7 Troubling Signs For WWE's NXT Call-Ups
1. No Structural Changes
Most importantly, regardless of how talented these NXT call-ups
are, it’s going to be extremely difficult to succeed if things don’t change in
WWE.
The problems affecting WWE aren’t rooted in the talent. We’ve seen a ton to top-tier talent get called up to the main roster, only to falter due to questionable booking, shoddy writing, and/or higher-ups just losing interest.
Just in the last couple of years, the following wrestlers have come up from NXT: The Revival, Shinsuke Nakamura, Bobby Roode, Chad Gable, AOP, Elias, Ember Moon, Sanity, Riott Squad, Andrade and Tye Dillinger.
Not all of these wrestlers were can’t-miss prospects, but most of them have run into problems or stumbling blocks along the way. Some – Nakamura, AOP, Revival, Sanity, Andrade, Moon – have been poorly written, poorly booked or flat mismanaged. It took Dash & Dawson nearly two years to get themselves straightened out and finally win tag team gold. Dillinger hadn’t been seen on TV in five months and requested his release.
This is the company that never has anything for Shelton Benjamin; that booked a distraction finish by having a manager p*ss on a robe; that cooled off a red-hot Kevin Owens debut in a matter of weeks; that dedicates multiple segments to a bland Baron Corbin but can’t find five minutes to build a mid-carder’s character; that can’t consistently follow up on angles and storylines despite having dozens of writers at their disposal.
So while we’re all rooting for Ricochet, Johnny Gargano, Aleister Black and Tommaso Ciampa, if these institutional problems in how WWE handles its talent doesn’t change, they could very soon become just four more cogs in the wheel.