{"id":112999,"date":"2022-04-20T10:00:17","date_gmt":"2022-04-20T14:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/?p=112999"},"modified":"2022-04-19T19:39:27","modified_gmt":"2022-04-19T23:39:27","slug":"theory-rapid-rise-wwe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2022\/04\/20\/theory-rapid-rise-wwe\/","title":{"rendered":"The Rapid Rise of Theory in WWE"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As reported at Last Word on Pro Wrestling, on April 18\u2019s broadcast of <em><strong>Monday Night Raw<\/strong>,<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2022\/04\/18\/theory-wwe-united-states-championship\/\" target=\"_self\"><strong>Theory<\/strong> defeated <strong>Finn Balor <\/strong>to capture the United States Championship<\/a>. The title, for Theory, is the culmination of the rapid ascent he has undergone from <strong><em>NXT<\/em> <\/strong>talent to a performer quickly climbing the card on the <strong>WWE<\/strong> flagship brand.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The Rise of Theory in WWE<\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3><strong>Theory\u2019s Beginning<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The former adolescent bodybuilder from Georgia began his pro wrestling journey in 2016, quickly involved with <strong>World Wrestling Network<\/strong> brand <strong>Full Impact Pro<\/strong><em>. <\/em>He later debuted for <strong>EVOLVE<\/strong><em>.<\/em> After a strong showing in these promotions, Theory began his association with WWE. After a handful of supporting appearances on <em>Raw<\/em> in 2019, Theory debuted on <em>NXT. <\/em>Despite early appearances as an enhancement talent, Theory\u2019s fortunes changed when he joined the stable <strong>The Way.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Time in the Way<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Throughout 2020 and 2021, until WWE\u2019s rebranding of the \u201cBlack and Gold\u201d brand into <strong><em>NXT 2.0<\/em><\/strong>, The Way were <em>NXT\u2019s<\/em> fan-favorite comic heel stable. Led by \u201cMr. NXT\u201d, <strong>Johnny Gargano, <\/strong>and wife <strong>Candice LeRae, <\/strong>Theory and <strong>Indi Hartwell<\/strong> were swayed into the \u201cGargano Way\u201d philosophy, a ruthless seize the day mentality which propelled the faction\u2019s attempts to climb NXT\u2019s heights. Eventually, they softened into a <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2021\/08\/12\/the-love-her-or-leave-her-nxt\/\" target=\"_self\">comedic faction<\/a> powered by dynamics of found family. NXT launched its new era with <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2021\/08\/19\/indi-hartwell-pops-question-dexter-lumis\/\" target=\"_self\">Hartwell\u2019s wedding to <strong>Dexter Lumis<\/strong><\/a>, one of Theory\u2019s final appearances for the brand.<\/p>\n<p><a id=\"jJ0jeqeeQNBaq4ZEb-NsHg\" class=\"gie-single\" style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/1238628220\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><script>window.gie=window.gie||function(c){(gie.q=gie.q||[]).push(c)};gie(function(){gie.widgets.load({id:'jJ0jeqeeQNBaq4ZEb-NsHg',sig:'d2ifPb4vB0ci-o1DWybqfbmbF-qq9CBmyxbL-nixFtA=',w:'594px',h:'396px',items:'1238628220',caption: true ,tld:'com',is360: false })});<\/script><script src='\/\/embed-cdn.gettyimages.com\/widgets.js' charset='utf-8' async><\/script><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Theory on the WWE Main Roster<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Theory debuted on Raw in October 2021, as a comic heel who blithely relished embarrassing established players like <strong>Rey Mysterio <\/strong>and <strong>A.J. Styles. <\/strong>He also flaunts his status as <strong>Vince McMahon<\/strong>\u2019s handpicked \u201cprot\u00e9g\u00e9\u201d. Theory\u2019s insouciant bluster received yet more of a spotlight during 2022\u2019s \u201cRoad to <strong><em>WrestleMania<\/em><\/strong>\u201d.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Elimination Chamber and WrestleMania 38<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Theory vied for the now defunct WWE Championship, then held by <strong>Bobby Lashley,<\/strong> at 2022\u2019s <em><strong>Elimination Chamber<\/strong>.<\/em> Desperate to escape <strong>Brock Lesnar, <\/strong>Theory scaled one of the Elimination Chamber pods with Lesnar in hot pursuit, and found himself manhandled by the \u201cBeast Incarnate\u201d in an F5.