10 Problems Nobody Wants To Admit About NXT
9. The Promos Are Not Good
They aren't terrible, either, though some performers are incapable of reading basic lines without the script racing through their minds.
The promos in NXT are functional, scripted, and lack any sort of authenticity and personality. That is because they are written on behalf of the performers. Adam Cole summoned Keith Lee on December 4, who spoke, as WWE stars do, in catchphrases and marketing speak. He acknowledged that he was a moment-maker and not a Champion, but rebuffed the charge by saying he was a "game-changer", which has the whoa-zing assonance of which the writing team is so enamoured. And realistically, any in-form talent could have come out with that. It said nothing of his character. Adam Cole again called him a moment-maker, and suggested that he and Lee make a "moment" "right here, right now."
Those five words are on the very first page of any WWE writer's style guide.
Elsewhere, there's very little humour - so little that Kyle O'Reilly has to mine it by trying incredibly, charmingly hard - and it's all so operatic. There is so much talk of dreams and destinies and moments that it becomes overwhelming and almost ripe for parody.