page_title: The Ascension (professional wrestling)
section_title: Beginnings on the main roster (2014–2016)
hierarchical_section_title: The Ascension (professional wrestling) / History / Beginnings on the main roster (2014–2016)
caption_attribution_description: 2015-03-30_17-38-59_ILCE-6000_0960_DxO
context_page_description: The Awakening, formerly known as The Ascension, are a professional wrestling tag team consisting of Big Kon and Vik.
  The Ascension was formerly a stable from 2011 to 2012. The Ascension originally started out in Florida Championship Wrestling as a stable consisting of Conor O'Brian, Kenneth Cameron, Ricardo Rodriguez, Tito Colon and Raquel Diaz. After several membership changes, Conor O'Brian and Rick Victor, then became established as a tag-team in NXT. Their 364-day NXT Tag Team Championship reign is currently the longest in the history of the title. In 2019, the duo were released from WWE after months of inactivity.
context_section_description: The following night on SmackDown, vignettes began to air promoting The Ascension's call-up to the main roster. They were promoted to the main roster on the December 29, 2014 episode of Raw, defeating The Miz and Damien Mizdow. On the January 2 and 9 episodes of SmackDown and the January 5 episode of Raw, The Ascension easily defeated local preliminary wrestlers in less than a minute, and also cementing their heel status after comparing themselves to prominent tag teams of the past including The Powers of Pain, The Road Warriors and Demolition.
  By the second week of their main roster run, Mike Tedesco of wrestleview.com lambasted how WWE had made the Ascension lose all credibility for two reasons: firstly, they openly admitted being "a rip off of The Road Warriors and Demolition", and secondly, all the commentators (including JBL, who was a heel commentator) disparaged the Ascension as "nothing compared" to the older teams they were copying. On the January 19 episode of Raw, the Ascension confronted the reuniting New World Order members Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and X-Pac. However, the Ascension were then interrupted, attacked by and laid out by two other past-generation teams: the Acolytes Protection Agency and the New Age Outlaws. At this point, various critics were labeling the writing for the Ascension's main roster storylines to be that "it seemed WWE gave up on [the Ascension] in week two of their main roster run", with WWE making "a mockery of the push every single week" with "criminal booking". The storyline culminated in the Ascension defeating the New Age Outlaws at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view.
  On the February 12, 2015 episode of SmackDown, the Ascension's main roster winning streak (since their call up) ended in a tag team turmoil (gauntlet) match; they entered against Daniel Bryan and Roman Reigns and were eliminated via disqualification. On the February 23 episode of Raw, the Ascension suffered their first pinfall loss on the main roster, courtesy of the Prime Time Players. Although they defeated The Prime Time Players in a rematch on the next week's episode of Superstars, the Ascension's fortunes then vastly declined; between early March to the end of July 2015, they appeared regularly on Main Event and Superstars, and started a losing streak. At WrestleMania 31, Konnor and Viktor made their WrestleMania debuts in the André the Giant memorial battle royal, with neither of the duo winning the match. In May, The Ascension started a feud against The Meta Powers and defeated them at Payback pre-show. At Elimination Chamber on May 31, they participated in an Elimination Chamber match for the tag titles, they eliminated Los Matadores and the Lucha Dragons until they were eliminated by The Prime Time Players.
  On the September 3 episode of SmackDown, The Ascension attacked Neville as he was making his way to the ring against Stardust, aligning themselves with Stardust in the process and thus forming a group known as "The Cosmic Wasteland", where in Stardust calls The Ascension his "henchmen". At Night of Champions, Stardust and The Ascension defeated Neville and The Lucha Dragons in a six-man tag team match in the pre-show, but were subsequently defeated in two rematches. On the Survivor Series kickoff, The Cosmic Wasteland, The Miz, and Bo Dallas were defeated by The Dudley Boyz, Neville, Goldust and Titus O'Neil in a Five-on-five traditional Survivor Series elimination tag team match. In May 2016, The Cosmic Wasteland stable disbanded after Stardust left the company. At WrestleMania 32, Konnor and Viktor entered the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal, both with failing efforts. On April 16, 2016, WWE suspended Konnor for 60 days for a second violation of the Talent Wellness policy. Following the suspension, Viktor began competing in singles competition, mainly on Superstars and Main Event. Konnor made his return during the June 20 WWE Superstars taping, teaming with Viktor to face The Golden Truth (Goldust and R-Truth).
caption: In the main roster, The Ascension changed their look, similar to The Road Warriors.
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