5 WWE NXT Rookies Who Needed The Modern Format

NXT is WWE’s best televisual output at the moment. With stories that make sense, performers at the top of their game with something to prove, characters who have developed personalities in front of a receptive crowd and cohesive announcing, it is an hour of wrestling that is a joy to watch. 

Which makes it all the easier to forget that NXT started life as something closer to a game show than a wrestling program. Wrestlers from the WWE developmental system were assigned pros to tutor them, and week after week they would take part in increasingly asinine challenges in order to avoid elimination. Matt Striker would bring down anyone garnering support, Michael Cole would deride the product from the booth and the whole thing was a shambles.

Over its five seasons a total of 28 superstars competed on the show. Some of these have lasted the distance in WWE, with Daniel Bryan now one of the biggest stars in the company, Bray Wyatt (who was on the show as Husky Harris) entrenched in the main event and Titus O’Neill and Darren Young sitting pretty as the tag team champions. 11 NXT alumni went on to hold main roster gold.

But what of those forgotten? If these 28 superstars had entered an NXT closer to the one we know today, would their careers have gone differently?

Here are five NXT alumni who could have benefited from being introduced to the WWE Universe in today’s NXT, as opposed to the NXT they found themselves on.

Derrick Bateman may well go down as one of WWE’s biggest misses of the modern era. He has the look, the size, the charisma, the ability and everything else that is seemingly desired for someone to be a WWE superstar, yet creative seemingly never had anything for him. He even did the hard work for them and came up with his USA Guy character (complete with hilarious vignette). Impact Wrestling has been something of a dud for a while now, but Bateman’s performances (or EC3 as he is known in TNA) have been a revelation. In WWE he mostly played the comedic yet serious babyface, but as the entitled, smarmy rich heel he has been the highlight of that show for some time now.

Bateman first appeared on NXT Season Four with Daniel Bryan as his pro. Their partnership was one of the only highlights of the season, and it was something of a surprise when Bateman didn’t finish the season on top. This was even more surprising considering the prize was a tag team title shot with their pro, and Bateman and Bryan were the only combination with anything approaching chemistry.

How would Bateman’s WWE career have panned out if he had been introduced into today’s NXT, possibly even with his USA Guy gimmick? A performer of such talent and ability almost seems tailor made for the show, and he would surely have been taken in close to the hearts of the Full Sail University crowd.