On October 23, 2012, Crowe wrestled a dark match for WWE, in which he was defeated by Johnny Curtis.
On August 29, 2013, Crowe debuted for WWE's developmental system NXT, with a loss to Xavier Woods at a live event. He would fail to appear on televised episodes of NXT for more than a year, instead being restricted to live events or dark matches during television tapings. At a live event on December 6, 2013, Crowe assumed the character of a hacker, using a tablet computer to seize control of the arena lights, and attacked Kalisto. At the February 28, 2014 NXT television tapings, Crowe defeated Sylvester Lefort in what would have been his NXT television debut, but the match was removed from the episode; it was supposed to air for the March 6, 2014 NXT. In August 2014, Crowe suffered a chipped tibia during a tag team match with Kalisto against The Ascension; the injury did not require surgery and he was able to return to the ring in November. In late 2014, Crowe wrestled a number of dark matches on NXT, including one against the returning Brian Kendrick.
From the January 28, 2015 episode of NXT, WWE began airing teasers for Crowe's television debut. On the February 18 episode of NXT, Crowe made his television debut, attacking CJ Parker. In his first televised match on the March 4 episode of NXT, he defeated Bull Dempsey.
On November 24, 2015, WWE announced that Crowe was released from his WWE contract.