NXT: How the mighty have fallen

[Vita]

Remember WWE NXT? That show you used to watch that used to have future stars on it? What happened?

Let's take a quick peek back, season by season, at the wrestlers, there highlights and there position within the wwe.

Season 1:
Wade Barrett - winner, former IC Champion, mouthpiece of two different groups, feuded with top stars, bright future
David Otunga - former 2 time wwe tag champ (henning and cena), mouthpiece for a top pushed wwe heel, brights starpower, positioned well, not great in ring, relatively bright future
Justin Gabriel - 3 time wwe tag champ (slater), great high flyer, mitb-esque star, never going to be a headliner but is from south africa, and wwe loves people from countries they can go visit. medium level future
Heath Slater - former 3 time wwe tag champ (gabriel), mid level talent, gets x-pac heat, good for a run of a few years - not the brightest future
Darren Young - dim future. relegated to nxt near end, unimpressive wwe tag team with oneil. looks to never break out on own.
Skip Sheffield - medium future. building as a goldberg type player. never know when someone like that builds into a batista (remember deacon batista?) great look
Daniel Bryan - former world champ, us champ, mr mitb. top wwe player, has runs of both heel and face left in him. as bright a future as there is.
Michael Tarver - amounted to nothing, released last year.

Succes Rate: Barret, Otunga, Bryan are locks for at least decent careers. Sheffield looks to be on the way to something similar. Gabriel has a long shelf life based off of 450 splash. Young and Slater TBD. Tarver is gone. minimum 4/8, maximum 6 or 7 / 8

Season 2:
Kaval - winner, released
Michael McGillicutty - former wwe tag team champion
Alex Riley - had a big feud at the time against the miz. served as a guard for then wwe champ miz. miz now in wwe dog house, riley lower than that.
Husky Harris - repackaged, yet to re-debut.
Percy Watson - slightly repackaged, wrestling on NXT.
Lucky Cannon - stunk. came back with a much better gimmich but was green. released a year ago.
Eli Cottonwood - green but tall. stuck in fcw.
Titus O'Neil - okay in the ring, green on the mic. a big player in terms of charities, which the wwe can always use (good press is good press)

Success Rate: Henning is a blue chip prospect, can go in the ring but needs seasoning. He's 32, so he's got some time, but not tons. In his favour is he's only been wrestling for 5 years, so not tons of injury issues yet. Riley is in a similar mold but 31. O'neil is also similar but 35, with not many years left ahead of him. Harris is only 24, and has the most time to season. Kaval, the best prospect, is long gone. Watson is 30, and has time. Cottonwood will probably never make it. minimum is 0, as conceivably nobody will even have a solid mid card career, with a maximum at 5 at most. Likely chance is you get 1, maybe 2.

Season 3:
Kaitlyn - winner, good look (according to others), not much done with her.
Naomi - is a backup dancer for a low to mid card act.
A.J. - is still sort of part of a big storyline with daniel bryan.
Aksana - forgettable character.
Maxine -honing craft on nxt. often steals show.
Jamie - released.

Success Rate: harder to say because they're divas. One should also take into account age, as they have a lot less staying power then the men. Kaitlyn is all around okay, but not great at anything. Naomi is only 24 and has plenty of time to grow, but can already work well. A.J. can wrestle, is pretty good on the mic and has been featured the most so far. shes only 25, so still plenty of upside, and her small frame and size make her look younger. Aksana is 30, which is nearing the time when divas are done. She can't work, so she's a manager at best. Put that in perspective for most of the young guys watching wwe, Aksana was born in Lithuania when it was part of the USSR, she'd have been EIGHT or NINE when the USSR fell in 1991. Wow. Maxine has some staying power too, and is young.

I'm going to give AJ a call on being a success right now. Kaitlyn has the next best shot. Then one dimentional characters like Naomi, Aksana. Maxine is the X-factor, you just don't know. minimum 1/6. maximum 4/6

Season 4:
Johnny Curtis - winner, was supposed to have a tag shot that never happened
Brodus Clay - funkasaurus - has a run with del rio
Derrick Bateman - is STILL on nxt
Byron Saxton - is in fcw
Conor O'Brian - also in fcw
Jacob Novak - is released

Curtis and Bateman are NXT regulars, which isn't good. Clay has a solid low/mid card gimmick ala Rikishi that he can use for basically his entire career. Saxton was athletic but forgetable. Novak has been gone for a year and O'Brian may soon follow.

Succes Rate: Call 1 for the Funk....and that's about it. Curtis and Bateman have a shot, the rest probably don't. minimum 1/6, maximum 3/6

I'm not counting season 5, because it's exploded into whatever it is.

SO

Season by season

1: 4 - 7 / 8
2: 0 - 5 / 8
3: 1 - 4 / 6
4: 1 - 3 / 6

talk about diminishing returns. and i'm being generous calling brodus and a.j. as succesful, as if they left today would anybody miss them like you'd miss barret or bryan? I don't think so.

