2 Ups And 4 Downs From Last Night's WWE NXT (23 Sept)

Downs...

4. Eva Marie Losing The Battle With The Crowd?

The Eva Marie experiment is struggling. Right now, NXT appears to be shifting the narrative on All Red Everything (which is now, and will always be, a terrible nickname). A few months ago, when it was first revealed that Eva would be gracing NXT with her presence, the story looked fairly simple. Eva Marie used to be the worst worker on the Divas' roster (no mean feat) but after hard work and training she was going to bust her ass in the ring and slowly win back the crowd. Yeah, not so much. The crowds have not warmed to the flame-haired diva in the slightest. Instead, the personal attacks seem to have intensified. Eva's very public botch two weeks ago, where she forgot to kick out and the referee had to cover for her, have ramped up the heat on her to near-nuclear levels. The chants are getting vicious; alongside the standard cruelty of "You Can't Wrestle", the fans took to bellowing "All Botch Everything" and, "Super Dragon", which is the super-smark equivalent of chanting "JBL" on Raw. It's hard to know how much Eva Marie was ever intended to be a babyface - her entrance, aggressive in-ring style, and natural demeanour all exude 'heel' - but any redemptive quality of this storyline seems to be out the window, exemplified by the frustrating end to her match with Carmella last night. NXT have chosen to play up the narrative of Eva winning by chance rather than merit, and poked the angry fans with a countout. NXT fans are used to seeing actual finishes in their matches, and associating Eva with disappointment in that area is a risky strategy for NXT to pursue, but with the fans as vocal as they are, do they have any other choice?