6 Ups And 4 Downs From NXT TakeOver: San Antonio

5. A Glorious Champion

bobby roode nxt
WWE.com

As great as Shinsuke Nakamura has been as champ, he’s the wrong person to carry the NXT Championship at this point.

Nakamura is lightyears beyond the bulk of the roster in the ring and probably would be an excellent special attraction if he’s not going to get called up to the main roster just yet. Bobby Roode, however, is an excellent choice as a heel champ for others to chase. Even with a gutted roster, his jerky character would elevate just about any challenger, at least in the short term, in fans’ eyes. What fan wouldn’t want to see someone like Oney Lorcan or No Way Jose shut Roode up, even if they have no realistic chance of winning the title?

Roode is a great choice to lead NXT in the coming months, much like Kevin Owens and Samoa Joe were solid heel champs. It’ll be interesting to see if anyone gets elevated (long-term) as a result.

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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.