10 Mistakes WWE Must Not Repeat In 2017
5. The NXT Promotion Process
On the post-WrestleMania episode of RAW, Apollo Crews was introduced to the wider WWE audience.
"If you haven't been watching NXT on the WWE Network, then you don't know what you've been missing," spouted Michael Cole on commentary, doing as much to push the streaming service as the wrestler himself, when Crews made his way down the ramp.
The tactic was a lazy one. WWE didn't produce introductory vignettes, or elaborate much on the character's backstory, motivations or accomplishments. They knew that the knowledgeable crowd of fly-ins would react favourably to him, and hoped that would be enough to get him over on a permanent basis. Crews is the perfect modern day WWE prototype - a muscular freak of nature who can also flat out go - and that he is languishing in Superstars obscurity is an indictment of the creative process. This time last year, many proclaimed him as a future WWE Champion. He has been promoted, nominally, but his chances of that have somehow reduced.
It was little wonder that Daniel Bryan could not remember his name, rechristening him "Apollo Creed". The follow-up from his debut was completely forgettable.