NXT Champion – The Strong Style Smark

Every NXT Men’s & Women’s Champions Ranked – Part 2

I’ll be going live on https://www.twitch.tv/strongstylesmark at 6pm GMT (half an hour after this article goes up), playing two games from my Game of the Year 2020 list, ScourgeBringer & Spelunky 2! I’d really appreciate it if you came along and hung out!

A couple of weeks ago, I started ranking every NXT men’s & women’s champion. There, we discussed the bottom half of the list with reigns that were somewhat underwhelming, but today, we’re covering the top half and get to relive the best of what NXT has given us over the years.

13 – Bo Dallas

Days as Champion: 260
Successful Title Defences: 5
Best Match As Champion: vs Adrian Neville (Ladder Match) at NXT Arrival

While he might not have the most significant legacy in NXT these days, Bo Dallas was the first NXT Champion to really feel like an NXT Champion in the way we know it today. He wasn’t the most amazing wrestler (though he could definitely put on good matches) but he was the first champion with a clearly defined character and style. That’s not to insult Rollins or Big E, both of those guys are world-class, but their NXT characters felt really vague and purposeless outside of ‘win’.

Meanwhile, Bo Dallas was a brilliant character. After floundering for a while as a cowboy(ish) character, he found his ‘Bolieve’ gimmick and the sky was the limit. His heel work is the kind of thing that we praise people like MJF for in the modern-day. A considerable part of its charm is that it would only work in front of an NXT crowd. I don’t think there’s any other crowd in wrestling right now that would literally get out of their seats and turn their backs on the ring to insult a wrestler they dislike.

Bo worked with moments like these to become a genuinely insufferable character. The contrast of the way he would joyously praise self-betterment (helped by his relatively soft voice) and the genuinely despicable things he would do to some of his opponents was pure brilliance. His title defences weren’t all that memorable, but he did have some good ones against Cesaro, Sami Zayn & Neville.

Truthfully, if his reign was in one of NXT’s golden eras, it would probably be remembered a lot more fondly, but it happened just before the wider IWC truly realised how brilliant NXT could be (myself included), so it has a bit of a forgotten legacy. However, that doesn’t stop it from being one of the greats.

12 – Rhea Ripley

Days as Champion: 109
Successful Title Defences: 2
Best Match As Champion: vs Charlotte Flair at Wrestlemania 36

Rhea Ripley’s rise was the kind of rocketing upwards that you don’t see very often but is precisely what NXT handles very well. When she first made the jump from NXT UK, it felt like a big deal, but she didn’t feel like the woman who would topple Baszler’s years of dominance. However, NXT set about changing that very quickly. Not only did she lead are WarGames team to victory from a 4-2 deposit, but she took it to the Raw & Smackdown women’s division at Survivor Series, and suddenly she felt like a megastar who could not be stopped.

Her match against Baszler was brilliant and everything it needed to be. Not only did it feel like a massive moment for Rhea to take her place on the throne, but it put a definitive end to Shayna Baszler’s stranglehold that had defined the NXT women’s division for the past couple of years. She launched straight into gear with a great match against her former NXT UK rival, Toni Storm and pushed ahead past the Royal Rumble, where a lot of hype started building around her title reign.

After Charlotte Flair won the women’s royal rumble, the idea that Charlotte was going to challenge for Rhea’s NXT title became the prevalent theory after both the other women’s titles seemed to have plans already in place. Immediately, this drew more eyes to Rhea as she put on a vastly underrated feud against Bianca Belair. I think for many, this was the feud where Bianca became a future star, rather than future mid-carder and the resulting match proved it, something Rhea’s contribution to cannot be forgotten.

However, the best of Rhea’s reign was still to come as she began her feud with Charlotte Flair in earnest. Not only did Rhea then become the first NXT Champion to defend their title at Wrestlemania, but she did it in what was easily the best pure-wrestling match of the entire weekend. I spoke about this match in my match of the year list, but it really was something special that proved how well Rhea could hang with the best, even though she took the loss in the end.

While her reign as champion didn’t last as long as I’d hoped it would’ve, what she did with her 100 days as champion elevated her and everyone around her. She proved that the NXT Women’s division had plenty of life after Baszler left and all of her title feuds were fantastic, so she definitely gets the nod on this list.

11 – Adrian Neville

Days as Champion: 286
Successful Title Defences: 9
Best Match As Champion: vs Sami Zayn at NXT Takeover: R-Evolution

It’s genuinely hard to believe that this is the same person as the utterly ripped monster we see on AEW currently.

Neville had the benefit of being the first NXT Champion to experience the joys of the fabled NXT Takeovers. These Pay-Per-View events for NXT that would produce some of the best wrestling of the past decade. While the early Takeovers aren’t the most memorable, I’d still put their main events on par with many of the more memorable ones, and Neville is a huge part of that.

While I’d argue Rollins may be a better all-round wrestler, Neville was the first NXT Champion that was allowed to having long main-event matches for the title that benefitted both him and his opponents. Looking back at the opponents he faced during his title reign is a laundry list of wrestlers who are so much better than they ever were on WWE’s main roster. It’s almost sad in a way, but the incredible matches he had with the likes of Tyson Kidd, Tyler Breeze & Bo Dallas are definitely worth a rewatch if you’re in the mood for it.

He was also the first NXT Champion to experience a proper character arc during his NXT title reign. That was the benefit of NXT back then, the writers knew their characters would have an endpoint of their stories. While that’s still somewhat the case these days, it’s a little more nebulous, and you have people like Gargano & Undisputed Era who have been in NXT for ages. Neville’s transition from a pure high-flying babyface champion into a character who, despite still being good, doesn’t mind taking a shortcut here and there was an interesting one. I know it was mostly only done to serve Sami Zayn’s story, but it still made Neville’s journey a great one to look back on.

With this placement of Neville, we see how unfair a list like this can be because while 11th place sounds low, he really was a brilliant champion. It’s just that NXT raised the bar year-on-year for the better part of a decade, so the people who came after him managed to surpass his incredible achievements.

10 – Bayley

Days as Champion: 223
Successful Title Defences:5
Best Match As Champion: vs Sasha Banks at NXT Takeover: Brooklyn 1

Bayley was the last of the four horsewomen to hold the NXT Women’s Championship, and I think it’s safe to say that her reign solidified the legacy the four of them would leave on NXT and the legacy they will leave on women’s wrestling when they one day hang up their boots.

Bayley’s title reign started off in the best possible way any title reign can begin, with the culmination of NXT’s best stories to date, not to mention my personal favourite NXT match of all time. Bayley & Sasha Banks’ rivalry in NXT is the stuff of legend, so much so that people spent 5 years begging for it on the main roster before it finally happened. Bayley’s first title defence continued that feud with the iron-woman match at NXT Takeover: Respect and it lived up to the second match’s hype so much so that many people say they prefer this match.

While Bayley’s reign would never reach those heights again, it still definitely stayed strong. Bayley put down a wide variety of opponents during her title reign, including Alexa Bliss, Carmella, Nia Jax. She even got a half-way decent match out of Eva Marie, which is a miracle in and of itself. Bayley’s title reign is like a who’s who of current Raw & Smackdown women’s division stars and I don’t think that’s a coincidence. When she eventually lost the title to Asuka, it was a big deal and a brilliant match, along with feeling like the perfect time and the perfect situation for Bayley to bow out of NXT.

