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Nikki Cross' character evolution in the WWE has been unlike most superstars. The Scottish wrestler has gone from having a commonly-seen 'crazy person' gimmick to being an uberly positive superhero.
However, Nikki Cross' best work in the WWE arguably came when she was still a part of Sanity in NXT. The Eric Young-led collective thrived in NXT, but they didn't foresee the steep downward slide that awaited them on the main roster.
While Sanity made their much-anticipated main roster debut on SmackDown in 2018, the stable lost a crucial aspect that made them unique in WWE. The company decided not to let Nikki Cross join Sanity once the faction debuted on SmackDown.
During Sportskeeda Wrestling's exclusive interview with Riju Dasgupta, Killian Dain (a.k.a. Big Damo) revealed the reasoning behind WWE retaining Nikki Cross as an NXT talent after Sanity's promotion to SmackDown.
Big Damo said that Sanity had to ditch their babyface characters from their final NXT days and start afresh after the SmackDown call-up. Big Damo said WWE pushed them to be traditional heels on the blue brand as their primary job was to get beaten up to make the babyfaces look better.
NXT was entirely different when Sanity was on top of the black-and-gold brand. There, WWE pre-recorded the episodes, giving performers the window to pull off spots and segments that are otherwise not suitable to execute on live TV.
According to Damo, it didn't make much sense to have his wife Nikki Cross do nothing at ringside while her male stablemates took a beating.
As you might know, intergender violence is prohibited in the WWE, barring a few special occasions. Big Damo stated that Nikki Cross would not have been as impactful on SmackDown as she was in NXT.
Nikki Cross was as fearless and explosive as they came during her NXT run. Attacking some of her male counterparts was a major attraction for her unpredictable kayfabe personality.
Damo provided an example by highlighting how Nikki Cross could get away with an attack on Adam Cole in NXT through clever editing, camerawork and other production tactics. However, replicating the same spots during a live broadcast of SmackDown didn't seem feasible on paper.
"Maybe, you know, like I don't know. I think the most important part is, as we were going up to the main roster, you're starting from scratch almost. And generally, villains would go up, and they would get their ass beat by the babyfaces. The problem is, what does Nikki do when that happens because you can't have man-on-women violence. That, for me, is completely understandable. I think that was one of the takeaways she had herself, like on NXT, yes, you know she could attack Adam Cole and kind of disappear off-screen because we can make that work, but it's very difficult to make that happen on a live television show, especially in those big arenas that we were doing for SmackDown and stuff like that. I'm sure there would have been a thousand ways; there always is," Damo revealed.
Maybe they thought it was more important: Big Damo on Nikki Cross staying back in NXT
Sanity would have been just like any other three-person group in NXT without Nikki Cross' inclusion, and her absence was dearly felt on SmackDown.
Big Damo also spoke about Sanity getting lost in the shuffle in SmackDown's stacked tag team division that boasted an enviable list of credible former champions.
Killian Dain, Alexander Wolfe and leader Eric Young seemed to have just needed Nikki Cross to complete the puzzle. Damo noted that WWE might have felt the 32-year-old veteran's presence in NXT was more critical at the time.
As Sanity weathered a forgettable main roster experience, Nikki Cross became one of the top figures in NXT's women's division.
The 2-time WWE Women's Tag Team Champion was involved in a few prominent storylines and matches in NXT before finally completing a full-time switch to RAW in 2019:
"But like, we may be just weren't, we weren't seeing it that way at the time, maybe they didn't think it was important. Maybe they thought it was more important to have Nikki at the women's division in NXT because it didn't have many experienced girls who were ready to carry the load. They had done a lot of promotions over the years, a couple of years before that so, Nikki when right back into the women's division and was involved in a lot of big storylines, especially with Shayna, I remember. There were probably a lot of ifs and buts as to why these things happened. And I'm only really speculating because it has never really been answered to me," concluded Big Damo.
Could Sanity have succeeded had Nikki Cross joined the debuting SmackDown stable on the main roster as well?
Let us know your opinions in the comments section, and don't miss out on the second installment of Sportskeeda Wrestling's three-part interview series with the recently released WWE Superstar.
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