to Drew McIntyre. Corbin and Moss attacked each other thus turning Face.

Buddy Murphy (Matthew Adams) 2013-2021

• Age-Gap Romance: Murphy's age isn't mentioned outright but he's in his early 30s, making his relationship with the explicitly 19-year-old Aalyah Mysterio this. Strangely enough, her family is apparently less bothered by the relationship due to this than the fact that Murphy is (or at least was) The Dragon for the family's mortal nemesis Seth Rollins.
• A Hero to His Hometown: Despite being a career heel in WWE, received the babyface pop when WWE went to Melbourne for WWE Super Showdown. His defeat of Cedric Alexander (a crowd favorite going back to the Cruiserweight Classic days) to win the Cruiserweight Title got one of the biggest reactions of the night.
• Always Someone Better: Had a long series of matches with Aleister Black where the two fought hard but Murphy was unable to win despite coming close several times. Having a minor breakdown over this allowed Seth to bring him into his influence.
• Bash Brothers: With Blake, until their break-up.
• The Bus Came Back: After a long absence from WWE programming, Murphy returned on the 2/13/18 episode of 205 Live to announce his entry into the tournament to crown a new Cruiserweight Champion.
• The Dragon: To Seth Rollins, until Murphy's Heel–Face Turn in November 2020.
• Finishing Move: Called Murphy's Law (because how can you not?) it's apparently a pumphandle death valley driver.
• Fun with Acronyms: The sometimes-used team name of Blake-Alexa-Murphy Factor. Ironically this could have still fit anyway as Blake And Murphy Factor if Alexa weren't involved.
• Heel–Face Turn: Through Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal and Love Redeems. Seth berating and attacking Murphy for causing him to come up short against Rey Mysterio, combined with Rey's daughter Aalyah showing fondness and concern for him, finally pushed Murphy to turn against his so-called Messiah.
• Karma Houdini: Despite Drake Maverick stating that there would be repercussions for his attack on Cedric Alexander on 205 Live, he was still going to be granted his title shot at The Greatest Royal Rumble. But since he was over the weight limit at a recent weigh-in ^note He would weigh in at 207 pounds., his title shot has been postponed and a battle royal would take place to see who would face Alexander instead.
• Land Down Under: From Melbourne. (One has to wonder how an Australian wound up with a name [or nickname] like Buddy, though.)
• Last-Name Basis: Blake and Murphy started being billed this way ever since winning the Tag Team Titles up until they split. His canonical first name Buddy was almost never used in that time. Averted upon his rebranding as a Cruiserweight; he's known as Buddy Murphy again.
  • Played straight after he joined Seth Rollins in 2020 as he fell prey to the Name Goblin and is now just Murphy again.
• Meaningful Name: Turns out, Buddy Murphy is a shout-out to two Australian football stars, namely Sydney Swans key forward Lance "Buddy" Franklin and Carlton Football Club midfielder Marc Murphy.
• Those Two Guys: With Wesley Blake, before the following trope kicked in…
• Took a Level in Badass: He and Blake went from jobbers to the Tag Team Champions in two weeks.
  • Level Grinding: A very low-key version preceded their seemingly sudden level-up, as they went from just straight jobbers to The Worf Barrage-style competitive jobbers to breaking through the plateau and actually beating other teams.
• Two Guys and a Girl: With Wesley Blake and Alexa Bliss.
• Wild Card: By the time they began to solidify themselves as heels, Blake and Murphy were already solidified as the tag champs.
• The Worf Barrage: For a while, Murphy and Blake got to the point where they could hang with a top NXT tag team and give good matches but could never actually get the job done. Then 2015 happened.

Dominik Mysterio (Dominick Gutiérrez) 2020-

See his dedicated character page for his list of tropes.See also: The Judgment Day

Shinsuke Nakamura 2016-

See his dedicated character page for his list of tropes.