Bayley was this eternally endearing character who you always wanted to route for. While the main roster would eventually squander this so much that they had to turn her heel (which led to another top-tier title reign), NXT Bayley was a bundle of purity that brought joy to all of our spiteful hearts.

9 – Charlotte Flair

Days as Champion: 1st Reign – 258; 2nd Reign – 73
Successful Title Defences: 1st Reign – 6; 2nd Reign – 1
Best Match As Champion: vs Io Shirai vs Rhea Ripley at NXT Takeover: In Your House

Being the daughter of one of the greatest to ever do it is no small shadow to step out of. It’s the kind of shadow that many 2nd or 3rd generation wrestlers have utterly failed to step out of (including Ric Flair’s other children), but NXT did something very interesting, but in hindsight, quite clever. Quite simply, for the entirety of her NXT run, she had no surname. It was no secret whose daughter she was, but they didn’t always draw attention to it and kept her just as ‘Charlotte’. Even on the main roster, they waited until she was an established superstar in her own right before starting to call her ‘Flair’.

As NXT Women’s Champion, she took Paige’s work in women’s wrestling and took it further than ever before. While she was still slightly constrained by the lingering perspective of women’s wrestling as a sideshow, she blazed a trail that was truly her own and made sure no-one could deny her star power. She was (and still is) one of the best female wrestlers on the planet and she made sure that her talents were never denied.

On top of that, her title reign put the spotlight on her contemporaries and turned the four horsewomen into the establishment they are today. Her work didn’t just elevate her, it elevated Sasha Banks, Bayley, Becky Lynch, hell, even Natalya and Summer Rae looked a hell of a lot better after having a great match with Charlotte. The Fatal 4 Way between all of the horsewomen remains their only encounter to date, and it was everything you’d hoped it would be.

Charlotte’s second title reign was very different. When she won the title, I thought it would be a lot more than it was. While I thought Rhea should’ve won at Wrestlemania, I saw the upside of having someone with Charlotte’s star power carry the NXT Women’s Championship, as it could elevate everyone in the division. Which sort of happened. Rhea initially looked really good with how she stepped it to Charlotte, but quickly became the unimportant player as Io Shirai stepped into the spotlight once again. Ultimately, Io winning the title from Charlotte was a huge moment, and Io has had a fantastic reign since then, but I was really hoping for more; and if some backstage reports are to be believed, the NXT writers were hoping for more too…

While her second reign was disappointing as a whole, it did bring us a couple of really great matches (including 2020’s best WWE match). Meanwhile, the roads Charlotte paved with her first title reign ensured that she will forever have a legacy in NXT as one of their best champions.

8 – Sasha Banks

Days as Champion: 191
Successful Title Defences: 4
Best Match As Champion: vs Bayley at NXT Takeover: Brooklyn 1

If Paige’s reign is where the rise of women’s wrestling started, and Charlotte’s is where it built a solid foundation, then Sasha’s title reign is where it became mainstream.

Looking at the title defences through each of these first three NXT Women’s Champions, the progression is clear as day. Sasha’s title defences were not only more frequent, but the matches average a longer runtime, especially on Takeover events. This was also when stories in the women’s division finally started to properly pull away from the stereotypical stories of friends suddenly hating each other, or the classic “you’re just jealous”. We started to see writing that was on-par with the storylines the men were getting, and it was proving a success.

Outside of that, Sasha continued to raise the bar that her predecessors had set. She took on all comers and looked like a strong badass as she did so. She put down Charlotte (twice), Becky Lynch (in what was inarguably Lynch’s best singles match in NXT) and Alexa Bliss in matches that were all a lot of fun to watch and of a high enough quality for a mainstream wrestling audience to finally start to take notice.

What undoubtedly put this over the top though, is Banks’ legendary feud with Bayley. I’ve talked about it a bit already, but it cannot be understated just how monumental this story and the match at Takeover: Brooklyn was in establishing women’s wrestling as the kind of franchise that the mainstream wrestling fans would not let WWE ignore. When WWE sit around patting themselves on the back for what a great job they’ve done with this whole ‘women’s revolution’ stuff, it’s moments like the end of that Brooklyn match that we can look to as the truly great moments.

While most of the focus is on Bayley’s story when it comes to this moment (and rightly so), there’s no such thing as a good underdog story without a proper villain, and Sasha Banks in NXT may be one of the best. Before “The Boss” just became a meaningless nickname, Banks carried herself with an indomitable aura that you hoped and prayed would be destroyed, but never was. Her entrance at Takeover: Brooklyn is the perfect example of this. Showing up in a black SUV with blacked-out windows and a swarm of bodyguard may not be the flashiest entrance ever, but it’s precisely what a character like her is made for. Don’t get me wrong, Sasha’s current persona is excellent, and I’m loving it, but this version of Sasha Banks will be the one I always remember the most fondly.

7 – Bobby Roode

Days as Champion: 202
Successful Title Defences: 4
Best Match As Champion: vs Hideo Itami at NXT Takeover: Chicago

Roode is one of the more forgotten NXT Champions, which I think is a real shame because he’s one of my more favoured ones. Ultimately, I think this is down to how WWE did absolutely nothing with him during his time on the main roster. When people these days say that Bobby Roode is a crap wrestler, as much as I disagree, I can understand where that perspective comes from, when that’s how WWE’s treated him for years. It’s perhaps one of the worst cases of mishandling between NXT and the main roster in history because Roode’s time as NXT Champion was brilliant.

While his entrance theme and overly dramatic Takeover entrances were undoubtedly the most memorable parts of his title reign, the truth is he had some really good matches too. They were never the flashiest affairs, but they always such a firm grasp of the fundamentals that they honestly didn’t need that much extra to be great watches. Roode cultivated this character who thrived on the understated and simple and his style reflected that. It’s styles like this that I point to when I want to prove that ‘wrestling heel’ doesn’t have to mean ‘slow and boring.’

On top of that, he had a great character. He was never the best promo in NXT, but he had a clear mission statement and the way he carried himself was all you need to know. The robes, the suits, the watches, it was a brilliant set of ideas that made him the ideal opponent for just about anyone. Whether it’s someone chaotic like Shinsuke Nakamura or Hideo Itami (KENTA) or a true of heart family man like Roderick Strong (before he joined UE, at least).

I will always be upset that WWE management never saw anything in him, because he genuinely deserved so much better, but at least we got this.

6 – Kevin Owens

Days as Champion: 142
Successful Title Defences: 5
Best Match As Champion: vs John Cena at Elimination Chamber 2015

The dude beat John Cena clean as a whistle while he was champion, what more do you need to me to say?

Following Zayn’s title win, Kevin Owens turned up. I don’t mean he debuted, he already did that earlier that night, I mean the Kevin Owens we all know today turned up. I know he’s a face at the moment, but the utterly despicable man who would turn on anyone and everyone he’s ever loved and use his words to utterly eviscerate them, that Kevin Owens turned up.

It was shocking to see him immediately contend with Zayn for the title because surely Zayn wasn’t going to lose the belt so soon after his remarkable win? Oh…oh no.

