6 Potential First WWE Feuds For The New NXT Draftees

When the news broke that six members of the NXT roster would be available to be chosen during SmackDown Live's brand split draft, the wrestling world did what we do and began running wild with speculation and predictions. Finn Balor, American Alpha and Bayley were pretty much consensus picks, and as we know now two of those three were correct.

The other four - Nia Jax, Carmella, Mojo Rawley and Alexa Bliss - were all surprising to a certain degree, following WWE's pattern of calling up people for random reasons that we're not privy to rather than choosing the talents who are most obviously ready for a shot at the main roster.

That means no Shinsuke Nakamura, no Bayley and no Samoa Joe for the time being.

As we've seen in the past, many of the NXT call-ups have disappointed greatly, going against Triple H's claim that he doesn't want anyone being brought up until there are specific plans in place for them. Recent wrestlers such as Tyler Breeze, Apollo Crews and The Vaudevillains have all either struggled or been outright failures.

Hopefully that isn't the case this time around and there's something on the table for each of them. No true wrestling fan wants to see any of these talents fail, but without the right programs to introduce them to the much larger WWE audience there's a real danger of that happening.

Let's take a look at ideas for who the six NXT draftees should begin their WWE main roster careers feuding with.

Now that the demon has been unleashed on Raw, it’s time for him to make an immediate impact. Fans have been pining for Finn Balor to get his shot at the main stage for well over a year, and if handled properly WWE has the chance at producing another big star.

As it stands now, Raw is painfully devoid of any top level faces and Balor is the best chance the company has at rectifying that problem. In many situations a slow and steady build might be the way to go, but not with Finn. They need to strap the rocket to him urgently, and hold off on him debuting The Demon until the timing is absolutely perfect. Less is more with that gimmick.

For Finn’s first feud, I suggest Chris Jericho. While he takes a lot of flak for doing nothing but put people over – a bizarre criticism if ever there was one – Y2J still has the credibility with the fans to make a program important as well as the skills to churn out some good-to-great matches with a variety of opponents.

One of Balor’s biggest question marks during his time in NXT has been his ability to develop a character that connects with the crowd, and Chris Jericho is a master of character work and the absolute perfect rival to work against when trying to tap into that part of yourself as a performer.

Finn Balor should absolutely go over Jericho in a big way before being promptly inserted into the main event scene.