I’ll say this first and foremost: I love NXT. It’s an amazing brand of wrestling that’s smart to the audiences’ needs, and takes an old-school booking philosophy and bedazzles it with cutting edge talent. Ok, now that that’s out of the way, let me tell you what is wrong with NXT’s, and further, WWE‘s approach to their developmental system.
Let’s explain the issue with NXT’s system by highlighting three of their current talents: Austin Aries, Samoa Joe, and Finn Balor. All three are exceptional in the ring. Aries is a dynamic striker and high flyer… the same goes for Balor. Samoa Joe is an artist when it comes to brawls, and his snug striking capability is second to none — everything he does looks like it hurts. (Probably because it does.) These three individuals have gained their abilities by performing at a very high-level on the international and indy wrestling scene. Aries and Joe were Ring of Honor and TNA world champions, and Finn Balor was one of the crown jewels of New Japan Pro Wrestling during his tenure there. This begs the question…
What the f*ck are they doing in NXT?
I somewhat understand the distorted thought process of having these men perform in NXT before eventually being called up to the main roster in WWE. They need to get acclimated to the WWE style. NXT is a proving ground of sorts for wrestlers, acting as a litmus test before they and their gimmicks get the call-up. We want them to help along the newer talent.
Here’s the problem with this: Joe is 37, Aries is 37, and Balor is 34 — they’re no spring chickens. In an interview that you can catch on Youtube, Svengali wrestling brainiac, Raven, said that every wrestler has a finite “bump card.” (He also said that the only wrestler that doesn’t have a finite “bump card” is Ric Flair, which is true.) If we were to go by this “bump card” logic, in which a wrestler has a finite amount of time his body can withstand getting thrown around in a wrestling ring, then WWE is doing a disservice to wrestlers of the aforementioned caliber by literally taking years off their main roster tenure.
Just look at the battles that Balor has endured while at NXT. He’s been bumping his ass off in matches with Samoa Joe, Kevin Owens, Apollo Crews, and Hideo Itami, to name a few. There’s no reason why Balor should have been subjected to the rigors of working in NXT — he should have made the main roster from the start, and he’s only several years younger than AJ Styles, who made his debut at one of the biggest PPVs of the year.
Samoa Joe is another talent that has no business being in NXT. Compared to the rest of WWE’s roster — with the exception of Brock Lesnar — he comes off as a believable monster. Joe is a master of ring psychology, physicality, and he knows how to sway an audience better than most of his contemporaries. Did I enjoy the match between he and Balor at NXT Takeover Dallas? Of course — it was a fascinating brawl that was only marred by the stoppages for blood letting. Still, despite my thoughts on their war of attrition, it was a bout that should have been on a WWE PPV, and not one on the WWE network. Their stars should shine on the brightest of stages. As for Aries, he’s proven that he can “go” with just about anyone. He’s a man of smaller stature, but he’s an excellent hand in the ring and on the microphone, and he’s above an undercard match with Baron Corbin.
Again, I have to reiterate that I do understand the logic behind the booking of these men in NXT. WWE and Vince McMahon are using NXT as a petri dish of sorts, testing the waters with their talents before they hit the sea swimming. Also, their talents can be used to enhance and help nudge along the younger guys. This kind of thinking, though, is the reason why WWE is in the shape that it’s in. WrestleMania 32 was a supreme letdown, and that’s due to WWE not correctly utilizing the talent underneath their thumbs. Imagine how much better the show could have been with he talents of Joe, Aries, and Balor on the card!
There are wrestlers that do deserve the NXT treatment, and those are the likes of Corbin, Tyler Breeze, and more superstars who (at the time of their signings) had yet to experience the mammoth audiences that WWE draws in. I would say that it was a good call to put Sami Zayn in NXT simply because he had to get used to not wearing a mask every single night. I’m also fine with Itami going to NXT, as he’s rarely worked for American audiences and television. As for Shinsuke Nakamura — I’m on the fence about that call. It’s obvious that Nakamura can have a stand-out match when called upon; the bout with Zayn during Takeover Dallas was the best match, by leaps and bounds, during the course of the entire weekend. But, like Itami, Nakamura might not be that comfortable woking for American audiences of this kind of size.
Even if you enjoy the NXT product — as I do — there’s no doubt that there are a handful of wrestlers who do not deserve to be on the undercard of a developmental system. More than that, though, WWE needs fresh talent more than ever. Their lackluster WrestleMania card was an open sore, one that points to the deep, unresolved issue of underutilization across the board. If NXT is the future of WWE, then why isn’t the future now, before that bump card is all punched out?