The match between Owens & Zayn was something we hadn’t seen from NXT until this point, and it was brilliant in how horrible it was. The way Owens kept beating him down with no remorse for his former best friend as Zayn just flopped around, surviving, but only just was heartbreaking. Owens became a monster that night, and a monster with a championship no less, winning the match via referee stoppage, which was incredible.

Owens kicked his title reign off with a bang, having a brilliant, but completely forgotten match with Finn Balor on NXT TV, before running through Sami Zayn again at Takeover: Unstoppable. Zayn had a bit more fight in him this time, but Owens still came out of it looking dominant, even if he was laid out at the end by a debuting Samoa Joe. From there, Owens’ title reign took a fascinating but very unusual turn.

In a surprise debut on Raw, Owens showed up to answer John Cena’s open challenge. He wasn’t the first NXT star to do this, but instead of merely having a great match and then losing to Cena, Owens put Cena down in a promo and then laid waste to him and his title. When a champion vs champion match was set for Elimination Chamber, I think we were all a bit sceptical. In 2015, Cena hadn’t transitioned yet into the great wrestler who puts over young guys that he is today, and people were still expecting the worst. However, we didn’t get it, in what was a genuine surprise, Owens hit Cena with the Pop-Up Powerbomb and pinned Cena as clean as clean can be.

From there, Owens continued to defend the NXT title on the main roster. He beat both Zack Ryder & Heath Slater in rapid squash matches and had a rather good match with Neville on Raw for the title. However, his title reign would come to an end quickly afterwards, as Finn Balor beat him for the title in Japan, where Balor made his name as Prince Devitt.

Owens did things as NXT Champion that no-one else has ever done with the title, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that he ended up spending less than 6 months in NXT before moving up to the main roster. However, the downside of that is that he didn’t have a very long reign, and while numbers aren’t everything, in the context of this list, it certainly causes him to drop a few places.

5 – Finn Balor

Days as Champion: 1st Reign – 292; 2nd Reign – 137+
Successful Title Defences: 1st Reign – 4; 2nd Reign 2+
Best Match As Champion: vs Kyle O’Reilly at NXT Takeover: 31

Finn Balor’s time in NXT has been a bit of a weird one, and I think my opinion of it varies quite noticeably from the general opinion of the IWC. While I could never deny that Finn’s run as champion defined NXT’s first golden era, I actually think his second (and current) run in NXT is far superior.

His first run with the title began in grand fashion, winning it in front of a Japanese crowd in the land where he made his name. He defended it in NXT’s first-ever ladder match, which was a great match, but will enterally be overshadowed by the Sasha/Bayley match that preceded it. From there he defended the title against Apollo Crews…via DQ and then battled Samoa Joe for well over six months. Truthfully, Balor and Joe never had a bad match, I was just sick of seeing by the end, and it brought down my opinion of Balor’s title reign.

Granted, NXT didn’t have the enormous depth of talent that they do now, but I can’t help but feel a little disappointed that Balor didn’t get to wrestle a greater variety of his opponents for what was, at the time, the longest title reign in NXT history. That said, Balor’s still in 5th place on this list because all of his matches were good-to-great and it was the longest reign in NXT history for several years.

What puts him over the top for me though, is his current run as NXT Champion. When he returned to the black & yellow brand, it was unclear exactly what his role would be. He fought for the title twice but lost both times. Then he turned heel and embraced his old ‘prince’ persona again, but with new wrinkles for everything he’s done since then. It seemed like he was mostly going to be around to have feuds with NXT’s up-and-comers, but the unfortunate circumstances surrounding Karrion Kross’ injury worked in Balor’s favour.

He beat Cole for the title and, despite only defending it twice so far, has already had a better title reign than his first if you ask me. Both of his matches against Kyle O’Reilly were two of the best I’ve ever seen either man put on. On top of this, the boosted credibility and profile of NXT these days combined with Balor’s heel persona makes him so much more fun to watch week in and week out, even when he’s out healing a broken jaw.

I have no idea where Balor’s current title reign is going to go, and maybe this time next year, he’ll be worthy of one of the top spots on a list like this, all I know is, I like what I’m seeing now, and he could even usher in a third golden era for NXT in 2021.

4 – Tommaso Ciampa

Days as Champion: 237
Successful Title Defences: 3
Best Match As Champion: vs Johnny Gargano at NXT Takeover: Brooklyn 4

The top 5 of this list were tough to organise, because they’re all so brilliant.

While the process for years in NXT was that people will eventually leave the brand and go onto the sometimes greener, sometimes barren pastures of WWE’s main roster, Ciampa was the first person who really felt like he’s an NXT guy for life. His feud with Gargano is inarguably the best in the brand’s history so far, and as much as Gargano was the face, I think Ciampa is the one who came out of it looking like one of NXT’s greatest stars.

In his seven months as champion, he only defended the title three times, which is something I’ve railed on other people for, and it did contribute somewhat to Ciampa not making the top three. However, all three of those title defences were truly incredible matches and some of the best title defences NXT has ever seen.

His first defence was in a Last Man Standing match against Gargano, in what was the last true match of their feud (I don’t count the cinematic one from 2020 because it was shit) and it enclosed everything that had gone into that iconic story. Gargano fought with all of his heart and soul, but at the end of the day, Ciampa was just tougher and smarter…and he didn’t throw himself off of a stage for no reason like Gargano did.

Next up was against Velveteen Dream in what remains to this day Dream’s best match in terms of wrestling action. Dream had been on the rise in NXT for a while, but this match was when many, myself included, sat up and realised that he could easily be the top guy on the brand if the opportunity arose. Finally, he wrestled Aleister Black in a match that was everything I wanted it to be and more. Two of the best pure wrestlers to have been NXT Champion facing off against each other and made for a brilliant watch.

Unfortunately, things would end on a bit of a bum note. As the finale match was set for Takeover: New York between Ciampa and Gargano, Ciampa would suffer a neck injury that required surgery and saw him out of action for over half the year.

The injury was heartbreaking and came at the worst possible time in terms of the story being told, but that shouldn’t be allowed to take away from the incredible run Ciampa had at the top. Not only was he one of the best-defined characters NXT had seen in years, with heel heat so genuine that for a while, they didn’t give him entrance music because the boos were so loud, but he was one of the best wrestlers to ever sit atop the brand of black and gold.

3 – Asuka

Days as Champion: 522
Successful Title Defences: 11
Best Match As Champion: vs Nikki Cross at NXT 23rd June 2017

After the four horsewomen left NXT for Raw & Smackdown, there was a lot of concern surrounding the division’s future. NXT had spent so much time hailing Charlotte, Becky, Sasha & Bayley as prodigies that there was a worry no-one would be able to fill their spot and make waves in quite the same way. In hindsight, it’s laughable we were ever worried.

It was clear from the moment she signed that Japanese star Kana (re-christened Asuka for NXT) that she was going to be a big deal on the brand, getting the ‘sitting in the crowd’ treatment at an NXT Takeover, which seems to be their favourite way of showing off new superstars. Her dominance was immediate, and it didn’t take long for her to build up quite the winning streak. By the time she won the title, she was so popular that people didn’t even mind that she had to take down the beloved Bayley to become a champion.