Tony Nese (Anthony Nese) 2016-2021

• The Fighting Narcissist: He's extremely proud of his body and athletic ability.
• Heel–Face Turn: After he won the tournament for the Cruiserweight Championship match at WrestleMania 35, he was attacked by Buddy Murphy and turned face.
• Identical Stranger: Noted long before his WWE run to greatly resemble a smaller version of former WWE star Chris Masters. Masters and Nese have even acknowledged as much. Interestingly enough, Nese now has a gimmick extremely similar to that of Chris Masters when the latter was in WWE.
• Lightning Bruiser: Quick and agile like most cruiserweights, but stood out because of his chiseled build and unusual power for his size. If you ask him, he's the personification of this trope in professional wrestling - he'll tell you he "moves like a cruiserweight" and "hits like a heavyweight."
• Mr. Fanservice: He likes showing his abs.
• Red Baron: "The Premier Athlete" and Tony Abs.
  • Shout-Out: The latter may be a reference to Joey Abs, a wrestler who worked briefly for WWE as part of the Mean Street Posse.
• Revenge Before Reason: He had Drew Gulak beaten in the gauntlet match after hitting the Running Nese. However, wanting revenge on Gulak, instead of pinning him he wanted to attack him some more, giving Gulak the opportunity to lock on the Gulock for the win.
• Slipknot Ponytail: Tony loses his ribbon sometimes during the match, leading to this trope.
• Spirited Competitor: As a face.
• We Used to Be Friends: Became this with Drew Gulak after Gulak deliberately tried to injure him in the first round of the Cruiserweight Championship tournament and showed no remorse.

Omos (Toulope "Jordan" Omogbehin) 2020-

• Expy: An absurdly tall, foreign-born heel monster that typically has a partner or manager and uses a lifting press slam as a finisher? The Great Khali says hello.
• The Giant: 7'3". And that is (or is at least very close to) his legitimate height, which makes him easily taller than previous WWE big men like The Undertaker, Kane, and Big Show. Braun Strowman, no small man himself, only reaches Omos's chest.
• Red Baron: "The Nigerian Giant".

Logan Paul (Logan Alexander Paul) 2022-

See his dedicated Creator page for his list of tropes (which includes tropes for his Internet career).

TJP/TJ Perkins (Teddy James Perkins) 2009, 2016-2019

• Big Brother Mentor: Brian Kendrick is presented as one because of the pair's backstory - years ago, Kendrick took a teenaged Perkins under his wing and gave him rides to the wrestling school where Kendrick was training so T.J. could watch and learn as well.
• Dawn of an Era: He won the inaugural WWE Cruiserweight Classic and was the first to hold the revived Cruiserweight Title.^note As for whether he's the "first" Cruiserweight Champion... well, yes and no. WWE's had a Cruiserweight division and title before, but it was one of several titles that were adopted by WWF/E when WCW folded. The revived title is being treated as a 'new' championship with none of the old title's lineage (although that may be a mercy considering how that title's lineage ended) as it's WWE's creation and not an old WCW port. Among other things, the weight limit is different, lowered from 225 pounds to 205. This is probably because WWE's had several recent world champions that have been billed under 225 pounds.
• Face–Heel Turn: A week or two after WrestleMania 33.
• Homeless Hero: At one point in his career, TJ didn't have a place to live, so he lived on the streets while training for his wrestling tryouts.
• Kid-Appeal Character: One could make the argument that the Cruiserweights are a whole kid-appeal division, but Perkins stands out with his modern dance sensibilities and video game entrance motif.
• Kid Hero All Grown-Up: TJ started wrestling at the age of 13, and by the time of his arrival to WWE, he's got 18 years of pro wrestling experience.
• Older Than They Look: Would you believe he's in his thirties?
• Only Known by Their Nickname: He's called by his initials - 'TJP' - for short. About the time of his heel turn, "TJP" became his ring name.
• Red Baron: "The Fil-Am^note short for Filipino-American Flash"
• Retreaux: His entrance theme and TitanTron that debuted at Clash of Champions 2016 are based heavily on Mega Man and Street Fighter, respectively.
• Smug Snake: His resting face is smug, even as a babyface, which might have been part of the reason he never really got over as a face. As a heel, he leans hard into his smugness.
• Weak, but Skilled: While TJ lacks in size and strength, he compensates with his agility and mastery of submission techniques.

