is Seth Rollins the only person from NXT to make it really big?

[Wacky D]

Because you are a bytch.

thats something you should say to my face, fakkit.

you still following me around this board because I remind you of the kids who used to bully you at school??

 

[Novembruh]

What surprises me most is how many people not considered a massive deal in NXT go on to be superstars/higher-profile on the main show and vice versa.

Finn Balor was consistently over and won some things but he never reached the heights he did in NXT. Now he's back.

Alexa Bliss did little to nothing of note in NXT. She's one of the most accomplished and important women on the main shows (given how only three of them are important at a time).

There's a ton of examples.

Elias is a good example of that, too.

I have a theory on that, actually. The people who do well in NXT; they get their story told. They often come in with people caring somewhat, and that is parlayed into them building their character, their rivalries; telling their story, per se. And when they get called up, they expect people to already know this, identify with it, and care. And when it doesn't happen immediately, they try and hotshot a truncated version of their NXT stuff (see: Owens/Zayn, Sasha/Bayley) without giving any of it time to cook. So for the people who already saw the original, it's like watching a shyt sequel where everyone is going through the motions, and for the people who didn't see the NXT version... it's like watching a shyt sequel where everyone is going through the motions, except you didn't see the first movie.

Maybe now that NXT is on proper TV, that might change as to people getting called 'up'(lateral) and having the general populace at least have minor awareness of them, but... I think for the more part Vince's direction kinda wasted anyone with a deep NXT history, and it really speaks to the reality that anyone who ends up a top-level performer in NXT... probably should stay there, at this point? Turn it into WWE's PWG. Because at this point, that stigma is an albatross around the neck of anyone coming up to the 'main' for Vince, and I honestly think that's why Keith might not get a run - because 'former NXT champion' isn't something seen as a positive; clearly.

It's so dumb, too, because there was no reason Bayley shoulda gone up to the main and been booed within months; she was the most pure babyface since fukking facepaint Sting - naive idiocy and all. But they didn't want to tell the story to the audience, and without the story she just came off like a bright-eyed dolt who got fooled or got beat or was too well-intentioned to be taken seriously. Sami got that same shyt.

It's funny, but the thing that separates NXT from Raw/Smackdown is... cynicism. NXT makes people who watch it infinitely less cynical, so they can accept good guys, and clean finishes, and bad people getting their comeuppance and all the basic things that makes pro-wrestling what it is, because there is faith in the product to pay things off eventually, or at least have things you've watched, given time to and memory space to recall... matter. Instead of having two people who had a blood feud in the same calendar year on the same team making clean tags to each other because 'aLiGnMeNt' or whatever.

On topic: this was a stupid thread, made by someone who admits they don't watch the thing they inadvertently criticized, but hey. Might as well hijack.