Asuka held the title for an incredible year and a half, defending it against just about everyone who was anyone in the NXT women’s division at the time. Bayley, Nia Jax, The IIconics, Ruby Riott, Nikki Cross & Ember Moon all stepped up to take on the empress of tomorrow and all were put down in some of the best matches the division had seen at that time. Asuka was untouchable, and the hype surrounding her managed to only keep building as her undefeated streak surpassed even that of Goldberg’s.

She got to tell some interesting stories in her time as champion too. She got to wage a brutal war against the unhinged Nikki Cross and told a compelling story with Ember Moon of Asuka starting to retain her title by any means necessary. Unfortunately, Asuka’s title reign would come to an end somewhat prematurely as an injury would force her to vacate the title after a record 522 days holding it. Whether or not this was a good thing is down to your perspective. On the one hand, this allowed her to drop the title without losing her undefeated streak that immediately gave her an aura of indestructibility when she debuted on Raw later in the year. However, it also meant that no-one in NXT got to benefit from being the one to finally topple Asuka, which could’ve instantly made a new star-like Kairi Sane or Shayna Baszler.

Regardless of how it ended, there’s no denying that Asuka’s title reign was one of the best while it was happening. She looked incredibly strong at every turn and was able to build up her opponents’ standing in the eyes of the fans, even when she was beating them. She really did it all.

2 – Adam Cole

Days as Champion: 403
Successful Title Defences: 11
Best Match As Champion: vs Johnny Gargano at NXT Takeover: XXV

For Cole, you essentially take everything I said about Asuka, add a large handful of the greatest matches in NXT history, and you’ve got your answer as to Cole’s position on this list.

From the moment The Undisputed Era appeared in NXT, they have been absolutely beloved by the fans, and with good reason. Although they are some of the more despicable heels of NXT’s current generation, they have this undeniable cool factor to them that you just can’t help but love. Their entrance music is basic but carries this swagger to it that dramatically enhances their walk down to the ring, and ‘Adam Cole Bay-Bay’ is one of the most fun things to yell as part of a live crowd.

When Gargano had his crowning moment at Takeover: New York, there was the feeling that maybe it should’ve been Cole’s time to shine. In hindsight, giving Gargano a run with the title, even a fleeting one, was the right move, because Cole didn’t suffer even a tiny bit from having to wait an extra couple of months. As soon as Cole won the title, he began his incredible work at the top. The title looked so perfect around his waist, and he put in some incredible work as champion.

Straight away he defended the title against NXT UK star Zack Gibson, and Akira Tozowa at Evolve’s 10th-anniversary show, which was a great showcase. He then put an end to his epic feud with Gargano in a three stages of hell match that was as over-the-top as it was brilliant fun to watch. From there, Cole ran through everyone who stepped in his way, often with the help of The Undisputed Era, but quite a few on his own merit. During this time, The Undisputed Era fulfilled their ‘golden prophecy’ where every title in the NXT men’s division was held by a member of the faction.

After a good feud with Matt Riddle, November 2019 rolled around and NXT was to be included in the brand warfare for Survivor Series, alongside Raw & Smackdown, which was a big deal. Cole showed up on Smackdown, and not only had a fantastic 20-minute match with Daniel Bryan but won the damn thing as clean as you’d like. Cole was one of the NXT stars who put on an incredible double-performance that weekend, participating in a brutal WarGames match, before defending his title against Pete Dunne in what was easily the best match of the night.

Cole continued to lead NXT into the new year, and even in the pandemic era, Cole put on some of the best matches out of everyone on the brand. He took out a returning Finn Balor and a returning Tommaso Ciampa in matches that were much-hyped, long-awaited and didn’t disappoint. His feud against Velveteen Dream defined a good chunk of the spring and was one of the highlights of that period until his reign would finally come to an end at Keith Lee’s hands in July.

Cole’s run at the top of NXT was the kind that hadn’t been seen in the men’s division of NXT for a long time, and it was sorely needed as many of the top stars moved on to the main roster. Cole and The Undisputed Era dominated NXT for so long, and yet it never got tiring, and they never felt boring, it’s no wonder that almost as soon as Cole dropped the title, the group turned face, people are desperate to cheer these guys. It defined NXT for a long time and put to bed any doubts about whether a guy like Cole could really be a top star.

1 – Shayna Baszler

Days as Champion: 1st Reign – 132; 2nd Reign – 416
Successful Title Defences: 1st Reign – 3; 2nd Reign – 8
Best Match As Champion: vs Kairi Sane at NXT Takeover: Brooklyn 4

There’s no way it could’ve been anyone else. Asuka may have had an undefeated streak, Cole may have had the cool factor, but no-one felt as indestructible and dominant during their time as champion as Shayna Baszler.

After being the runner up in the first Mae Young Classic, Shayna ended up jumping the gun on winner Kairi Sane and took the title from Ember Moon in reasonably dominant fashion almost as soon as she arrived on NXT. Many people at the time were expecting Ember Moon to pick up where Asuka left off and have a lengthy run as champion, but Baszler shocked everyone by putting an end to that early. In all honesty, Baszler’s first run with the title was nowhere near as great as her second, however, even though many of her matches weren’t the best, her character work was second to none. She came into her dominant, cocky (but could back it up) and nasty persona so easily, and it would only grow.

Baszler lost the title to Kairi Sane at Takeover: Brooklyn 4 in what is one of my favourite Takeover matches ever, but quickly took it back in another brilliant match at Evolution. This is where Baszler started to use fellow former MMA stars, Jessamine Duke & Marina Shafir, as her entourage who would interfere in matches for her, adding to her aura of indestructibility. NXT show so much restraint with heel groups interfering matches so that, when they do, it almost always serves the story in a way that enhances it, not diminished it as we see on Raw & Smackdown all the time.

From here, Shayna’s dominance and heelish persona would grow and grow, to the point where the NXT audience could cheer for just about anyone, even heels if they went up against Baszler. She understood how to get under a crowd’s skin both in promos and during matches, without sacrificing the in-ring action’s quality. She also had the fantastic ability to look vulnerable without ever looking weak. In all of her battles with women like Io Shirai, Kairi Sane or Bianca Belair, you felt like maybe they were just an inch away from toppling Baszler, and maybe if they had just one more shot they could do it, but Baszler still came out on top every single time.

Finally, Baszler’s reign actually got to feel complete by the time it ended. Not only had she torn through the NXT women’s division and beaten everyone there is to beat, but she actually got to lose the title to a fast-rising star, so someone gets to benefit from everything she built up. Rhea Ripley became a star pretty much overnight, and the timing was perfect for her to be the one to finally put an end to almost two years of Baszler’s dominance. The moment when Rhea won the title was a fantastic climax and one of the highlights of 2019, and that was only possible thanks to the unmatched title reign Baszler had leading up to it.

While Baszler was champion she had the best matches, did the best character work, elevated everyone she stepped in the ring with, and capped it all off by making a brand new white-hot star in Rhea Ripley. That, my friends, is what a perfect title reign looks like.

So there you have it! Thank you very much for taking the time to read this post. As another reminder, I will be going live very shortly after this article is posted, so please check out https://www.twitch.tv/strongstylesmark if you haven’t already. Finally, make sure to come back here this time next week, where my coverage of the Royal Rumble will begin with predictions!

