10 Great WWE NXT Storylines You Don't Remember
8. The Ballad Of Blue Pants
Leva Bates wasn't a full-time NXT competitor. She was intended to be used as an enhancement talent when she first appeared in 2014, and she got the name Blue Pants from Enzo Amore and Colin Cassady (now AEW's Big Bill) prior to a match against their then-valet, Carmella.
However, Blue Pants gained fans within the NXT audience and parlayed a few initial appearances into a bigger role with the company. Most notably, we saw Blue Pants as a surprise appearance on the NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn card in 2015, when she came out to help the Vaudevillains win the Tag Team Titles from Wesley Blake and Buddy Murphy. The Barclays Center crowd anticipated the surprise of that one-off and popped loudly, both when she came out and when she neutralized Alexa Bliss.
It's refreshing to see a character get organically over and be rewarded for it, and that's part of what made this era of NXT such a breath of fresh air. Blue Pants made the most of every second of TV time she got, the crowd enjoyed her for what she was, and this served as a peak higher than many wrestlers will ever reach.
Blue Pants finished up with NXT later in 2015. In 2019, she signed an AEW contract, where she both wrestled (as The Librarian) and filled several off-camera roles until that contract expired in 2023.