Damian Priest (Luis Martínez) 2021-

See also: The Judgment Day

• Arrogant Kungfu Guy: He's become a arrogant after winning the World Heavyweight Champion.
• Big Guy, Little Guy: The Big Guy to rapper and fellow Puerto Rican Bad Bunny.
• Big Applesauce: From New York City, but also lived in Puerto Rico. Vignettes of him living the high life are implied to be from here.
• The Casanova: Often seen in the company of beautiful women. Also more likely than most to flirt with one of the female backstage interviewers during his promos. He's even outright invited them to his hot tub parties once or twice.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Post his Heel–Face Turn, Priest is shown to be in a better light despite changing almost nothing about his character.
• DIY Theme Song: Performed vocals on his entrance theme debuting the night after WrestleMania 40.
• The Dragon: Served as Edge's right-hand man during the first run of The Judgement Day.
• Evil Versus Evil:
  • Due to previous interactions, he and fellow heel Killian Dain do not get along, to put it mildly.
  • There's also the strange three-way feud with Finn Bálor and Cameron Grimes whilst all of them were heels, resulting in Priest and Bálor both turning face in the end.
• Expy: His gimmick bears a strong resemblance to the one Baron Corbin was using during his NXT run.
• Face–Heel Turn: In 2022, after Priest lost the United States Championship, Priest snapped and attacked Finn Bálor, thus turning heel and later joining The Judgment Day.
• Fame Through Infamy: His whole gimmick.
• Finishing Move: A rolling cutter he's dubbed "The Reckoning". Upon his main roster debut, it was renamed to "Hit The Lights" in order to prevent confusion with the wrestler known as "Reckoning." Once Reckoning dropped said moniker, Hit The Lights became The Reckoning again. Following the return of Cody Rhodes, who used the move as his finish, Priest transitioned to a sit-out chokeslame dubbed "South of Heaven".
• Formerly Fat: Was at one point about 100 pounds heavier than he is currently, and lost the weight on the advice of Gerald Brisco, who told him his look might hold his career back.
• Heel–Face Turn: Around the time of his 2020 match with Finn Bálor.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Cheaply won a match against Pete Dunne by kicking him in the balls while the ref was preoccupied with ducking out of the way from ending up a little too close to the action. The next time they fought and Priest found himself with a similar opportunity, he tried to repeat the trick, only for Dunne to block it and punt Priest below the belt as hard as humanly possible. Fingore ensued.
• Lightning Bruiser: Strong enough to do the Razor's Edge (crucifix powerbomb) on many competitors. He's also deceptively quick and is capable of flying over the top rope with ease if the situation calls for it.
• Power Stable: The Judgment Day with Edge and Rhea Ripley in the first run. Finn Bálor joined The Judgment Day after Hell in a Cell, but both Priest and Ripley betrayed Edge with the two on Balor's side. At Clash at the Castle, Dominik betrayed his father Rey Mysterio and Edge, later joining The Judgement Day on RAW the night after.
• Red Baron: "The Archer of Infamy".
• ShoutOut: Scott Hall was one of his heroes growing up, and he had already borrowed a couple of his well-known wrestling moves. After Hall passed away in 2022, Priest adopted several more of his mannerisms as a direct tribute.
• Signature Move: His previous finisher, South of Heaven (a release sit-out chokeslam) and a Release Falcon Arrow he calls "Broken Arrow".
• Sinister Shades: Mostly wears them in his entrance.