Every NXT Men’s & Women’s Champion Ranked – Part 1

PROGRAMMING NOTE: I’m going to be trying my hand at streaming, starting next Saturday at 6pm GMT, because, quite frankly, I’ve got nothing better to do right now. I’m going to be playing a variety of indie games for the first time, along with a few classics that I love. If you’re interested, then please swing by twitch.tv/strongstylesmark and hit the follow button to be notified when I go live!

Ahh NXT. When the world of Raw & Smackdown makes it feel like wrestling will never be good ever again (which doesn’t happen all the time, although sometimes it does feel like it) there’s always the warm black and gold glow of Full-Sail University gently sits you down and reminds you that: “Hey! Wrestling’s fun and you enjoy watching it!” Whether it’s compelling storytelling or five-star matches, NXT has just about everything you could want from a modern-day wrestling promotion and no-one better embodies that than it champions.

Between the main Men’s and Women’s Championships, 25 different wrestlers have stood at the top of the brand at some point in their career and each of them brought their own unique style and flair to the title. That said, as is the case with everything in life, not all of them were equal, and it’s always going to be someone’s job to file their opinions on these titles reigns in the form of a ranked list.

As for what criteria I’m ranking these on, it’s a combination of hard stats (days as champion, number of defences etc.) and my personal feelings of the quality of storylines and matches they had while champion. Whatever they did outside of their title reign is irrelevant, all that matters is what they did when the gold was around their waist.

I also won’t be including Io Shirai in this list, nor will I count Karrion Kross. In Io’s case, I don’t think it’s fair to judge a title reign before it’s over, while in Kross’ case, the injury was a tragedy, and the 4 days he held the title wasn’t representative of what was planned for him. All-in-all, I just think it would be mean to put him on the bottom spot of this list when it wasn’t his fault his reign was so short.

With those caveats made, let’s get started.

26 – Kairi Sane

Days as Champion: 71
Successful Title Defences: 0
Best Match As Champion: vs Shayna Baszler at NXT Takeover: Brooklyn IV

Kairi Sane had the unfortunate distinction of being a hot up-and-comer in the NXT Women’s division during Shayna Baszler’s run of dominance. While this time was terrific for the NXT Women’s division as a whole, with countless incredible matches, very few women ever got a taste of the gold. However, the only woman who managed to interrupt Baszler’s time at the top for a little while was Kairi Sane.

Sane won the title from Baszler in one of the best matches of that year and was just one chapter in the fantastic rivalry the two had. Given who was on the NXT Women’s roster at the time, there was all the potential in the world for Sane to spend a year going around and having brilliant matches with everybody in sight, especially after Io Shirai burst onto the scene. Unfortunately for Sane, Baszler had so much potential, and NXT management saw more money putting the title back on Bazler.

So, at Evolution, without a single title defence under her belt, Kairi Sane lost the title back to Shayna Baszler. Again, the match was great, and Baszler would do great things with the title, but it was disappointing for Sane. It’s an unfortunate scenario of a wrestler being in the wrong place at the wrong time, meaning their chance at crowning glory was swept to one side for someone else.

25 – Johnny Gargano

Days as Champion: 57
Successful Title Defences: 0
Best Match As Champion: vs Adam Cole at NXT Takeover: XXV

Well, if you want a ‘victim of circumstance’ look no further…

Gargano’s title reign should’ve been so much grander. It should’ve felt like the culmination of the whole previous era of NXT. From the moment Ciampa threw Gargano into the LED screen at Chicago in 2017, it had felt like Gargano has NXT Champion was NXT’s new endgame. Then the world intervened, and NXT had to adapt and create something different. Which unfortunately left Gargano in the dust.

The match where Gargano won the title at Takeover New York was fantastic, but it should’ve been so much more. When the finale of the Gargano vs Ciampa series was set for the show, it felt like we were finally going to reach the end of this story. The characters had changed and adapted over the years, but they were still the same people, and they still had business to settle. Then, tragedy struck, and Ciampa got injured. Adam Cole came in as the replacement and – as I said – the match was one of the best of that year, but the moment when Gargano won the title didn’t feel like the massive payoff it would’ve if it was against Ciampa. In fact, once the match changed many fans, myself included, turned against Gargano and was rooting for Cole to win the title instead.

Seeing their best-laid plans fall directly into the bin, NXT management did what they do best and adapted. They didn’t stubbornly stay the course, they changed tactics and during the rematch a couple of months later. Cole took the title from Gargano, ending a completely empty reign. Once again, the match was one of the best NXT has ever produced, and it started off a fantastic title reign for Cole (more on that later), but it left Gargano with nothing to do from that point onwards. He’s managed to find a better character angle to take now, but it took almost a year to get there.

The only thing that separates this title reign from Kairi Sane’s down at the bottom is that Gargano’s matches where he won and lost the title were better. Other than that it’s just two faces that should’ve had everything but, thanks to circumstances beyond their control, ended up with almost nothing.

24 – Keith Lee

Days as Champion: 52
Successful Title Defences: 1
Best Match As Champion: vs Dominik Dijakovic on NXT 15th July 2020

Well, this was a disappointment.

For context, when I started writing this list, Lee hadn’t even won the title yet. It was during the build to The Great American Bash, and there were high hopes for Lee to have a dominant run at the top of NXT.

I think the main problem with Lee’s title reign is that it came just a little too late in his run. Lee spent about a year doing practically nothing of note in NXT until he suddenly hit the big time in 2019. He had that star-making performance against Roman Reigns & Seth Rollins at Survivor Series. He spent the first half of 2020 blowing everyone away with his defences of his North American Championship. Realistically, he probably should’ve taken the title from Cole in the spring.

By the time Lee won the title, two things had happened. First, those behind the wheel on Raw realised what a ready-made star they had on their hands with Lee, and they wanted a piece. Second was that an absolute monster had arrived in NXT by the name of Karrion Kross, and there was no way he was doing anything other than shooting straight to the top.

There was at least some good story during his reign, I loved the rivalry turned friendship that Lee & Dijakovic have shared over the past year, and it was brilliant to play that into Lee’s feud with Kross. In addition, at least Lee got to defend the title at least once, which puts him over both of the other champions we’ve covered so far. As disappointing as it was for Lee to lose the title so quickly, he’s absolutely killing it on Raw right now, and we’ll always have that euphoric visual of him holding up both titles amongst the confetti.

23 – Drew McIntyre

Days as Champion: 91
Successful Title Defences: 2
Best Match As Champion: vs Andrade “Cien” Almas at NXT Takeover: WarGames

It pains me to do this, it really does.

Being a man who had already seen success in WWE prior to his 2017 run in NXT, it always felt like Drew was never going to stick around for very long down at the Performance Center. Not only had he already been an established WWE star before his 2015 release, but he’d come back looking like one of the toughest tough guys to ever be tough, of course Vince was going to decide he wanted a piece of that action on Raw & Smackdown sooner rather than later.

This meant that, despite coming into NXT full of fire and taking the title from Bobby Roode in an excellent match, he didn’t really get much of an opportunity to do anything exciting with the championship while he was holding it. While the 91-day length is longer than several other entries on this list, he didn’t get a chance to show what he can really do in any of those 91 days. Both of his successful title defences were on NXT TV, rather than at a Takeover, which meant that they didn’t have that atmosphere or drive that takes NXT matches to the next level despite both being excellent.

