What’s Up, NXT? How You Doin’?
There once was a magical time, in an alternate universe, where Bo Dallas was one of the most loved heels in the building. A place where current WWE Universal Champion, Kevin Owens, made a brief yet triumphant stop-by, and Bayley and Sasha Banks wrestled in the first ever Iron Woman Match.
A place where Tyler Breeze was wildly popular, and for good reason.
NXT was where Corey Graves went from a mind-numbingly boring wrestler to one of the best commentators around. Emma was celebrated not only for her sense of humour but as a legitimate badass pro wrestler. If we’re being honest, it was her and Paige that actually started the Divas’ Women’s Revolution, but WWE is super weird with their history.
NXT, man. For those that have been paying attention since Arrival and before, we know THAT’S where all the best wrestling, with the most emotional and entertaining storylines happen.
It’s why we went from, “Oh boy I can’t wait until Enzo & Cass debut on the main roster!” to “Oh god, I hope they don’t call up Shinsuke Nakamura, they’ll just ruin him.” So quickly. NXT may not be the financial heart of the company, but it is absolutely the pro wrestling soul of WWE.
So when what felt like half the NXT roster got called up to the main roster in the past year or so, the brand took a hit. Suddenly it was filled with a bunch of people we didn’t recognise, rolling out gimmicks we don’t understand or connect to.
I hear a lot of people complaining about how “it’s not as good as it used to be” and “it’s just not the same,” Fair, but how well do those people remember the earlier days, when there was just one or two great feuds going on with a lot of interesting, if not underwhelming filler?
It is weird to see a brand go from firing on all cylinders for every match on every card, to trying to find it’s footing after years of being the diamond in the rough. Right now, NXT has a handful of compelling stories at best, and a truckload of people we’re still trying to get a feel for. That’s not good.
It’s actually kind of great.
Tag Team Division
Right now we’re in the middle of the second annual Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. It has quickly become one of my favourite times of year not only for proving that it can work seamlessly into storylines in the brand as a whole, but for doing a great job of showing fans that there is a surplus of talent in the ranks.
NXT has the proud distinction of housing THE best tag team in the world, The Revival. The Revival’s motto is “No Flips, Just Fists” and it’s perfect. Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder came in heads down, and let their wrestling do the talking.
They don’t have a lot of high spots or flashy tandem moves, save the admittedly well named and cool looking Shatter Machine. Nope, they’ve locked into the tag team wrestling psychology instead. They display a side of tag team competition that hasn’t been seen in years and hasn’t been perfected in decades.
The Revival alone would get me to pay 9.99/month.
They’re not the only ones down there, though. The Authors Of Pain are unstoppable masses of muscle, who when you combine their names sound like an old-timey scooter or possibly a futuristic shaving kit. Oh yeah, they don’t ever need to say a thing, either, since legendary manager Paul Ellering is their main bro.
They also tend to never lose a match, ever.
Webster’s defines the word “insanity” as “Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” That’s not true in the slightest but it is a popular phrase I’ve heard in movies. If it were true, though, Sanity picked a perfect name.
While their name is in direct competition with their look, it makes absolute sense that to get ahead in NXT, they have to try something different. BE something different. With Eric Young as the Napoleon-esque leader and Nikki Cross as the ravenous spitfire, you’ve also got the muscle, Alexander Wolf and Sawyer Fulton.
One of them looks like he’d sell me stale Christmas cookies and the other looks like he’d sell me drugs. Then they’d all beat me up and Nikki Cross would give me lice. All to the soundtrack of a throwaway Primus song, played through a busted transmission. All in.
There are a few teams in the Classic that have been hastily thrown together or matched specifically to lead into internal feuds, but there are some solid teams still kicking around. TM61 is one great match away from being a crowd favourite.
What little I’ve seen from Otis Dozivic and Tucker Knight is promising, and even if #DIY has been on the verge of a break up all summer, they are one of the best teams in the division. Tian Bing looks good and can probably help Hoho Lin adjust overall, but I’m not sure if they’ll stay a team or if they were just paired for the DRTTC.
All in all the Tag division is looking the opposite of sawft.
Men’s Division
How about the fellas down in NXT? Why come the brand isn’t brimming with Balors and Zayns and Owenses? I’m glad you asked!
