There's no shame in being a wrestling jobber, particularly if it gets you some screen time on WWE programing. There are a surprising number of NXT Superstars who got a shot on Raw, SmackDown or one of WWE's former programs long before signing an NXT contract. In some cases, they were part of NXT but officials found a way to make use of them long before their debuts in an NXT ring. Regardless, there's no impression like a first impression and sometimes you have to take a pretty big bump to make an impression. Or get past a bad one.
10 Eric Young
During his time in TNA, Eric Young carved out a name for himself as a solid in ring performer. It was enough to get him brought into NXT where he led the faction known as Sanity. Unfortunately, their call up to the main roster was a dud due to bad booking. Young was essentially relegated to the role of a jobber, a part he played when he appeared on WWE programming many years earlier. He and Bobby Roode, then Rude or Rood, were briefly a jobber tag team.
9 Bobby Roode
The arc of Bobby Roode's career has been long to say the least, and has come full circle. Before his current main roster run he was the NXT Champion and before that he was a long standing member of IMPACT.
But even before that time, Roode spent approximately three years working for WWE as a jobber. He even competed for the Tag Team Championships on an episode of Sunday Night Heat.
8 Raymond Rowe
War Machine was once one of the most dominant tag teams around. They continued their winning ways when they arrived on NXT. Mismanagement on the man roster has caused their heat to cool incredibly, which is typical of NXT wrestlers moving to the main roster, but that doesn't make them any less talented. Many years before The Viking Raiders debuted on Raw, Raymond Rowe appeared as a singles competitor to take on Mark Henry. That was in 2006 on an episode of SmackDown.
7 Samoa Joe
One of the baddest men in all of wrestling, and a Hall of Fame commentator in the making, Samoa Joe had experience in WWE before NXT. He had one match in February of 2001 before signing with Ring of Honor and eventually TNA.
By the point he made his way to NXT, Joe was already a legendary performer, and the NXT fans were well aware of that judging by their reaction to his debut. These days, an injury plagued Joe spends more time on the commentary desk than he does in the ring but he's legendary on the mic, too.
6 Tommaso Ciampa
Back in roughly 2005 on an episode of SmackDown, Muhammad Hassan sent his personal attorney Thomas Whitney, Esq down to the ring to take care of some business. Unfortunately, his promo was interrupted by The Undertaker showing up and beating the crap out of him. That attorney would eventually grow up to be NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa. Few wrestlers get to say that they tangled with The Undertaker that early in their careers.
5 Todd Hansen
The second half of The Viking Raiders also made an early WWE appearance many years before tag team dominance. Back then, Ivar was known as Todd Hansen, and was several pounds lighter. He was also short one epic beard.
Hansen wrestled a Raw dark match as well as on an episode of Velocity. It's hard to say if those matches were better or worse than the weird carpool karaoke segment he had with his tag team partner on Raw recently.
4 Daniel Bryan
Daniel Bryan is one of the biggest superstars in the entire industry. He was highly respected before getting to NXT and eventually the main roster, but his legendary WrestleMania win certainly cemented that. But before Ring of Honor and all of his success in the WWE, Brian Danielson popped up on an episode Velocity in 2003. That was even before the name change.
3 Jon Moxley
These days, he's known as Jon Moxley, one of the highest profile defectors from WWE to AEW. He wasn't the first and he won't be the last. But before the days of Dean Ambrose, NXT and The Shield, he was a WWE jobber.
Moxley appeared as part of a tag team on Velocity, competing against MNM. He would also have a singles match against Val Venis on Sunday Night Heat. That one was especially memorable due to his pink hair. Nothing says "lunatic fringe" like pink hair.
2 Braun Strowman
The Monster Among Men wasn't first introduced as a member of The Wyatt Family. In truth, he first popped up alongside other superstars like Elias, Carmella and Becky Lynch as a member of Adam Rose's Rosebuds. He was part of the gregarious entourage who would follow Rose to the ring for his matches. Being a jobber doesn't just mean losing matches to put bigger talent over. It means doing what needs to be done to keep the show going.
1 Johnny Gargano
Not to be outdone by his former #DIY tag team partner, Johnny Wrestling also popped up as a jobber on an episode of SmackDown. He appeared as Cedric Von Haussen, the Lichtenstein Heavyweight Champion, in a match against Montel Vontavious Porter in 2007. Building up to a match against Chris Benoit for the United States Championship, MVP was taking on champions from around the world. Little did anyone know that Gargano would be a champion in his own right more than a decade later.