Mojo Rawley (Dean Muhtadi) 2013-2021

• Ass Kicks You: Used to end matches by dropping his bum on downed opponents. Fortunately, he's expanded his moveset a bit since then.
• Birds of a Feather: He's actually good friends with Rob Gronkowski - who even helped him win a match at WrestleMania once.
• Boisterous Bruiser
• Catchphrase: "I don't GET hyped, I STAY HYPED!!"
• Deadpan Snarker: Occasionally, for as deadpan as it is for a man who is hype personified to be. Usually to poke fun at his tag team partner.
  Zack Ryder: Bro. Remember that time that I was the WWE Intercontinental Champion?
  Mojo Rawley: ...For one day.
  Zack Ryder: ARE YOU SERIOUS, BRO?!
• Finishing Move: He's had several but seems to have settled on a Sit-out Alabama Slam.
• Face–Heel Turn: On the November 28 episode of WWE SmackDown Live after losing to the Bludgeon Brothers in a tag team match, Mojo attacked his tag team partner Zack Ryder, turning heel for the first time in his career.
• Game-Breaking Injury: Averted in terms of his wrestling career, but one of these brought him to WWE—he originally aspired to be an NFL defensive lineman before an injury cut his career short.
• Genius Bruiser: Graduated from the University of Maryland with a master's degree in business at the age of 23.
• Genki Guy: He is always hyper.
• Incoming Ham: His theme song begins with one.
• Large Ham: "So get hyped!!! But Mojo Rawley won't!!! Mojo doesn't GET hyped, because he STAYS hyped!!! OOOHHH YEEEAHHH!!! "
  • "LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, IT'S HAMMER TIME!"
• Lightning Bruiser: Moves way faster than a guy who almost weighs 300 pounds should.
• Put on a Bus: Was out for a while from September 2014 to June 2015 as a result of a shoulder injury.
  • He's Back!: He returned as a tag partner for none other than Zack Ryder.
• Wham Line: "THE HYPE BROS ARE DEAD, YOU HEAR ME!?"

Bronson Reed (Jermaine Haley) 2022-

• Acrofatic: Bronson Reed is very stout and almost rotund, yet routinely uses leaping sentons and can springboard off the second rope over an opponent's head to evade them. Finishing move is a splash off the top rope.
• The Big Guy: His basic role as a face.
• Death from Above: His Finishing Move. Upwards of 300 pounds coming off the top rope is a bad, bad day for the unfortunate sap that happens to be lying on the ground.
• Land Down Under: From the Black Forest of Australia.
• Red Baron: "Aus-zilla" "Thicc Boi". These were dropped in 2020 in favor of "The Colossal."
• Sudden Sequel Heel Syndrome: He was a babyface on NXT prior to his release in 2021. He returned one year later as a heel as part of the main roster.

Ricochet (Trevor Mann) 2018-

See his dedicated character page for his list of tropes.

Matt Riddle/Riddle (Matthew Riddle) 2020-2023

See his dedicated character page for his list of tropes.

Bobby Roode/Robert Roode (Robert Francis Roode Jr.) 2016-

See his dedicated character page for his list of tropes.

Lio Rush (Lionel Green) 2017-2020

See his dedicated character page for his list of tropes.

Jaxson Ryker (Chad Lail) 2017-2021

• The Dragon: Afer the Forgotten Sons angle was terminated, he became this to Elias.
• Hypercompetent Sidekick: Not that Elias can't handle himself, but Ryker has already beaten one or two opponents not too long after or before seeing Elias lose to them. The predictable follows here as Ryker is an ex-soldier who's now an active bodyguard, making him battle-ready at any given time, while Elias's draw is that he's a snarky musician whose mouth tends to get him drawn into fights he may not always be able to handle.
• The Leader: Initially seemed to be set up to be this with the Forgotten Sons. He was the newest member of NXT out of the three, seemed to have been deliberately given an attempt at a cool name (Jaxson Ryker?). The other two often deferred to him for singles matches, and the storyline implications give the impression that Blake and Cutler were wandering aimlessly until Ryker showed up (which, when you look at their NXT careers, isn't exactly wrong).
• Returning War Vet: A real-life point of emphasis in his career before he even got to WWE, this became the defining aspect of the Forgotten Sons gimmick, complete with the Stranger in a Familiar Land excuse for going heel.