When he lost the title to Andrade, it came as a surprise to many, myself included, as it felt like his reign was only just kicking into gear. As it turned out, even if he had won that match it wouldn’t have made a difference, as Drew suffered an arm injury in that match and was out of action until Spring of 2018 when he showed up on Raw.

Drew Mcintyre is a brilliant wrestler who deserves all the success he is currently experiencing in his career; however, he left no lasting impact whatsoever when it comes to NXT.

22 – Samoa Joe

Days as Champion: 1st Reign – 121; 2nd Reign – 13
Successful Title Defences: 1st Reign – 1; 2nd Reign – 0
Best Match As Champion: vs Finn Balor (Steel Cage) at NXT Takeover: The End

Given that Joe was the first-ever two-time NXT Champion in history, you’d surely expect him to be a lot higher on this list than fourth from bottom. However, let me ask you a question: What did Joe actually do with the title? Seriously, what did he do during his time as champion to leave any impact whatsoever on NXT? The answer, my friends, is nothing.

For one thing, Joe’s title win wasn’t even televised. For context, by this point in 2016, Joe & Balor had been feuding for ages, and Joe had come out on the losing end every single time. At both London & Dallas, Balor had put Joe away cleanly, walking away with the title both times. Then suddenly one night, on an untelevised house-show, Joe wins the title from Balor. It wasn’t a botch, this was a genuine booking decision made by NXT management. Now, title changes happen on house-shows once every couple of years or so (usually at Madison Square Garden), and it’s always fun when it does. However, in Joe’s case, it felt a bit underwhelming, especially after he’d failed to win the title so many times before.

Joe’s 121 days to his first title reign may sound impressive, but don’t let that fool you, nothing of interest happened during that time. He defended the title against Balor in a Steel Cage, in a good match, but nothing extraordinary. Then Shinsuke Nakamura burst onto the title scene, they feuded for two months, and when they finally had a match, Nakamura won the title, just like that.

“But what about his second title reign?” I hear you ask. Well, it lasted about as long as this sentence.

Joe won the title back from Nakamura at Takeover: Toronto in a shocking moment. However, this title reign lasted an upsettingly short 13 days. The only reason Joe even won the title back is that NXT was doing a show in Nakamura’s home country of Japan in a couple of weeks and they wanted Nakamura to win back the title there. That’s honestly it. Joe left NXT shortly afterwards, and it honestly felt as if he’d never been there in the first place. It seemed like him having the NXT title was more just something for him to have on his resume when he went up to the main roster. I honestly don’t think the history of NXT would have looked any different if the title had gone directly from Balor to Nakamura instead of using Joe as a stop-gap.

21 – Shinsuke Nakamura

Days as Champion: 1st Reign – 91; 2nd Reign – 56
Successful Title Defences: 1st Reign – 0; 2nd Reign – 1
Best Match As Champion: vs Bobby Roode at NXT Takeover: San Antonio

I seriously considered having Joe & Nakamura share a slot to be entirely honest with you because I have very similar things to say about them. As great as we know Nakamura can be, I don’t think he left much of an impact on NXT while champion. His best work on the brand all came before he won the title. His match against Finn Balor was one of the last stepping stones before he challenged for the title and his match with Sami Zayn (his unquestionably best match in NXT) was his debut.

By the time he’d actually won the title, it felt like NXT was ready to move onto the next era. They were starting to sign a bunch of big names left-and-right, and with no secondary title, they rushed a bunch of them to the title too quickly. In fact, Joe & Nakamura are great examples of this. They both should’ve had long and fruitful reigns with the title, but they rose to the top at almost the exact same time, which meant they both dragged each other down.

The story with Nakamura’s title reigns is just as dull as Joe’s. He won it from Samoa Joe at Takeover: Brooklyn II, lost it back to Joe at Takeover: Toronto, before winning it back again in a taped match from Japan. A few weeks later, their feud finally ended when Nakamura beat Joe in a Steel Cage in Melbourne. It’s worth noting that all of these matches were good, it’s just that it had got very tiresome by the end, and I now look less fondly on the earlier matches as a result.

Finally, Nakamura was free of Samoa Joe and could move on to defend the title against NXT’s best a brightest…or not. Nakamura surprisingly lost the title at Takeover: San Antonio to Bobby Roode…and that was that. He lost a rematch to Roode in Orlando and showed up on Smackdown later that week. Thankfully, Roode would break this cycle and be a far superior champion, but it meant that Nakamura’s legacy in NXT is quite a disappointing one.

20 – Sami Zayn

Days as Champion: 62
Successful Title Defences: 1
Best Match As Champion: vs Adrian Neville at NXT Takeover: R Evolution

Sami Zayn’s title win marked the end of the first era of NXT. It was the biggest story the brand had ever had, and Zayn’s title win represented the culmination of it. It was the point where many fans finally turned their heads and started paying attention to the black & gold brand. The great thing about Takeover: R Evolution though, is that it didn’t just culminate a great story, it immediately started a new one.

Immediately getting annihilated by his best friend Kevin Owens, Zayn had a red-hot storyline to kick off his title reign. He put on a good show in his rematch with Neville shortly after he won it, but following that, it was all Kevin Owens. NXT had taken it’s biggest babyface and given him a rival that had everything. Not only are they real-life best friends, and thus know each other better than anyone, but they’ve both got unmatched microphone skills and storytelling ability. It was that storytelling ability that pulled Zayn’s title reign up a few places from where it should realistically be.

When you look at the bare facts of how Zayn’s title reign ended, it sounds like a travesty. The biggest babyface NXT ever had up until that point got absolutely annihilated, to the point where the referee called for the bell, handing the title to the new monster heel, barely two months into his title reign. The thing is though it was brilliant. Zayn as a face is undoubtedly a character that benefits from getting arse kicked, and the story surrounding it meant that this outcome made sense. Owens knew Zayn’s in-ring style inside and out, while Owens had totally transformed himself into a killing machine. There was nothing Zayn could do to get one over on Owens, and it made all the sense in the world.

However, as great as the story was, it doesn’t change the fact that Zayn lost the title after barely having a cup of coffee with it.

19 – Big E Langston

Days as Champion: 168
Successful Title Defences: 2
Best Match As Champion: vs Seth Rollins at NXT 6th December 2012

When looking back on the history of NXT, the early champions are always pretty hard to rank, because the only thing that connects 2012-2014 NXT to 2015-present NXT, is the name – apart from that, they may as well be two completely separate entities.

As it stood, Big E was a big dominant guy who had an undefeated streak, and that was pretty much it. The fun & exciting part came from where he demanded that the referee count 5 on his pinfalls instead of three. A fun little gimmick at first, but it’s not a great deal to go on. This was before the NXT writers room was full of the most inspired storytellers in the business, and was instead just a bunch of guys that weren’t ready to write for Raw yet.

He dethroned Rollins to become the second-ever NXT Champion, as Rollins was a bit busy being one-third of the newly debuted Shield at the time. Then we hit our next stumbling block with this era of NXT, because, although Big E held the title all the way from the start of December through to the end of May, he only defended the title three times, with minimal story going into any of them.

