#6 Elias
WWE doesn't have Slammy Awards anymore – they didn’t in 2016, at least – but if they did, Elias would surely be a contender for Breakout Star of the Year. After all, this is a guy who was hardly involved in storylines in NXT and didn’t have a single match at a TakeOver event.
Whether he’s facing the likes of Dean Ambrose and Jason Jordan on Raw or getting hostile crowd reactions for his guitar playing, “The Drifter” has been a constant presence on our screens since his first WWE appearance in April.
For someone who was rarely used in NXT, this year couldn’t have gone much better.
Grade: B
Edited by anirudh.b