4. A Colorful Payoff
Say what you will about the NXT Tag Team Championship reign of Blake and Murphy, but the unlikely champs have served to greatly boost the profile of Alexa Bliss, who has gone from a smiling pixie to a snarling vixen in just a couple short months. Bliss role as the champs secret weapon has been well-established, leaving challengers the Vaudevillains with the task of finding someone to neutralize her, and they succeeded in delivering a great payoff that was a direct nod to the NXT fans: Blue Pants. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdHkESzbSeM For those unfamiliar, Blue Pants is indy wrestler Leva Bates, who mostly serves as enhancement talent in NXT. However, shes gained quite a following down in Florida, going far beyond what you might expect for a jobber. (Imagine Barry Horowitz getting Daniel Bryan-like reactions.) Blue Pants managed to counter Alexa Bliss, and the Vaudevillains managed to capture the tag titles, paying off the storyline perfectly.
Scott Carlson
Contributor
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.
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