For starters, we’ve got a KILLER feud going with the top two guys, NXT Champion Shinsuke Nakamura and a newly invigorated Samoa Joe. Nakamura is so over they should call him “The Rainbow” and Joe is focused, furious, and brutal. It’s a perfect feud to anchor current NXT. A TNA and indies legend meets the Japanese blitskrieg enigma.
I could watch these guys kinshasa each other’s jaws and bust each other’s muscles forever.
Bobby Roode is killing it with the best entrance/theme song/photobombing trifecta in the business, even though he has incredibly underwhelming finishing moves. My theory is he’s doing decidedly un-glorious moves so that when he finally hits his true finisher the building’s roof will seemingly disappear.
Either that, or he’s just gonna do a different mediocre finisher every match forever. I’m fine with both.
Both Andrade “Cien” Almas and Hideo Itami are talent machines that have had rocky runs in NXT. Itami has suffered a pair of injuries that all but brought his forward momentum to a complete stop, and Almas just can’t seem to click with the fans, despite being brimming with talent.
Cien’s recent heel turn is a great move in the right direction, and if Itami can avoid any more time on the injured list, he will probably go down as one of the greatest NXT champions of all time. He can also make NOT wearing socks with shoes seem cool.
Eric Young and Austin Aries are both guys riding second and third waves of success and Roderick Strong could very well follow. Meanwhile, Tye Dillinger has scraped and clawed his way to fan favourite status in NXT for years now.
Johnny Gargano is primed to be the next breakout Superstar, when he’s called up, after proving his worth both emotionally and physically this summer.
My favourite current NXT wrestler outside of all the current champs in every division is No Way Jose. He’s unique, deceivingly big, fast, and has the general disposition of a parade that’s the offspring of ALL the parades. He loves baseball and also reminds me of my friend Eliel so I may be biased, but he is solid in the ring and infectious with his swing.
After that, there’s a huge bench in the locker room teeming with unproven or untested talent. I’m excited to see new faces and buzzy indie guys and gals bring new stuff to the table, and as I mentioned earlier the guys from the cruiserweight division that are just hanging around waiting for the WWE to get their heads on right are a perfect addition to Orlando.
It’s not all roses and burning hammers, though. Blake and Murphy went from NXT Tag Team Champions to having their matches against each other jobbing to other matches. You got guys like Angelo Dawkins and Patrick Clark, who seem to change their ring gear more often than they have matches.
Dan Matha’s debut was hysterical but did nothing for Dan Matha The Wrestler. I’m still not sure about Noah Potjes but if his gimmick is just gonna be “creepy guy at the Performance Center”, I’m not into it. There’s also about a dozen or so guys that haven’t even been on TV yet and I’ve never heard of them, so who knows what’s gonna happen there.
Also, where’s Elias Samson? He was so easy to make fun of.
Women’s Division
The women’s division has suffered the most since The Big Call Up Of ‘16. Losing Sasha Banks, Alexa Bliss, Becky Lynch, Nia Jax and Charlotte was rough, but when Bayley left, it was like Full Sail was deflated of its heart just like those Crazy Dancing Blow-up Guys after her entrance.
It sucked, but it’s gonna be fine for two reasons: Asuka and the fact that NXT has been here before.
See, NXT BUILT the current crop of women killing it on the main roster. They weren’t snatched up from indies, and they aren’t old familiar faces. Most of them weren’t very good when they started. They spent a lot of time absorbing anything the trainers could throw at them before anyone knew who they were.
They give these ladies everything they need to not only excel, but dominate. You don’t have Sasha and Charlotte main eventing a Hell In A Cell, without the guys and girls working at the Performance Center teaching them and training them to be the absolute best.
It’s the blood of NXT and while those first couple years had a lot of luck, chance, and timing going for it, the trainers are why we love the brand.
But yeah, it’s mostly because of Asuka. How can you stop someone that’s mysterious, entrancing, and built like a freaking razor blade?
If she took out O-Ren Ishii, Gogo Yubari, the Crazy 88 AND The Bride, I’d be all “yeah yeah, that makes sense.” She said it herself, “Nobody is ready for Asuka” and I’m not gonna question her.
She’s barely been on TV lately because she’s so far ahead of EVERYBODY she’s about to lap them. That is so cool, but it can’t last.
That brings us to Ember Moon. Moon is some sort of Mortal Kombat werewolf character I think, and when she adjusts to the styles of NXT in the coming months, she’s the one that’ll be able to topple Asuka from her throne.
