5 Ups & 3 Downs From WWE NXT Battleground (Review)

UPS…

5. Is Duke Evolving?

Duke Hudson Chase U
WWE

Either you enjoy the Chase U silliness, or your just roll your eyes at the concept of a college within a developmental brand.

With Andre Chase still sidelined, Duke Hudson has continued to fill in as a substitute teacher, but he admitted in a vignette that it’s “sucking (his) will to live.” So, he enlisted the help of Drew Gulak and Charlie Dempsey to teach catch wrestling to the students. The heels taught their lesson by using Thea Hail as a “what not to do” example, causing her to storm out and Hudson to leap to her defense, sending Gulak and Dempsey off.

This story has continued to meander and weave, as it seemed simple and direct for Duke to turn on the school (he didn’t), then to become delusional and go full heel as head of the school (he started, but now seems to genuinely care). It’s a strange path, but it still has followers on the hook, at least until Andre Chase returns to see how this plays out.

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Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.