**Please note: In covering NXT for Last Word on Sports, I don’t read taping results for NXT. I am first and foremost a fan, and I enjoy watching the stories unfold in front of me as they happen. I would ask that you bear this in mind while reading my articles, as I may mention thoughts or predictions that don’t lineup with what has occurred at tapings.**
Patience is a virtue, and no one has learned that the way Solomon Crowe has.
While not being able to fully comprehend the same frustration, his fans have also learned to be patient. We have been waiting for this day nearly three years. We have followed him with great interest as he debuted, evolved, and honed his craft across the United States. Even with all our anticipation, it must pale in comparison to what Solomon Crowe is feeling tonight, because his wait has been much longer than three years. It’s likely that he has been waiting nearly ten for this day to arrive.
Solomon Crowe began his wrestling career as a very different person, working for Les Thatcher in the Heartland Wrestling Association, a place where he would face great technical wizards like Nigel McGuiness and Chad Collyer alongside the man who would go on to become World Wrestling Entertainment’s “Lunatic Fringe” Dean Ambrose. In two short years he would be finding his place in top independent promotions across the country including Chikara, where he competed in the Young Lions Cup.
June 14, 2008 would be an important date in the history of Solomon Crowe, as he would make his debut for ultraviolent promotion Combat Zone Wrestling, winning the Chris Ca$h Memorial Battle Royal. From there, Crowe would begin the evolution into the character most fans have come to know him by. He racked up wins and championships alongside his old friends from the HWA, and gained more notoriety throughout the United States.
Around this time, Crowe also began to work for Ring of Honor, Evolve, and Dragon Gate USA, exposing himself to a larger audience that began to see the potential in him; an audience that included those who used to work in WWE’s talent relations department. Tommy Dreamer’s House of Hardcore promotion was set to have their second show, and Crowe was hand picked for one of the top matches on the event. WWE could no longer ignore what the rest of the pro wrestling world already knew; that Solomon Crowe was ready.
October 23, 2012 would be another infamous date in the history of Solomon Crowe. It would be his first dark match with WWE, and despite an losing effort against Johnny Curtis, it would cement his spot with the company. After six years, Solomon Crowe had made it to the big time, but would soon learn his first lesson in patience. Despite impressing those in the company, it would be seven more months before Crowe would be cleared from his medical tests and his addition to the roster became official. It finally looked as though Crowe would be on WWE screens, but alas, fate had other plans.
It would be yet another three months before Crowe would debut for NXT, but it wasn’t the incredible moment that many had envisioned for him. Instead of debuting at an NXT taping, Crowe was relegated to a dark match against Xavier Woods, which he lost in forgettable fashion. It must have been frustrating for Crowe, who only months earlier had been so impressive that his appearance on NXT television was all but guaranteed. He continued to stay the course, not knowing that his frustrations had only just begun.
Over one year passed without Solomon getting his chance at the glory his contemporaries found themselves basking in. He must have thought about how unfair it was watching his peers pass him on the ladder of success, or worse yet, watching them squander the chance that should have been his all along. The writing on the wall had become very clear; Solomon Crowe needed to evolve again or else he was going to be left behind. Crowe began picking up steam by using creative ways to attack NXT roster members on house shows with his newly found accessory – a computer tablet, which he used to manipulate the house lights and distract his targets. Things were starting to go his way, and his chance was about to arrive.
February 28, 2014 was meant to be the biggest date in the history of Soloman Crowe yet, as he defeated Selvester Lefort in a match taped for NXT television. Now the entire world would see what he could do, and all his patience will have been worth it. Except the entire world didn’t get to see what he can do, because the decision was made to have the match pulled from the tapings. Crowe had been denied again, and it was about to get worse.
In August 2014, Solomon was teaming with Kalisto in a match against the Ascension when he chipped his tibia, taking him out of action for months, and delaying his debut even further. How did everything go so wrong? He came to NXT to jump start his career, not destroy it, but everything seemed to be working against him. Why wouldn’t they give him the chance they seemingly gave everyone else? To Crowe it must have appeared like the world was out to get him, and no one at NXT was going to put him on TV, so Crowe had to come up with a solution. If no one would put him on TV, then he would use his new manipulation skills to force his way onto NXT.
On January 28, 2014, exactly eleven months after what was to be the beginning of his rise in NXT, Solomon Crowe delivered a message that he would no longer wait in the shadows, behind his tablet. The messages continued for weeks until last week’s NXT Takeover: Rival event when this ominous message appeared, leading us to tonight. February 17, 2014. Possibly the most important day in the life of Solomon Crowe. He has worked for years to get where he is now, and although there is no way to anticipate what he has in store for the NXT Universe, one thing is clear; whatever he chooses to do will leave an impact. After all, he’s waited very patiently for this moment.
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