10 Embarrassing NXT-Era Creative Failures You Totally Forgot About
Becky Lynch might be 'The Man' today, but her debut gimmick was a disaster.
Given the main roster's inconsistencies, it's understandable that NXT - WWE's workrate-centric island away from Raw and SmackDown's sports entertainment stylings - has become a sacred cow among the promotion's hardcore fanbase.
The black and gold brand has been a success inside the ring and out. TakeOver specials are never anything less than 'Show Of The Year' contenders, and the weekly show's simple, logical storytelling harks back to the glory days. NXT's system isn't perfect, and it occasionally throws up the odd bust (see: the recent Aleister Black 'whodunit?' saga and dead-on-arrival Forgotten Sons), but its hit ratio is remarkably high.
But while the past few years have seen NXT become a dependable creative juggernaut, the brand's earlier days were often rough. The writers often get a pass for the dross they've spat out over the years, partly because of what they've achieved since, but also for early triumphs like Bo Dallas' deluded title run and Cesaro's Full Sail sojourn. Still, their Little Shop of Horrors is surprisingly well-stocked, as we're about to find out.
You can be forgiven for forgetting each of these developmental duds, but they can't be erased from history...
10. Scott Dawson: Angry Mechanic
The vintage heel offence that ultimately got The Revival over as the most technically devastating team in pro wrestling initially had fans and NXT itself labelling them as 'The Mechanics', but Scott Dawson took embodied that moniker rather literally as he rose up the ranks on the developmental brand.
Doing jobs for the bigger names (and bodies) on the show for well over a year, he looked to be doing an entirely different job away from the ring. All oil-slicks and denim, Dawson seemed more comfortable getting under a car than he did getting over as a wrestler. It was thankfully never explicitly stated - the days of plumbers, clowns and binmen moonlighting as wrestlers remained confined to the past - but the out-of-work greaser look didn't particularly augment Dawson's red state hick schtick.
Leaked Performance Center promo class videos positioned a proto-cheerleader Alexa Bliss (more on her later) as his southern belle, though Dawson rode solo by the time he made it to television. It wasn't until he found a brand new kinship with the equally ignored Dash Wilder that the pair finally got their motors running.