WWE and Triple H are giving their NXT stars a chance to thrive on the main roster like we haven’t seen in some time.
The brand is finally being used the right way. Future stars are being given the chance to hone their skills and persona in NXT — some getting meaningful cross-overs with main roster stars — and then having what they’ve built promoted instead of scrapped once they reach Raw and SmackDown. That included a hype video package on those shows after the draft.
Look at Grayson Waller. He was given high-profile NXT championship matches on his way out of the brand and even had a match with A.J. Styles. Since being drafted to SmackDown, he has taken his Grayson Waller Effect talk show with him and is using his gift of gab alongside the likes of Styles, Asuka and next week Charlotte Flair as guests.
Then there is Zoey Stark, who was a women’s tag team champion in NXT. After a vignette, a few backstage segments and matches for fans to get to know her, she was thrust to the side of Hall of Famer Trish Stratus, into a high-profile feud with Becky Lynch and a spot in the Money in Bank Ladder match. Though they did her a disservice by sending her out there with subpar material to get cooked on the mic by Lynch Monday night on Raw.
L.A. Knight got to ditch his Vince McMahon-created male model gimmick and he is now one of the front-runners to be Mr. Money in the Bank. NXT women’s tag team champions Alba Fyre and Isla Dawn and former champs Kayden Carter and Katana Chance were brought up to clearly bolster the women’s tag division — gimmicks unchanged. They will get the chance to be in matches with Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler. Cameron Grimes was immediately put into a feud with veteran Baron Corbin — though I’d like to see more of his NXT character come out.
None of those performers held the top-tier titles in NXT. If they are being treated this way, what happens when Bron Breakker, Carmelo Hayes, Roxanne Perez, Cora Jade and Tiffany Stratton make their way up? Breakker already got to cross paths with Dolph Ziggler in NXT. Hayes is in the middle of a feud with Corbin — which got some excellent promotion on SmackDown on Friday.
With Vince McMahon being less hands-on in creative, NXT is being used to its true, and best purpose now — developing the next stars for the main roster and promoting them without completely tossing everything they did on the brand away. Unlike in the past, those talents can now believe they will get the proper build and structure around them and be given the chance to succeed. NXT kind of lost that mission once the Black and Gold version chose to go head to head with AEW, keeping a number of its biggest stars off the main roster
There are previous exceptions to this rule, especially in the women’s division, but the list is just as long as stars who got stuck in neutral or with a bad gimmick — see Karrion Kross the gladiator, Doudrop, Max Dupri, “Bearcat” Keith Lee, Authors of Pain without Paul Ellering and Mia Yim as Reckoning in the failed Retribution faction.
Twenty-one men have held the NXT championship and just five (not counting Ziggler) have gone on to be a world champion in WWE so far. Fifteen women have held the NXT championship and just six have been main-roster world champs so far.
My gut tells me we will see that number grow with Triple H in charge, with more at the least getting to dance at the top of the card at some point. And if the talent doesn’t make it there, there will be fewer instances to blame bad creative.
Why The Rush?
An Adam Cole-MJF feud was one many fans had hoped and waited for, and when given the chance both men were on top of their game with a 10-minute promo segment on Wednesday that immediately got you invested. It was a pause-everything-and-watch moment.
The AEW world champion, who smartly put Cole over in a big way to start, may have resorted to too much material that felt a bit dated, pulled from the internet and like comic relief. But it was great to see him turn Cole’s scathing NXT promo on Karrion Kross back on him. Vince McMahon was even mentioned by name for allegedly not believing in Cole.
Cole then was able to make you feel he was on MJF’s level and maybe even better. He confidently went after MJF’s fiancée leaving him, if his new chiseled look was natural and, more importantly, that MJF knows Cole is better than him. It only hammered home some of the feelings we got from the Four Pillars feud that maybe only Darby Allin felt even close to ready for a main event spot — though the match delivered.