He dispatched of Conor O’Brian (who would later become one half of The Ascension…and put a ‘K’ at the front of his name for some reason) sometime in March. A few weeks later he beat Brad Maddock (yes, the guy who was Raw GM so briefly you’d almost certainly forgotten about it) in under 90 seconds. Then Bo Dallas came around, and that was that. Big E had already debuted on the main roster by this point as Dolph Ziggler’s lackey, and there was very little value in him being NXT Champion anymore.

I think Big E definitely has some decent role in establishing NXT for the success it would later see, but I can’t say that what he did with the title was particularly impressive.

18 – Ember Moon

Days as Champion: 140
Successful Title Defences: 3
Best Match As Champion: vs Shayna Baszler at NXT Takeover: New Orleans

Based on the numbers, you might think Ember should be a bit higher up on the list, but as much as she had an enjoyable run as champion, I don’t feel like she left much of an impact on the brand.

In 2017, it felt like Ember Moon was to be the successor to Asuka’s throne. It’s hard to say whether or not she would’ve eventually overcome Asuka had The Empress of Tomorrow never gotten injured, but the general feeling was that Ember Moon was going to be sitting on top of the NXT Women’s division for quite a while. Sadly, she fell short of these expectations, not because of any fault of hers, but because she was surrounded by some extremely hot prospects.

When Ember Moon won the NXT Women’s Championship, it wasn’t too far out from the very first Mae Young Classic tournament ending, which meant that there was a fresh crop of incredible women’s wrestlers waiting for their time to shine in NXT. Ember was delayed in winning the title to begin with, thanks to the insanely hot run Asuka found herself on, but once Ember got a hold of the title, there were some high expectations.

Her first defence of the title was against Sonya Deville on an episode NXT in November. It was a good match, but it was only 7 minutes long and served more to be a mini-showcase for Sonya Deville than anything substantial. Then Ember ran into the woman who would cause her run at the top to be cut short: Shayna Baszler. Admittedly, Baszler was nowhere near as dominant as she would later become just yet, but anyone with half a brain could see all the potential in the world, so her winning the title was very much a matter of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’.

Moon successfully defended the title against Baszler twice, however, both times it was by the skin of her teeth; one via an opportunistic rollup and the other via DQ. On top of that, Baszler laid waste to Ember at every opportunity. Great for the purposes of building Baszler up as the next big thing, not so great for Ember and her title reign, which would end at Takeover: New Orleans with relatively little fanfare.

As great as Ember Moon had the potential to be as champion, the way history has played out, her legacy is entirely overshadowed by the two dominant forces that surrounded her in the form of Asuka & Shayna Baszler.

17 – Seth Rollins

Days as Champion: 133
Successful Title Defences: 3
Best Match As Champion: vs Big E Langston at NXT 6th December 2012

Rollins gets a prestige boost by virtue of being the first champion, but that doesn’t carry him far.

If I’m being entirely honest, my thoughts of Rollins as champion are very similar to my thoughts on Big E’s time as champion. The difference here being Rollins at least wrestled for a lot longer during his title defences. Admittedly, that’s not much of a benefit when his main rival was Jinder Mahal, but it’s still got to count for something.

Defeating Jinder Mahal in the finals of a tournament, Rollins was chosen as the very first man to carry the black and gold brand to glory, and he did an admirable job for the upstart promotion. His first title defence was against Michael McGillicutty – who would later come to be known as Curtis Axel – and while it wasn’t anything incredible, it was a better match than you’re probably thinking it was.

Rollins then didn’t do much of anything for a few months, until Jinder Mahal came sniffing around once again, looking for vengeance. Following this match, Rollins debuted on the main roster as part of The Shield, and the writing was on the wall for his title reign. At the next set of tapings, he lost via DQ to Corey Graves in 5 minutes, then lost the title to Big E.

Much like Big E, Rollins held the title for a decent number of days and defended the title cleanly in decent matches. That, alongside being the very first champion gives him a slightly grander legacy as champion than most from this era, but that really isn’t saying much in the grand scheme of things.

16 – Aleister Black

Days as Champion: 108
Successful Title Defences: 2
Best Match As Champion: vs Tommaso Ciampa at NXT 18th December 2018

Aleister Black was such a dominant force in NXT for so long that I always find it quite surprising looking back at his title reign because it’s so boring. He’s one of those people who ended up doing most of his best work before and after his time as champion. All of his best matches (vs Velveteen Dream, vs Johnny Gargano, w/ Ricochet vs War Raiders) happened without the championship over his shoulder.

His victory against Almas was a good one, but it didn’t main event the show, as that slot was (quite rightly) taken by the first Gargano vs Ciampa match (trust me, this is going to be a pattern). Black was made to look very strong as champion and came out on top more often than not in any encounter he had, but none of them were all that memorable.

He defended the title against Eric Young on an episode of NXT that was good, but not very long. Then, when Takeover: Chicago II rolled around, Black once again had the main event spot taken from him by the second Ciampa vs Gargano match. Sadly, his match wasn’t anything too special either, as he dragged Lars Sullivan to a passable 15-minute match.

Before we knew it, the time had come for Black to lose the title, and it wasn’t even on a Takeover event. After being shunted aside for it twice, Black found himself stuck in the middle of the Ciampa/Gargano feud. Gargano’s actions in his title defence against Ciampa would indirectly cause him to lose the title. Black was set to fight in a triple threat match for the title at Brooklyn 4, but an injury put the lid on those plans.

Black’s reign wasn’t very glamorous or memorable, but it rises this high on the list because he was treated very well as champion. As I said, he rarely if ever lost a non-title match, and continued to cultivate his strong and mysterious persona.

15 – Andrade “Cien” Almas

Days as Champion: 139
Successful Title Defences: 2
Best Match As Champion: vs Johnny Gargano at NXT Takeover: Philadelphia

Andrade is one of those people that I always seem to forget was NXT Champion. Not because he didn’t do well as champion, I liked a lot of what he did, he just didn’t seem to leave much of a mark on the belt at the end of the day.

As 2020 seemed to mark the end of NXT’s 2nd goldern era, I think it’s interesting to look at where it began. Most people focus on the Gargano/Ciampa rivalry, as that’s a large part of what defined the era, I think a very good case could be made for Andrade as the first champion of that era. The match where he won the title from Drew McIntyre was good, but not amazing thanks to Drew’s injury, but Andrade would work his arse off to make his title reign worth it from there onwards.

Having Zelina Vega as a mouthpiece was brilliant for him and the two clicked better than most wrestler/manager combinations have in recent memory. They both carried themselves with a cocky swagger that suited Andrade’s persona and even though they didn’t directly talk all that much, their chemistry during Andrade’s matches was incredible.

Speaking of Andrade’s matches, there’s one that sticks out in the mind far more than others. His first title defence at Takeover: Philadelphia against Johnny Gargano was the first in a long, LONG series of genuinely unbelievably good series of Takeover main events. It was the first match in NXT to be awarded 5 stars by the Wrestling Observer and remains one of my favourite NXT singles matches to this day.

The problem with Andrade though is that he doesn’t have much of a legacy in NXT outside of that match. He defended the title again a few weeks later against Gargano in another great match that is largely forgotten by history. Then, while the match where he lost the title to Aleister Black was brilliant, it was entirely overshadowed by everything else that happened on Takeover: New Orleans, a show seen by many to be NXT’s finest work.