<\/p>\n<p>Despite losing his shot at the WWE Championship, which was reclaimed by Lesnar, Theory found his path to <em>WrestleMania 38<\/em> by antagonizing <strong><em>Friday Night SmackDown <\/em><\/strong>commentator <strong>Pat McAfee. <\/strong>The two parlayed their interbrand feud into a well received <em>WrestleMania 38<\/em> bout which was interrupted by McMahon. Fresh from besting Theory, McAfee also accepted the impromptu challenge of the Chairman, whom Theory helped along to an underhanded victory.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Austin Theory is the U.S. Champion | WWE Raw Highlights 4\/18\/22 | WWE on USA\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/IQ9rjrW-Yjg?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3><strong>Possibilities For Theory\u2019s Reign<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>With April 18\u2019s victory, Theory has followed in the footsteps of <strong>Riddle <\/strong>and <strong>Damian Priest. <\/strong>Both also held the United States Championship soon after being called from <em>NXT<\/em> to <em>Raw<\/em>, and both are now in popular storylines alongside WWE elder statesmen: Riddle reigns as a Raw Tag Team Campion alongside <strong>Randy Orton,<\/strong> and Priest turned heel and teamed up with <strong>Edge <\/strong>in a <em>Lost Boys<\/em> reminiscent vampire-esque gimmick. Theory\u2019s possible challengers for the United States title could include:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ricochet-<\/strong>Having recently united the WWE Championship and the WWE Universal Championship into the Undisputed Championship, held by <strong>Roman Reigns, <\/strong>as well as NXT\u2019s North American and Cruiserweight championships, it would be interesting to pit WWE\u2019s two undercard champions against each other. It would be especially palatable given WWE\u2019s pivot toward softening its brand split, with WWE Superstars now more frequently appearing across brand. While unifying the two midcard belts would be a bridge too far, a feud and the culminating match pitting Theory\u2019s nascent talents against Ricochet\u2019s high flying prowess would be an engaging step in Theory\u2019s rapid rise.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Omos-<\/strong>Theory and Omos are, to some extent, on similar journeys. Omos was long rumored to be due a solo push, and it began in late 2021 when he and tag team A.J. Styles fell out. Since then, Omos has vowed to \u201cdominate\u201d any WWE Superstar who crosses his path. His clash of titans against Bobby Lashley at <em>WrestleMania<\/em> 38 ended in defeat for Omos. A feud with Theory would be a classic WWE tableau of a smaller, scrappier fighter overcoming a giant.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>The Rise of Theory in WWE &#8211; In Conclusion<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Theory now holds the WWE United States Championship, crowning a rapid ascent of a matter of months at WWE, and opening the door for future opportunities.<\/p>\n<p><em>Stay tuned to the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/\" target=\"_self\">Last Word on Pro Wrestling<\/a>\u00a0for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. You can check out an almost unlimited array of WWE content on the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/watch.wwe.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">WWE Network<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.peacocktv.com\/watch\/home\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Peacock<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As reported at Last Word on Pro Wrestling, on April 18\u2019s broadcast of Monday Night Raw, Theory defeated Finn Balor to capture the United States Championship. The title, for Theory, is the culmination of the rapid ascent he has undergone from NXT talent to a performer quickly climbing the card on the WWE flagship brand. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4152,"featured_media":113002,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2192,25,4,3],"tags":[57,738,111,3491,68,4714,70,7147,1135,241],"class_list":["post-112999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wrestling","category-raw","category-wwe","category-wwe-universe","tag-brock-lesnar","tag-candice-lerae","tag-finn-balor","tag-indi-hartwell","tag-johnny-gargano","tag-pat-mcafee","tag-ricochet","tag-the-way","tag-austin-theory","tag-vince-mcmahon"],"modified_by":"Robbie Sutter","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4152"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112999\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}