10 Best NXT Champions Of The Black And Gold Era

10. Bo Dallas

It seems appropriate to open this list with Bo Dallas as his time at the top of NXT was a real moment of clarity for the promotion.

To recap, Bo Dallas was a third-generation wrestling prospect that the company picked as their developmental system’s next golden boy. However, the cheery cheese of Dallas’ babyface schtick was a little too forced for most people. Thus began a story that showed the earliest inkling of NXT’s potential, facilitated by the fact that Full Sail University was a small and devoted audience.

To show their disinterest in babyface Bo, the crowd quite literally turned their back on him. Whilst Dallas’ opponents in Adrian Neville and Sami Zayn were no slouches, his greatest feud was with the homegrown audience.

It allowed Dallas to really show his range. He became a spoiled brat who thought of himself as inspiring but was really just an egotistical nuisance. He carried the NXT Championship at the height of his pomp and Full Sail fans clearly had a riot hating him, which came across on screen.

Whilst previous champions Rollins and Big E are absolutely nothing to be sniffed at, Dallas’ time with the title represents one of the defining gimmicks of NXT’s early developmental days.