Though World Wrestling Entertainment appears to be in the throes of roster cuts and the strangle of re-appropriating its company finances, developmental territory NXT appears to be for the wrestling first WWE fanatic a hotbed of incredible action. Within the past twelve months, from a broadcast a new signing standpoint, the territory has become a tremendous mishmash of top independent wrestlers and unique characters who have excelled at catching on with the WWE Universe. Now that these talents have all gathered in Orlando, its time to now pull on the fantasy booker cap and contemplate ten matches that WWE (and wrestling fans in general) would ideally want to see, and why. With KENTA, Prince Devitt, Adrian Neville, Solomon Crowe, Kevin Steen, Kalisto and NXTs established talents clicking on all cylinders, NXT is a dream promotion at a time that the professional wrestling industry for some resembles a nightmare. Thus, instead of focusing on talent cuts, promotions losing television deals, poor booking decisions or any number of a myriad of issues, lets focus on wrestlings most intriguing and inspirational of stories coming out of NXT. This is actually the best of times to be a wrestling fan. Heres ten reasons why.
10. Sami Zayn / Kevin Steen v. Tyson Kidd / Justin Gabriel
Having recently finished his contracted time with independent promotion Ring of Honor, it is expected that Kevin Steen's time in NXT is forthcoming. A husky yet athletic brawler with a more-than-adequate knowledge of catch-as-catch-can wrestling, Steen's signing to World Wrestling Entertainment initially seems an awkward fit. Most of Steen's career has seen him wrestle while wearing cut-off t-shirts as well as utilizing the "Package Pildedriver" as a finishing maneuver, a hold that involves trapping the arms and legs of one's opponent while delivering a vicious piledriver. Foremost, piledrivers in WWE are illegal, and as well, very few wrestlers have ever regularly worn t-shirts and been seen as main-event draws in WWE history. Given his plethora of "flaws," Steen debuting in WWE as a part of the larger issue between Sami Zayn and the new tandem of Tyson Kidd and Justin Gabriel would be a unique situation. Zayn and Kidd's characters are well-established, and the parameters of their feud quite defined. Introducing Steen as Zayn's "fellow Canadian" and "friend" would give Steen an immediate character boost out of the gate, and allow for some of his less-than-ideal WWE presentation issues to be overlooked. All it would take is one Steen hot-tag involving his uniquely delivered fall-away power bomb, and he could feasibly be off to a great start in front of a fresh, new crowd.
Besides having been an independent professional wrestling manager for a decade, Marcus Dowling is a Washington, DC-based writer who has contributed to a plethora of online and print magazines and newspapers writing about music and popular culture over the past 15 years.
