It's hard to believe that the NXT brand has been around for nearly 10 years. It has certainly evolved quite a bit over the years and the brand has seen many wrestlers come and go, either because they graduated to the main roster and enjoyed success, or the company felt they'd never get over with mainstream WWE fans and decided to let them go.

Wrestling can be weird sometimes as we get to see many characters on and off the television in a blink of an eye. You never know what characters are going to stick or what wrestlers can show you a glimpse into their personalities and then just vanish for a while.

Today we are going to be talking about 10 Former NXT Stars and what they have been up to!

11 Blue Pants

One of the hotter acts on NXT for a while was Blue Pants. She was a part of the NXT roster from 2014 to 2015 and first appeared as one of the Rosebuds (we will get more on that later). She was an enhancement talent who lost to Carmella in her debut but Enzo Amore and Cass dubbed her “Blue Pants” for her wrestling attire and went with that name. She would go on to make appearances throughout the year as a wrestler and even managed the Vaudevillians as a surprise appearance on NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn.

She is still in the wrestling world as she is a member of All Elite Wrestling, going by her real name of Leva Bates. She has appeared in multiple promotions including Shimmer and Impact, but she was essentially Brandi Rhodes’ right hand as the CEO Coordinator doing PR for the company.

10 El Local (Ricardo Rodriguez

El Local is one of the most basic names a wrestler can have but what will shock you is exactly who was underneath the mask. He wrestled a couple of events, including forming a tag team with the debuting Kalisto on NXT against the Legionnaires (Marcus Louis and Sylvester Lefort) before being released from the company in July of that year. Who was El Local? Well, it happened to be Alberto Del Rio’s ring announcer: Ricardo Rodriguez.

Related: Ricardo Rodriguez & 9 Other Managers You Didn't Know Wrestled

Rodriguez was last seen as a member of the Spanish broadcast team for AEW, as he took over for a fired Willie Urbina in 2021.

9 Oliver Grey

Can you name the inaugural NXT Tag Team Champions? Because people typically remember Adrian Neville but not his partner, Oliver Grey, which went by the name British Ambition. He suffered a torn ACL and was written off television but returned on April 10, 2014's episode of NXT and lost his first match back against Camacho. Before being released on April 30, he was a part of the 20-man battle royal to become the number one contender of the NXT Title and was the first one eliminated.

He continued to wrestle on the independent circuits with his most recent match being in EVW back in the United Kingdom under the name Joel Redman where he just lost the Evolution Heavyweight Title in mid-December 2021. He has not wrestled since then but has been wrestling on the British independent wrestling scene since his NXT release.

8 Adam Rose

One of the more intriguing gimmicks was Adam Rose, a partier who enjoys having a good time after switching from a darker Leo Kruger character. The character was loosely based on comedian Russell Brand and had independent wrestlers and NXT developmental talent accompany him to the ring (the Rosebuds) to cheer him on and party. Rose was called up to RAW in 2014 before his departure a few years later.

He retired from wrestling back in 2019 and has been quiet since then. He has two sons and has not really had much of an online presence since his domestic violence controversy where he put a shirt on PWTees with his mugshot from the incident.

7 Aksana

WWE was in the business of hiring attractive women and teaching them how to be a WWE Diva instead of wrestlers that can go in the ring for a very long time and one example was Aksana. She signed with the company back in 2009 but was announced for the third season of NXT when it was still a game show in the all-women season with Goldust as her WWE Pro. She had a storyline where she was facing deportation and Goldust proposed to her, but that was as far as the NXT involvement went. She would return to FCW to train and was on the main roster officially in 2012 until her release.

She has not wrestled since her release from the company with her final match being a two-minute loss on the October 6, 2014, episode of SmackDown against Alicia Fox. She was rumored to be backstage as an alternate for the 2022 Women’s Royal Rumble match, so we could potentially see her back in the ring sometime in the future.

