7 Ups & 4 Downs From WWE NXT: New Year's Evil (Results & Review - 2 Jan)

3. What’s Roxanne’s Deal?

What in the world is going on with Roxanne Perez?

The Prodigy has been on a weird trajectory for a while now, with the NXT plants, er, fans booing her at times while she’s been showing a more heelish, aggressive side. The problem is that during her match with Arianna Grace, Perez still was fighting from underneath like a babyface, and only afterwards did she unleash a heel beatdown – which was triggered by Grace getting in her face after losing to Roxy.

The entire scene seems like NXT is trying to add an edge to Roxanne or have her play a tweener rather than the pure babyface she portrayed upon her debut. But it doesn’t feel like it’s clicking. Are fans supposed to rally behind her for standing up to a heel? Or is the play that she’s unhinged and overly aggressive (as the match result was overturned because Perez kicked too much a**?

When a character’s direction isn’t clear and it’s not terribly interesting, that’s when you get apathy from the fans, and that’s what’s going to happen here.