Elias Samson/Elias/Ezekiel (Jeffrey Sciullo) 2014-2023

See his dedicated character page for his list of tropes.

Trent Seven (Benjamin Webb) 2017-2022

See British Strong Style.

Dilsher Shanky (Gurvinder Malhotra) 2022-2023

• David Versus Goliath: He challenged Ricochet, the David to his own Goliath, for the latter's Intercontinental title in his first match on SmackDown, but lost despite his bigger stature.
• Put on a Bus: Shanky has disappeared from WWE programming since July 2022, when Triple H took over as the head of creative, as well as Jinder Mahal moving back to the NXT roster.

Solo Sikoa (Joseph Fatu) 2022-

The Street Champion of The Island.

• Aloof Big Brother: Inverted. Solo is cold and distant to the Usos, his older brothers, because of their large age gap.
• Ass Kicks You: He uses his father and late uncle's signature corner hip check, much like his brothers.
• Badass Arm-Fold: It's not an exaggeration to say that he sometimes spends 99% of his time in the ring, during a promo, standing stoically and silently with his arms folded.
• Black Sheep: His initial introduction to NXT 2.0 as the "Street Champion of the Island" had him claim he was abandoned to survive on his own since he was fifteen years old, and also mentioned that he "used to walk with those down since day ones". To those who knew his background, this implied some sort of falling out with his family nearly around the time his brothers first signed to developmental. Michael Cole would elaborate during his first match on the main roster that the eight year difference led to him not being particularly close to his brothers.
• The Brute: Holds this role in the Bloodline, with Paul explicitly calling him Roman's "enforcer".
  • The Dragon/The Champion: Moved into this role as he began to gain favor with Roman and others in the Bloodline conversely started to lose it. He's regularly featured as the representative from the Bloodline most heavily featured in singles matches at the end of TV shows (i.e. where Roman would be if he weren't working a part time schedule), the number of pins he's taken can be counted on one hand, his Samoan Spike is basically a One-Hit KO, and his direct contributions have bailed Roman out of the few truly dangerous spots he's been in as champion. He's also the one combatant in the stable whose loyalty, so far, has never wavered.
• The Call Knows Where You Live: His NXT run comes off as this retroactively; his efforts to distance himself from his brothers and cousin, from literally renaming himself 'Solo' instead of using the Uso name to espousing a more grounded Wrestling style to being the only one in his generation with bleached hair, can all be understood on a rewatch to be Solo trying to build a career on his own merits and without being called by the Bloodline or the elders to intervene in family business. But when the Usos found themselves unavailable for a trip overseas, the elders found him anyway...
• Captain Ersatz: Sort of resembles kickboxing and MMA veteran Mark Hunt, another bleached blonde fighter of Samoan descent.
• Expy: Arguably of Roman Reigns himself about a decade back. He occupies a similar role as Roman did in The Shield, as the stoic powerhouse who rarely talks.
  • He also has adopted wearing a black towel over his head and a habit of doing a Badass Armfold when he is not doing anything like Tazz.
  • In terms of technique, he's this to Umaga, copying his moveset and finishers. Fitting, as Umaga was his uncle.
• Finishing Move: A Samoan splash, his family's preferred finisher. He later added the Samoan Spike to his arsenal.
• Meaningful Name: As a solitary fighter who felt distant from his brothers due to the age difference and their rise to success while he was growing up and thus would make his initial stand completely separate from them, going by Solo Sikoa instead of any Uso name definitely fits the bill. Solo is also the first four letters of his father and grandfather's name.
• Misery Builds Character: His hard life on the streets following his supposed abandonment at fifteen years old made Solo into the stoic and tough person he is today.
• Odd Friendship: Had this with "Honorary Uce" Sami Zayn, prior to Royal Rumble 2023. Solo is the Black Sheep of the Anoa'i family who rarely shows any emotion and acts distant to the rest of the Bloodline while Sami is the fun-loving honorary member who gets along well with the Bloodline (except for Jey, initially). Despite these differences, Solo prefered having Sami in his corner during matches and had a genuine friendship with him. Still had absolutely no problem destroying Sami when the Canadian chose to defend Kevin Owens rather than eliminate him on the Tribal Chief's orders.
  • This can be traced to a moment early in his tenure with the Bloodline where Drew McIntyre came out with a chair to extract his revenge for Solo costing him the Undisputed Championship against Solo’s cousin and chief Roman Reigns. The entire Bloodline except Solo vacated the ring but, when it looked like Drew was going to destroy Solo with a chair, Sami ran back into the ring and took a chair shot meant for Solo. From that point going forward for the next several months, Solo would trust Sami to watch his back more than even his own brothers. This highlighted both Sami's ability to win others over, as well as Solo's rather distant relationship with his kin, both dynamics that would heavily come into play especially regarding Jey.
• Practically Different Generations: Played For Drama. There is an eight year age difference between him and the Usos, which unfortunately had the negative side effect of making Solo somewhat distant from his brothers. Not just that, but in terms of his wrestling career, he started a bit later in life than Jey and Jimmy did, resulting in a 12-year gap between their respective debuts, which is practically an eternity in wrestling.^note For perspective, 12 years before Jey and Jimmy debuted would put you square in the middle of the Monday Night Wars.
• Red Baron: The Street Champion of The Island.
• Sixth Ranger: To the Bloodline.
• Sudden Sequel Heel Syndrome: In NXT 2.0, Solo was a face wrestler. Upon making his debut on the main roster at Clash at the Castle 2022, he turned heel upon aligning with his cousin once removed Roman Reigns and joining the Bloodline.
• The Stoic: By far the least animated and talkative member of the Bloodline. Never mind talking, it takes a lot to get the guy to even emote sometimes. Even in situations where Sami Zayn has made the rest of the stable outright start Corpsing, Solo has managed to keep a (mostly) straight face.
• Wrestling Family: He's the son of Rikishi, younger brother of The Usos, and thus yet another of the near-countless members of the Anoa'i Samoan Dynasty.