6 CJ Parker

CJ Parker was initially brought to NXT and used as a jobber before suffering an injury in 2012. He returned to the brand with a hippie character and was an eco-warrior who would verbally attack the fans for ruining the environment. He wrestled on the first few TakeOver events but notably lost to a debuting Kevin Owens at TakeOver: R Evolution where he broke Owens’ nose but requested his release in early 2015 and was granted it a week later.

Currently, Parker is a free agent after his contract with New Japan Pro Wrestling ended and is now going by Juice Robinson. He won the IWGP United States Title twice and the IWGP Tag Team title once. He is currently engaged to another wrestling free agent Toni Storm.

5 Mason Ryan

Mason Ryan was rarely on NXT television as he already had some name value as he was on RAW as part of the “New Nexus” with CM Punk and was part of Team Orton in Survivor Series in 2011 but was eliminated by Cody Rhodes. Once on NXT in 2012, he was on a winning streak and feuded with Enzo and Cass where he defeated each of them in a singles match but lost in a handicap match. He had his last match on NXT on April 24, 2014, and was released on the 30th.

He wrestled a bit on the independent circuit still under his WWE name but eventually decided to end his in-ring career in January 2015 and announced in 2016 that he would be joining Cirque de Soleil as the chief archer of Ka.

4 AJ Lee

AJ Lee was a women’s wrestler that was trapped in WWE’s Divas division. She made her WWE NXT debut as a participant on the same NXT season as Aksuna and picked up a bit of a following with her girl next door appearance as she was paired with her WWE Primo. She had a storyline of being in a relationship with Primo that ended with them kissing on the finale before placing third in the competition. She was a member of the main roster shortly after until she retired from in-ring competition in 2015 due to permanent damage of her cervical spine.

She is married to current AEW wrestler CM Punk and after writing a memoir, Crazy is My Superpower: How I Triumphed by Breaking Bones, Breaking Hearts, and Breaking the Rules she was out of the public spotlight.

Related: 10 Things We Learned About AJ Lee From Her Book

She formed a writing partnership with actress Aimee Garcia and formed the production company Scrappy Heart Productions. She is currently with WOW- Womens of Wrestling as an executive producer as well as providing color commentary for the promotion beginning in late 2022.

3 Bull Dempsey

Sometimes having a career outside the WWE circle can help but one person who struggled to find a main spot was Bull Dempsey. He was an enhancement talent in 2013 and feuded with Mojo Rawley, which happened to end with Dempsey victorious against Rawley at TakeOver: Fatal 4 Way. He had a rivalry with Baron Corbin, where Corbin handed him his first loss on NXT television. He tweaked his character a bit as he became an overweight wrestler and promoted “Bull-Fit”. He would be released on February 5, 2016, after he announced so on Twitter.

He wrestled after being released, and his last match was on May 9, 2021, in an ISPW event against Michael Mars. He wrestled for Ring of Honor for a cup of coffee in 2016 as a surprise appearance in the Honor Rumble and faced the ROH Champion Adam Cole in a losing effort. He still is getting ready to wrestle in April for IWF, so his career is not over.

2 Eli Cottonwood

Eli Cottonwood had a cup of coffee in the WWE as he was not in the wrestling business for very long. Kipp Christianson began wrestling in Florida Championship Wrestling in 2008 before changing his name to Eli Cottonwood. He was a member of the second season of NXT with John Morrison as his WWE Pro, but he was quickly eliminated. His performance in the “Talk the Talk” challenge earned him some recognition as the clip was on E! Network’s The Soup.

Christianson has two children with his wife and has stayed a part of the wrestling industry as he co-owns FHW- Florida Hardcore Wrestling as well as a yoga business known as Kipp’s Life Flip, which is stationed in Las Vegas, Nevada.

1 Ezra Judge

Ezra Judge was one of the more recent NXT stars to be released as he was a part of the WWE Performance Center and signed a contract with WWE on August 15, 2019. However, he was released from the company not even a year into the contract as he would be fired from WWE on May 19, 2021.

He would join MLW- Major League Wrestling on June 24 that same year after his no-compete clause expired and made his television debut exactly one month after in the Battle Riot and joined The Dynasty. Judge has been thriving ever since then.