7 WWE Acts That Peaked In NXT

No one quite knew what to make of Emma when she showed up at Full Sail. A ditzy space cadet with a goofy dance, she was a different kind of underdog character. Emma’s oblivious schtick made her celebrate her own awkward antics as if they were triumphs, be it her silly dance, or her awkward ring entrance. She wasn’t even phased by losing all the time. It was a slow-burn, but eventually the crowd bought in to it, cheering her on and doing the Emma-dance en-masse. The fact that she really owned her lame antics kind of made them cool.

That relationship with the fans took time to develop. When Emma was called up to the main roster she was thrown out there fully formed. The Emma dance was presented as something cool, rather than knowingly absurd. (Having Michael Cole do the dance was also the kiss of death.) The Raw crowd just didn’t get it, but why should they? From their perspective, the first part of her story got skipped entirely. Things got worse when she was cast as Santino’s girlfriend. When the Italian snake charmer got injured she was cast adrift, ultimately being sent back to NXT to make the new up-and-coming women look good.

Amazingly, Emma was able to totally reinvent herself during her second run in developmental. Evil Emma eschewed everything lovable about her old persona. She was sarcastic and mean and developed a whole new look. After turning in great matches with Asuka and Bayley, another call up beckoned. But no sooner had she returned to the main roster when injury struck! Emma still has huge potential, but two false starts are tough to recover from, especially with increasingly fierce competition in the women’s division.