Her finisher will spell the end for many competitors. On paper, it’s a twisty type Blockbuster Stunner. That alone is pretty cool but she executes it with so much precision, authority and grace that it’s simply gorgeous. She’s next.
After those two, though, the division is admittedly thin.
Right now it’s kind of like they’re filling in the spots left behind until they find their own thing, ya know? Peyton Royce and Billie Kay are basically The BFFs, if they were Australian and made of just legs and Liv Morgan has the Bayley underdog thing going, but with Carmela still freshly removed, do we really need another Jersey girl this soon? The answer, is no.
Danielle Kamela is seeing some passable televised ring work lately, and Aliyah is one character trait away from the crowd straight up loving her. Trinidad is almost promising and we’ll have to see if Mickie James sticks around after Toronto.
Outside of the ones listed on this page, there’s a bunch of women waiting in the rafters for their shot, I’d bet money, that a good handful of them are going to be pretty amazing to watch in the future.
We’re In Good Hands
I’m just gonna get this out of the way here: WWE messed up big with the treatment of the Cruiserweight Division starting the day after the Cruiserweight Classic ended.
Instead of focusing on developing characters and treating them the same way they did throughout the CWC, they apparently only signed Brian Kendrick and TJ Perkins to re-enact the “Old Pirate (?) vs Old Video Game-er” Broadway classic.
With a small cameo from Rich Swann every once in awhile. I really wish they’d just take the whole division off of Raw and make it an exclusive Network show where it can live and breath like NXT. If they’re gonna be bouncing around between Raw and NXT anyway, just take Raw out of the equation and make Cruiserweight Wednesday a sister show for NXT.
Seriously, if you’re not gonna make Jack Gallagher the biggest star of the company, I don’t know why you’d even bother having a company in the first place.
Another thing before I forget: William Regal is THE BEST. He was always a favorite of mine in the ring and when he was a main roster GM his use of the word “sunshine” as a pet name for everyone was the coolest thing ever.
Remember when JBL was NXT General Manager for a bit? He would just show up and tip his hat and flash that horrible smile, before leaving for Big Time commentary. There he would act like he didn’t know what an NXT was and he’d bury anyone called up from there during their debut match. It was the worst.
But Regal does something that no other General Manager for WWE has ever done. He generally manages the promotion he’s working for. It’s amazing how little has to be done to make such a difference.
He doesn’t book matches because someone showed up in the ring, and crybabied until they got a match. He’ll book a match because it makes sense for the whole brand. If you go to his office with a request, he’ll listen and do what he thinks is fair for not only the wrestlers, but the fans and the company, too.
If a bunch of dudes show up in a ring and argue at each other, he doesn’t make a tag team match right there! He will kick you the !@$% out of his building for interrupting planned matches, while they’re trying to film a television show. Regal is my sunshine. Not my only sunshine, but he sure does make me happy.
I can’t tell you how happy I am that Graves has stuck around to berate Tom Phillips. His insistence that Tom is the dumbest person on the planet is fun every time. If Tom were a punching bag, Corey would be the guy that walked into the gym and knocked the punching bag’s lunch out of its hands and then blamed the punching bag.
Heel commentators are rarely done right. Graves is on a short list.
But anyway, yeah, NXT is in a downswing right now, no doubt. But that’s it’s nature. It didn’t start at the top, it built it’s way there, and it was a farm league for the main roster by design. It just so happens that everything they build can disappear at any given moment.
So when so much talent got swooped up by Raw and Smackdown it stung. It showed. But we’re kind of at the point now where NXT started. We don’t really know these wrestlers save a handful, and they haven’t been given the time to develop characters and storylines.
I’ve heard people say a lot of things about the product of late like it’s “weak” or it’s “lost it’s shine” or whatever. I’ve even heard them use the term “rebuilding period” as a negative.
Except that’s not a negative and that’s exactly what’s happening, just more people are watching. People always like to say they were there from the start, but often times they don’t like to do the work. NXT is actually giving you an easy in.
The brand is proven, the current product, for the most part, is not. Jump in now with gusto, but don’t expect instant gratification. Give it some time, pay attention, and come Wrestlemania season you, too, can tell your friends “I was chanting ‘NO WAY! JOSE!’ before it was cool.”
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