The Ascension were one of the unfortunate “WWE NXT” Black and Gold call-ups who were tossed aside by Vince McMahon – most infamously by being buried by The New Age Outlaws and the APA. However, under Paul “Triple H” Levesque, the two seemed to be positioned for greater things, and in an interview with “Rewind Recap Relive,” they recalled the role Levesque played in their NXT Tag Team Championship reign. Before anything was set in stone, Viktor remembered being told that they might win, but the wrestler was hesitant to get his hopes too high.
“After everything that we had … been doing, I guess at the time, it seemed like for once they weren’t s**ting on us,” Viktor said, referring to how often trainers used to tease them backstage. When the tag team arrived at the building, they thought their trepidation was for good reason. “What was on the run sheet was actually that Scott Dawson and Miro were going to win. … So we saw that and we were like, ‘Okay, we’re not gonna win. Whatever.’ You know? I knew they were just f**king around with us the whole time.”
Viktor then recalled being called in for a meeting ahead of the show and dreading having to sit down with the higher-ups because he thought they’d just be berated. “He basically just sat there and told us that everybody f**king hated us and didn’t believe in us, but Hunter [Triple H] stood up for us in the pre-show meeting,” he recounted. “So, Bill [DeMott] backed Hunter and said that [they] believed in us, that we could win the titles and carry the show.”
That title run wound up being a successful one, with the duo holding the NXT Tag Team Championship for nearly a year before dropping it to Sin Cara and Kalisto in 2014. Though they never truly broke through on the main roster, Viktor and Konnor stayed with WWE until their 2019 releases.
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit “Rewind Recap Relive” and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.