Samir Singh (Harvinder Sihra) 2016-2021

• Alliterative Name: As Samir Singh.
• Bash Brothers: With Sunil, as the Bollywood Boyz and later as the Singh Brothers.
• Face–Heel Turn: In his 2017 alliance with Jinder Mahal.
• Put on a Bus: Was missing from WWE TV for 8 months after tearing his ACL in January 2019.
• Very Punchable Man: As a cruiserweight-sized minion of a heel champion, he predictably spendt a lot of time getting the crap beaten out of him by Jinder's babyface adversaries.

Sunil Singh (Gurvinder Sihra) 2016-2021

• Alliterative Name: As Sunil Singh.
• Bash Brothers: With Samir, as the Bollywood Boyz and later as the Singh Brothers.
• Face–Heel Turn: In his 2017 alliance with Jinder Mahal.
• Very Punchable Man: As a cruiserweight-sized minion of a heel champion, he predictably spends a lot of time getting the crap beaten out of him by Jinder's babyface adversaries.

Lars Sullivan (Dylan Miley) 2017-2021

• Affably Evil: Despite being on a self-imposed quest to mold NXT into a rather violent place to be in, he's polite and rather friendly to people when they don't bother him.
• Berserk Button: Apparently, No Way Jose's music annoys him so much he destroyed Jose just to turn it off.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Has attacked every tag partner he has had due to them getting pinned.
  • Apologetic Attacker: ...He's usually very remorseful about it, though. He often apologizes to them backstage and is well aware he has a temper problem. In these cases, he nearly borders on Gentle Giant.
• Finishing Move: An elevated side slam called "The Freak Accident".
• Genius Bruiser: He may not seem like it, but Lars has quite a vocabulary and an astounding level of intelligence. He describes himself as having "the body of a gorilla and the mind of a professor".
• Hair-Trigger Temper: He has certain issues with anger management, judging by him beating down his tag team partner and feuding with No Way Jose just because his music is annoying.
• Put on a Bus: Was being set up for a feud with Andrade "Cien" Almas, and then vanished from television without any notification. Behind the scenes, he was apparently experiencing both knee problems and issues relating to the surgery to correct his acromegaly.
  • Again when he was set to debut on the main roster after a very long buildup of teaser vignettes, he disappeared suddenly. An anxiety attack, among other things, prompted him to no-show several events and he hasn't been seen on any WWE programming since.
    • The Bus Came Back: Finally made his main roster debut on the Raw after WrestleMania 35, appearing on both brands to wreak absolute havoc on vulnerable targets before being drafted onto SmackDown in the Superstar Shakeup.
    • As of 2021 he requested and was granted a final release citing ongoing anxiety issues, and in a February 2021 interview claimed he was probably done with professional wrestling for good.
• Signature Move: A diving headbutt. Considering his size it looks very frightening. Upon his arrival to the main roster he began using a running sit-out powerbomb.
• Wrestling Monster: A 6'3 303 lbs truck of a man, he relentlessly and effortlessly demolishes his competition, plowing through them like a freight train.

Rich Swann (Richard Swann) 2015-2018

• Cloudcuckoolander: He's a little bit "out there."
• Dark and Troubled Past: Oh boy, Rich's early life was rough.
• Dance Battler: He dances his way up to the ring and performs a few moves in it, including a split.
• Finishing Move: A standing 450 splash.
• Genki Guy: Rich's upbeat attitude is almost infectious.
• Red Baron: "The Outlandish."

Austin Theory (Austin White) 2019-

• Adored by the Network: As a main roster character, at least. He's the onscreen pet project of Vince McMahon himself. (Which is likely also telling of how he's viewed backstage offscreen) He takes full advantage of this, of course, picking fights with people only to often scamper back into Vince's protection when things get hairy, but after Vince's exit from the company, Theory started getting some well-deserved retribution.
