8 Ways NXT System Might Be Setting Up New WWE Superstars To Fail

By Adam Blampied /

5. The NXT Crowd Is Unrealistically Smart

The NXT crowd are brilliant, every single week. They're passionate, throwing their support behind not only the roster, but the promotion as a whole. After a particularly great highspot they chant "NXT NXT NXT" in a display of rabid home support not seen since the days of ECW. They're also very funny, coming up with unique personalised chants for their favourite wrestlers, such as "Bayley's Gonna Hug You", "Nattie's Husband!" and "Sasha's Ratchet! No She's Not!" This is all wonderful for the NXT stars as it furthers their character development and their dialogue with their fans. Then they get to the main roster. And it stops. This is not to blame the RAW or Smackdown crowds in any way. The problem is they're just too big. As WWE has gone from strength to strength, the crowds have gotten huge, and while that's fantastic from a financial perspective, it can destroy the live crowds themselves. When a crowd is that big it can't really hear itself. Weirder, more personalised chants, if the majority of the audience are casual viewers are not versed in these newbs from development, find it much harder to catch on. The electricity and intimacy that comes with a smaller, smarter is sacrificed. Tyson Kidd found new life on NXT as a conniving bully, driven to distraction by the crowd chanting 'Nattie's Husband!' at him. That chant so rarely features on RAW or Smackdown though, but the crowd either doesn't know about it, or it's too big to let the chant properly take hold. Therefore, a huge part of his NXT character doesn't translate over to the main roster.