In one promo, Cole put himself strongly back in that position. And what do we have to show for it? An AEW world championship eliminator match this week on Dynamite that feels underwhelming after what we just watched. Because the chances feel slim of MJF losing. Maybe this lengthens the feud so we can get to or past Forbidden Door before MJF puts the title on the line as Cole finds another way to earn the opportunity. But if this was going to be their first meeting, why rush into it in the first place
The 10 Count
I get what WWE is going for, but making the women’s titles exact replicas of the men’s with white straps just feels lazy. Asuka’s belt for some reason says Undisputed on it when they didn’t call it that, and how do you explain the difference between a WWE women’s champion and the women’s world champion? At least SmackDown and Raw champions made things clear and promoted your brands.
Seth Rollins and Finn Balor delivered an excellent promo to set up their match at Money in the Bank. History, emotion and story were all made very clear. Also, Rollins really shouldn’t go down to NXT to answer Bron Breakker’s challenge. Rollins should say no and Breakker should keep showing up at Raw until Rollins gives him a match, or answer his open challenge next week.
“Jungle Boy” Jack Perry and Hook got the exact toughness points they needed out of a bloody and gritty tornado tag win over Preston Vance and Dralistico. Also, the more we see Hook get to really wrestle, the more we see how darn good and smooth he is in the ring.
We have twice seen Taya Valkyrie stewing in the back over Kris Statlander capitalizing on her softening up Jade Cargill to win the TBS championship. What I want to know is what’s keeping her from actually confronting the new champ? I don’t want to see it again without it happening.
Santos Escobar and Mustafa Ali put on the type of match that really makes you question Vince McMahon having Ali buried on Main Event all those years.
I felt like I was watching an episode of “Game of Thrones” or “Succession” with the tension between Jey Uso and Paul Heyman Friday on SmackDown. That being said, depending on where this goes, this might be one of the few Bloodline story strokes that doesn’t quite work. The only reason Jimmy superkicked Jey and costs him the United States title is because Solo Sikoa had to come out and attack Jimmy. Jimmy was clearly there to help Jey and Solo was not.
Thea Hail, 19, becoming the No. 1 contender for the NXT women’s championship was well done because it completed several story points from her training with Drew Gulak and Charlie Dempsey to champion Tiffany Stratton dismissing her. Pairing it with the Cavinder twins’ debut was a great way to promote it. Hail is the perfect underdog for Stratton’s first defense.
Is Aubrey Edwards going to wrestle in her ref’s outfit? We better get a training session on the Briscoe farm.
Good for AEW giving 23-year-old Skye Blue a surprise No. 1 contender win and a women’s world championship shot. It’s how you start to elevate talent.
Really digging Natalya hinting at a character change. It’s been long overdue, makes her quick loss to Rhea Ripley at Night of Champions make sense and maybe it finally gets her feeling like a main event/world championship player in a way she hasn’t been before.
Bonus: The four blocks for New Japan’s G1 Climax were released. Think we get Kazuchika Okada, Yota Tsuji, David Finlay and Hiroshi Tanahashi as our block winners.
Wrestler of the Week
Alex Shelley, Impact Wrestling
Shelley, 40, ending Steve Maclin’s first reign as Impact world champion at 54 days on Friday to claim the belt for the first time himself at Against All Odds was surely the most stunning result from last week. It’s the kind of feel-good moment companies often deny us as arguably Impact’s best tag team, the Motor City Machine Guns, both now hold singles gold. Shelley’s partner Chris Sabin won the X-Division title for a record ninth time earlier in the night.
Match to Watch
CM Punk, Dax Harwood, Cash Wheeler vs. Jay White, Juice Robinson, and Samoa Joe (AEW Collision, Saturday, TNT)
AEW is wasting no time teaming Punk with friends FTR (the AEW tag team champions) and getting him back in the ring for a main event. We may get an early look at where Punk is physically right now — and he appears to be in excellent shape — depending on how long he is in the match. It should be the catalyst for two new feuds, Bullet Club Gold challenging for tag team gold and Punk renewing things with old rival Samoa Joe.
