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.
Teddy Long snaps when Swerve Strickland's race is brought up HERE