• Butt-Monkey: Chances are, if there's some sort of slapstick humiliation or Amusing Injuries meant happen to someone in The Way, that someone's going to be Austin Theory. He's been chloroformed and kidnapped by Dexter Lumis, been shot in the nuts by Shotzi Blackheart's tank cannon, gotten his fingers broken by Pete Dunne— and then been forced by Regal to wrestle a match with those injured fingers just an hour later^note (again, against Pete Dunne, who is basically the Fingore trope in wrestler form). And that's not even a comprehensive list.
• The Chew Toy: Austin gets the worst treatment, following Vince's retirement from the company. He's been going on a downward spiral losing matches. To make this matters worse, he unsuccessfully cashed in on Seth Rollins. This dissipated after Vince's return, to the point of defeating John Cena at Wrestlemania 39.
• Dirty Coward: The day he's supposed to defend his US Title against Santos Escobar on SmackDown, he attacks him during an interview and injures his leg. Then when Escobar tries to continue with the match anyway, Austin attacks him again as he's coming down the ramp, injuring him even further. Then he tells the crowd he'd love to defend his title, but Escobar clearly isn't fit to compete. Austin gets booed out of the building, Adam Pearce forces him to defend the title against Rey Mysterio instead, and five minutes later, Austin is no longer US Champion.
• Dumb Jock: Downplayed, but there are hints in-character of him not being the sharpest tool in the shed. And then he joined The Way and this was played up. If he wasn't about 6'2" and built like a house, you might think he was a really stupid teenager from the way he acts.
• Dumbass Teenage Son: He played this role in the Gargano household, being a total dumbass who constantly got himself and The Way into trouble.
• Family of Choice: Treated the The Way, and Johhny in particular, like family.
• The Fighting Narcissist: He's really proud of his body. The way Johnny Gargano got Theory to fight Dexter Lumis, of whom he'd been terrified up to that point, was to tell Theory that Lumis (who, keep in mind, hasn't been seen speaking since he debuted on NXT) had insulted Theory's abs.
• Hate Sink: Though as Mr. McMahon's protégé, he is heavily despised by the WWE Universe. Hell, even the WWE locker room hates him.
• Insistent Terminology: He describes himself as the youngest United States champion in WWE history or the youngest Mr. Money in the Bank.
• Jerk Jock: Oh geez. Plays the 'arrogant young superior athlete' role to the hilt.
• Like a Son to Me: Johnny and Candice treat him like their child, with Indi playing the role of exasperated sister.
  • Downplayed after his main roster debut, where it's never spoken outright but Theory is basically cast as this to Vince Mcmahon and would go as far as to run into Vince's office for protection after inevitably pissing off some babyface or another. This was even lampshaded about a week after Vince's "retirement" in a promo segment with Roman Reigns where the latter declared "Your daddy's not here anymore."
• Manchild: Basically acts like an overgrown high schooler.
• Power Stable: His alliance with Andrade, Angel Garza, and Zelina Vega in 2020. He was betrayed by them on the May 18th episode of WWE Raw, but later that night he was confronted by Seth Rollins and joined Rollins' stable. After his brief stint there, he was sent back to NXT where, not long after reappearing, he joined up with Johnny Gargano and "The Way". So basically, three Power Stables in less than a year.
• Selfie Fiend: On the main roster - if being Vince's hanger-on wasn't enough heat for him.
• Tag Team: With Angel Garza and Murphy on the main roster, and later with Johnny Gargano as part of The Way.
• Took a Level in Dumbass: After becoming a member of The Way, Theory's intelligence plummeted, to the point he did not even realize he had been kidnapped by Dexter Lumis and thought that being chloroformed was just a really good night's rest. Reversed immediately upon hitting the main roster as Vince McMahon's protégé.