I loved the NXT concept on start, even with the dumb votes, the stupid competitions, etc. I like giving lower card guys time to shine on the mic (I don't even know what the Usos sound like on the mic ffs) but this show has more than run it's course. Now it's not even rookies on the show. I have no clue what this show will be on the WWE Network but I'm not impressed with what it is now. compared to where it started.

So what are you thoughts? Think I'm off on a character? Think there's a dark horse? Have you grown to love NXT more or are you like me and started off liking it but now never watch it?

 

[Deezy]

The premise sounded good on paper, the execution itself was shit.

Lost interest after the 1st season.

 

[CaptainxBumout]

I actually really like NXT these days. I fine it sometimes funny and it's a great show for future talent to hone their craft. It gives rookies an opportunity to get used to the WWE crowd. Unfortunately most of the crowd doesn't care because they don't really know who anyone is. I liked NXT in the beginning and I think it would still be going strong if they never focused on challenges and just did wrestling. Mic challenges are good but physical ones are unnecessary.

I'm glad NXT is he way it is now because after the first season it all went downhill. I watch NXT for Curtis, Kidd, Bateman, Maxine, Gabriel, Hawkins and I just find it entertaining. Of course there are bad episodes like every show but I still watch it. I feel NXT and Superstars are necessary to help the new talent develop. I think Mgillicutty has grown tremendously since he first debuted and now he's putting on great matches with Tyson Kidd. A lot of people don't like the show and it's fine, the show is more for them than us.

 

[The Cork]

nXt is brilliant and way better than that turd of a show Smackdown.

The storylines make sense and are given adequate time to get over.

I'm convinced people just slate it without watching it, same with Impact, I guess.

 

[DashX]

Now that they got rid of the competition part of NXT the show is great. You are almost guaranteed at least one great match on the show, (usually Tyson Kidd's matches). You also have guys that are good but don't get to be on Raw or Smackdown showcase what they can do.

 

[Chris]

I actually really like NXT these days. I fine it sometimes funny and it's a great show for future talent to hone their craft. It gives rookies an opportunity to get used to the WWE crowd. Unfortunately most of the crowd doesn't care because they don't really know who anyone is. I liked NXT in the beginning and I think it would still be going strong if they never focused on challenges and just did wrestling. Mic challenges are good but physical ones are unnecessary.

I'm glad NXT is he way it is now because after the first season it all went downhill. I watch NXT for Curtis, Kidd, Bateman, Maxine, Gabriel, Hawkins and I just find it entertaining. Of course there are bad episodes like every show but I still watch it. I feel NXT and Superstars are necessary to help the new talent develop. I think Mgillicutty has grown tremendously since he first debuted and now he's putting on great matches with Tyson Kidd. A lot of people don't like the show and it's fine, the show is more for them than us.

I wanted to make a post but this guy stole my thoughts

 

[Dale]

The problem I have with this season of NXT Redemption was, not only was it a terrible idea from the start but once it lost that competition and challenge side of it and tried to become its own brand, it basically tried to become what Superstars SHOULD be. You've got random people showing up on the roster, people leaving the roster etc. Is a winner ever going to be announced or are we supposed to forget those 60 odd weeks happened and start with a new roster for this Full Sail project? The whole roster / TV show layout just seems a giant mess at the minute.

 

[The Cork]

Naaah it's subtlety turned from a competition into it's own brand and it's MUCH better for it.

No more stupid shit like carrying barrels around the ring or cutting promos about llamas, just straight up good matches and well thought out angles.

McGuillicutty v Kidd is one of the best feuds in WWE, yet nobody knows it. Same with Maxine being one of the best heels in the company. These guys need to be on Smackdown and Raw.

 

[Chris]

I agree with Cork. The way they did it is definitely questionable, with no real announcement and they somehow expect us to forget about the first 40 or so weeks of the season, but it's been SOOOOOOO much better since they transitioned into their own brand. Kidd/McGillicutty is a great rivalry, Maxine is a great heel, and other than the stupid appearance by Khali this week, almost all the matches are damn good.

 

[Rated R Superstar]

They need to get rid of Khali, waste of fucking money.

Also, the way I see it, if they are getting any kind of TV time on WWE TV, they're doing pretty good.

 

[The New F'n Show]

Don't watch it anymore so can't comment but only the first season has delivered Impact talent.

 

[Chris]

You really should start watching it again, Scott. It's usually better than Raw or Smackdown. Kidd vs Bateman vs McGillicutty was a great triple threat match this week.

 

[The New F'n Show]

Yeah may have to start checking it out again, only been hearing good things.

 

[rawisrey]

I don't watch the show, the only reason I've caught anything NXT related is because I'm still a Tyson Kidd fan so whenever I see that theres a match with him I'll watch it. NXT the concept I actually started with a meh I kind of stopped watching only because there was no real character to them. Everyone had a smile on their face and had random matches, just kind of got bored with it.

 

[Cwalker]

I watched the first three seasons, and after I Diva season, I was done. It's true that it hasn't produced anyone lately, but who knows what the future holds.

I've heard nothing but great things from NXT though. Kidd, Garbiel, Bateman, Watson have been great from what I've read.