Credit: WWE.com

If you followed NXT programming over the last few years, you know how dominant The Ascension was as a tag team while they competed there. It was only a matter of time before they crashed the scene on the main roster and experienced the same level of success—or so we thought.

The team had a very successful debut on the December 29 episode of Monday Night Raw in 2014, collecting a win over The Miz and Damien Mizdow, the former WWE Tag Team champions.

But since then, the direction the team is headed seems a little questionable.

Almost immediately, Konnor and Viktor began comparing themselves to great tag teams from the past—Legion of Doom, Demolition and The Powers of Pain.

While calling Legion of Doom a "joke" may generate some heat, The Ascension will now be compared to these teams for the rest of their career. That means they'll need to deliver.

Since defeating Miz and Mizdow, The Ascension hasn't beaten any teams of note. Worse yet, they seem to get less intimidating every time they speak.

Teams like Demoltion, Powers of Pain and L.O.D. thrived on intimidating their opponents from the moment they entered the arena. The Ascension is slowly losing that effect.

If that wasn't enough, their most recent performance on this past Monday's Raw had to leave people who are believing in this team wondering if they will go the way of teams WWE has hyped up, only to quickly bury in mediocrity.

The Highlanders and Los Matadores quickly come to mind.

It's obvious what WWE is trying to do. It's trying to use legendary Superstars to help get The Ascension over. But how does that look when these guys, who haven't competed in several years, are taking out the new tag team with ease?

Sure, The Ascension were severely outnumbered when they decided to interrupt the nWo this past Monday. But they should have been able to put up more of a fight against guys who aren't active wrestlers anymore.

In addition, Konnor's "We were born and bred to rip and shred" statement may be the most ridiculous line ever uttered on WWE television. It was simply awful.

Taking all of these factors into consideration, you have to wonder where The Ascension is headed as a team.

Now, they have their first match on a big event scheduled for the Royal Rumble. Their opponents are The New Age Outlaws.

Anndd there goes The Ascension's push. #nWo — Robert Flores (@RoFloESPN) January 20, 2015

Though The Ascension's time on the main roster has been short, they've already reached a crossroads. If WWE is serious about the future of this team, it can't have them lose this match.

The Ascension must defeat Billy Gunn and Road Dogg, and they must do so in convincing fashion. Going forward, there are plenty of teams for them to go up against.

The Uso's, Goldust and Stardust and New Day would all provide much better competition than WWE has given them so far.

It doesn't seem likely that the Outlaws will defeat The Ascension, but if they do, WWE might as well just send them back down to NXT, because it will be a clear indicator that they'll never reach the level of those teams they like to compare themselves to. They won't even come close.

In NXT, The Ascension was booked as one of the most dominant tag teams in recent memory. But since being introduced to a much larger audience, that hasn't been the case.

Instead, The Ascension look like a goofy combination of guys that are trying too hard. Or perhaps they're trying to separate themselves from the inevitable comparisons to those teams from the past.

While fans would have made those comparisons on places like Twitter, Konnor and Viktor never needed to bring it on themselves.

While the WWE's booking of The Ascension may not be considered a missed opportunity yet, it could be viewed as such very soon.