Shane Thorne/Slapjack (Shane Veryzer) 2020-2021

• Cool Mask: As a part of Retribution.
• Jerkass: Especially after his tag team split.
• Land Down Under: He is from Australia.
• Put on a Bus: After Shane Thorne suffered a knee injury in early 2017, he was viciously attacked by The Revival post-match to explain his absence for surgery. Nick Miller also disappeared from TV despite still being able to compete.
• Took a Level in Badass: From a fairly anonymous half of Tag Team TM-61, Thorne (after an injury and his partner deciding to leave NXT) took some time off, got some tattoos, bulked up a bit, and returned as a singles wrestler capable of going toe-to-toe with Johnny Gargano.
  • The Bus Came Back: They returned in early 2018 and set out to show NXT what they are truly made of after their first run was cut short by Shane's injury. Again in 2019 after Nick Miller asked for and was granted his release - Shane showed up several months later as a singles competitor with a tweaked gimmick and a few new tattoos.

Akira Tozawa 2016-

Cain Velasquez 2019-2020

• Arch-Enemy: Brock Lesnar
• Big Guy, Little Guy: With Rey Mysterio

Giovanni Vinci (Fabian Aichner) 2022-

• Catchphrase: As Giovanni Vinci in NXT 2.0: "Veni, vidi, Vinci."
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Initially appeared as a participant in the Cruiserweight Classic (where the upper weight limit was 205 pounds), losing to (Gentleman) Jack Gallagher in the first round. About a year later, he makes his first NXT TV appearance and is significantly larger (now billed at about 220). The bulk gain is even commented upon during his matches.
• Foreign Wrestling Heel: It's fairly obvious WWE is going for this by throwing the Italian-born Aichner into a Tag Team with the German Marcel Barthel and sticking them both on the NXT UK brand and having the announce team keep calling them the "European Union" ^note Keep in mind the particular history the UK has with Italy and Germany... not to mention Brexit. That said, it's being handled slightly more subtly than most instances of this trope.
• Lightning Bruiser: Still has some cruiserweight-type moves in his repertoire, despite now weighing at least 220 pounds and hitting like it.
• Red Baron: Has taken to calling himself "The NXT LVL".
• Villain Team-Up/Tag Team: With Marcel Barthel. And then again with the newly-turned WALTER to form the Power Stable Imperium.

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