This past week was the tale of two different stories in the WWE. We were able to see some of the very best the WWE has to offer. And then we were able to see some of the worst. And who would have thought, the best was in the WWE’s developmental program NXT. The worst? The main roster’s offering from TLC this past Sunday.
Now of course, you can’t really blame the guys on the main roster for a lot of the WWE’s problems. I’m sure they go out and give their all every night no matter what crap they are handed. They can’t spin any of that crap into gold. And that’s one of my biggest problems with the current WWE product. There are a lot of talented guys currently on the main roster. But the writing team just can’t produce any good stories whatsoever. They don’t give us a reason to care about more than half the guys on the roster. It could be because there are too many writers with their hands in the cookie jar. It could also be that Vince McMahon has lost touch with what his audience wants.
Then there’s NXT. A show that has one hour a week of TV, and a big special once every few months. There are all of about three people writing the show down there. Two of them, Dusty Rhodes and Triple H, are wrestling people who have a somewhat decent idea of how to write a wrestling show. Not only that, but the talent roster in NXT is almost as good if not better than the current main roster. Sami Zayn, Finn Balor, Kevin Owens, Hideo Itami and Adrian Neville are all guys that could come up to the main roster right now and not look out of place.
Of course, there are also a lot of people that don’t want to see these guys called up to the main roster any time soon. What is going on in NXT right now is something special. There’s a great collection of talent down there. But we’ve seen what has happened to some NXT alum that have been called up to the main roster. Adam Rose has been a complete flop. Bo Dallas was on his way to being one as well before his injury. Big E hasn’t done much of anything on the main roster as well. All of those guys found their own niche in NXT. And when they got to the main roster, they were just lost in the shuffle.
That is why, despite all of the success NXT is currently having, I still have my fears about the future of these stars when it comes time for them to get called up to the main roster. Now I think all of the guys currently in NXT are more talented then those three call-ups I mentioned. But that doesn’t mean there shouldn’t be cause for concern. Vince McMahon has shown a tendency to get hot and cold with a lot of his current stars. Vince could decide to push someone to the moon then in three months decided he doesn’t think said star is over enough. I always go back to Kofi Kingston when it comes to points like this.
When you see what is down in NXT right now, you want to think positively about the future. Sami Zayn is the clean cut babyface that the fans would actually want to cheer. He’s what the WWE should look for in their top face. He’s a great worker in the ring and I can absolutely see the crowd getting behind him the same way they did with Daniel Bryan earlier this year. Hell, Zayn may be even more of an underdog babyface then Bryan was. Kevin Owens can get over as a face or heel. The same could be said for Finn Balor, but I think he will get over more as a face at first.
If you combined the current talent in NXT with the current younger guys on the roster, you would be excited for the future. Add the NXT guys with the like of Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, Bray Wyatt, Roman Reigns and Rusev and you have a pretty impressive roster for the next 5-10 years. But then you look at the state of the current product and you can’t help but worry. It has gotten to the point where you can’t trust the current writing team with any new star given to them. A lot of these guys have enough talent to get over on their own. But if the writers give them crap stories to work with, it will be a lot harder than it should be.
There was talk of the talent of the main roster trying to step up their game at TLC because they knew that the NXT special may have been the best show of the year. The problem is, however, that we couldn’t tell if they did or not because the stories involved in most matches gave us almost no reason to care. Instead of a silent protest, the entire roster should go straight to Vince’s office and demand sweeping changes with the current product. I know this is typically a down time for the WWE. But the product has been stale for almost four months. It’s more dull, repetitive, and lackluster than ever. When your developmental system is constantly putting on better show than you, it’s a major problem.
Looking at the talent roster, I want to have more hope for the future then I currently have. There’s a lot of talented wrestlers in NXT and the WWE. But the problem is, Vince McMahon doesn’t see that. He wants to see sports entertainers. He doesn’t believe in professional wrestlers. And until that changes, it will cause me and most wrestling fans to worry about the future more than we should.
Until Next Time,
Justin C
Follow Me On Twitter @JCWonka
