NXT has a reputation as being a haven for great workers, but it's only partially founded - it's unnecessary to list all of the amazing talents who have competed for the brand in the three years it has been in existence, but beyond the men and women who have participated in so many great matches, the roster has been padded with the same sorts of wrestlers WWE has been criticized for hiring for decades. There's no more blatant example of WWE's infamous size bias than Baron Corbin. As a former NFL player and Golden Gloves boxer, Corbin has an undoubted athletic pedigree, but it hasn't translated into any sort of wrestling ability. Further to that, he hasn't got the physique of Finn Balor or Apollo Crews, the charisma of Hideo Itami, or the bad-ass aura of Samoa Joe. Yet, despite lacking all those key ingredients, Corbin has found himself getting a push in NXT simply because he stands on the north side of six-and-a-half feet tall. As former NXT Champions Neville and (to a lesser extent) Kevin Owens haven't found the same level of success on the main roster that they did in the developmental brand, it's scary to think that Corbin may receive the most generous WWE push of anyone in recent NXT history.
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013
