Konnor and Viktor were, and still are, the longest-reigning NXT tag-team champions since the brand took on its’ current format. Since promotion to the main roster though they have been living a torrid nightmare and nothing about the heel team has clicked. They’ve been uninteresting and uninspiring. But can what is broken, be fixed?

A key issue for these two is that the pair are still, over 6 months since their debut, suffering from a complete and total identity crisis. What is their gimmick meant to be exactly? Road Warriors 2.0? Illuminati? It’s unclear to the fans – leading to the WWE universe being completely uninvested in the Ascension, after all, how can you get behind a pair of performers who don’t seem to know their own selves?

Truly committing to one gimmick (personally I like the Illuminati idea) is vital as it would give a platform to build storylines and promos around, instead of continuing in the aimless direction they have been on since December. That said, their promo delivery isn’t stellar, so if they are given more cohesive characters they need to enhance their conveyance.

On top of their gimmick’s inability to get over, their wrestling talents also leave a lot to be desired. Fast pace and exciting workers fill the tag division (New Day, Lucha Dragons, PTP etc.) and as bigger brawlers Konnor and Viktor look rather sluggish and somewhat sloppy. This is not the fault of the pacier teams though as brawler v high flyer has worked many a time is the past; instead it comes down to the Ascension just not cutting the mustard inside the ring. If only there were a place for them to hone their skills before getting to television, maybe some kind of developmental system? Oh wait, there is! NXT!

Down in Florida 90% all of the Ascension’s matches went as follows: entrance > squash, entrance > squash, entrance > squash, you get the idea. Now, correct me if I am wrong but this doesn’t feel like the best way of handling people in need of enhancement/improvement. Both of the pairing would have greatly benefitted from at least a chunk of with legitimate teams who could work a match longer than a few minutes with the champions – not jobbers from around the area and joke teams like Too Cool.

Sadly this case is one of the few times NXT has failed to deliver a main-roster-ready act for us to feast upon – exposing the lack of depth in the shallow NXT tag team ranks, which has only started to expand since the Ascension departed. Sending this team back to developmental to compete in a more buffed division would obviously help but it does unfortunately feel a little too late for an already soiled team where the members have been signed by WWE for a prolonged period.

Maybe WWE shouldn’t have had Konnor and Viktor embarrassed by old legends (NAO/APA/NOW) and maybe they should have toned downed JBL’s ‘burial’ on commentary. Bad booking cannot be reversed now but this team could possibly still be salvageable should they be given focussed gimmicks and more time within the ropes to improve against quality opponents.

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