I wanted to place Almas higher, but when you look at his title reign’s content, it doesn’t really justify it. Admittedly his match against Gargano carries him up a handful of places on its own, but given that it was immediately followed by the Ciampa/Gargano feud, this reign tends to be a bit more forgettable.

14 – Paige

Days as Champion: 273
Successful Title Defences: 3
Best Match As Champion: vs Emma on NXT 12th June 2013

Paige is somewhat of a difficult one to rank in the context of this list. When you compare her to the women who came after she’d left NXT, she technically didn’t do all that much fantastic stuff with the belt, however, I think doing that woefully understates the impact she made on, not just NXT, but main roster WWE as well.

With Paige, you have to look at what was going on with the women’s division in WWE at the time and how Paige’s work compares. For one thing, WWE was still calling them ‘Divas’ instead of ‘women’. The longest women’s match on Pay-Per-View for the entirety of WWE in 2013 was 11 minutes long, and that was only because it was a 7 on 7 elimination tag match, and even then it was one of the worst Survivor Series tag matches we’ve ever seen.

Then, you put that in contrast to what Paige was doing in NXT at the time. She was putting on 15-minute matches that outshone just about any women’s match in WWE history at the time and carrying the only women’s title that felt like it meant anything in WWE. When looking back at the rise of women’s wrestling WWE, the four horsewomen are always the most obvious people to point at for where it all started, but I don’t think that’s true. The four horsewomen may have brought the idea that women can actually do great wrestling to a mainstream audience, but Paige was the one who knocked the door down in the first place for them to take advantage. It’s entirely possible that without Paige putting in the incredible work that she did, NXT never would’ve come around to booking it’s women’s division seriously, and then where would we be?

It wasn’t perfect though, the fact that she defended the title only 3 times in 9 months isn’t the best, especially when one of those was a 3- minute match against Summer Rae. On top of that, she never actually lost the title. Instead, she was forced to vacate it by JBL (who was apparently the General Manager of NXT for a while?) after she showed up on Raw in the spring of 2014 and won the Divas title from AJ Lee. That move did lead to great things in the long-run, but the fact that the first NXT Women’s Champion never actually lost the belt is a bit of an oddity.

Paige laid the groundwork for what would become NXT’s revolution in women’s wrestling, and her role cannot be understated. However, when you compare her to the modern era, where women’s wrestling is taken far more seriously, her title reign just doesn’t quite hold up against a lot of them. She was the one who lit the fire but didn’t get much of a chance to enjoy the flame.

And there you have it! Thank you very much for taking the time to read this post. Please, let me know what you thought of these NXT title reigns, either in the comments below, or on Twitter @10ryawoo. Finally, make sure to come back here this time next week, where I’ll be covering my favourite post-game features in the Pokemon series, PLUS the week after that for part 2 of this list!

Ranking Every Former NXT Champion Since Their Main Roster Debut (Part 3)

Read part 1 here.
Read part 2 here.

Now we enter the final five. These are the NXT alumni who have done pretty darn well for themselves since coming to the main roster and is a nice reminder that sometimes, WWE doesn’t mess everything up.

5 – Sasha Banks

Days as NXT Women’s Champion: 191
Called Up On: Raw 7/13/15
Best Match Since Callup: vs CharlotteFlair vs Becky Lynch at Wrestlemania 32
Championships Since Callup: 4x Raw Women’s Championship, 1x Women’s Tag Team Championship

Given what’s currently going on with Sasha Banks, it made her a little harder to place on the list, but that doesn’t take away from what she’s already achieved.

Sasha Banks debuted alongside Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch during Stephanie McMahon’s announcement that they were going to stop treating women’s wrestling like shit on your shoe (my words, not theirs). She was paired with Naomi and Tamina to form “Team B.A.D” or “Beautiful and Dangerous”, with Naomi being “Beautiful”, Sasha being “Dangerous” and Tamina being “And”.

Unfortunately for the team, the main crux of the feud ended up being between The Bellas and Charlotte, so Team B.A.D were very quickly swept to one side and didn’t really get a chance to do a whole lot of anything. Banks would soon strike out on her own, interfering in a Divas Championship match between Charlotte and Becky at the 2016 Royal Rumble, declaring herself to no longer be part of the group.

This lead to 2016 where Sasha Banks was always somewhere in the women’s title scene. After being unsuccessful at Wrestlemania 32, she would disappear from TV for a couple of months, until she eventually returned to launch into her memorable feud with Charlotte, during which she would win, and subsequently lose the Raw Women’s Championship 3 times over roughly 6 months. Many worried whether the constant “hot-potatoing” of the Women’s Championship was devaluing it, but as we can see today, it didn’t hurt the title at all and did wonders for raising the stock of both women involved.

Banks remained around the Raw Women’s Title scene through Wrestlemania 33, where she was unsuccessful in the Fatal 4 Way match against Bayley, Charlotte and Nia Jax. Once Alexa Bliss was done destroying Bayley’s credibility after Wrestlemania, Sasha challenged her for the Raw Women’s Championship, failing at Great Balls of Fire, but succeeding at Summerslam, claiming her 4th singles championship on the main roster.

It wasn’t to last, however, as Sasha lost the title back to Alexa 8 days later and would quickly fade away from the title scene. Banks then wouldn’t do much of any consequence until the announcement of the Women’s Tag Team Championships, where Bayley and Sasha would be crowned the first ever champions.

This brings us to the awkward topic of Sasha’s current status in WWE which is…unknown. Reportedly she was extremely unhappy at having to lose the titles to the IIocnics at Wrestlemania as the pair were promised a lengthy reign, she was given time off to think about her future. This time off was supposed to end on the night of Money in the Bank, but she’s still not shown her face.

Whether she stays with WWE or goes elsewhere, Sasha Banks has been instrumental in the rise of women’s wrestling in WWE, she’s put on countless great matches over the years, and wherever she decides to go, I’m sure she’ll be putting on many more.

4 – Finn Balor

Days as NXT Champion: 292
Called Up On: Smackdown 7/19/16
Best Match Since Callup: vs Seth Rollins vs The Miz at Wrestlemania 34
Championships Since Callup: 1x Universal Championship, 2x Intercontinental Championship

In terms of debuts, you couldn’t ask for a much better sequence of events.

Finn Balor was called up on the night of the 2016 brand split, and was among the first 5 picks, up there with Seth Rollins, WWE Champion Dean Ambrose and AJ Styles, so it was clear he was going to be treated as a big deal. The next week, on Raw Balor, would win a Fatal 4 Way match, and then Roman Reigns 1 on 1 in the same night to win the chance to face Seth Rollins at Summerslam to crown the first ever Universal Champion.

Granted, it could be argued that Roman Reigns was still in the doghouse a little following his suspension, but whether that’s the case or not a clean, singles win over Roman Reigns is something not many people can say they’ve done in this era. More so than that, Finn ended up winning the match at Summerslam and became the first Universal Champion in WWE history which, no matter how much you hate that belt, is a big deal.

Unfortunately, this achievement wouldn’t last long as Balor suffered an injury in that match and the next night on Raw, was forced to vacate the Universal Championship and take 8 months off healing up. When Balor returned, there wasn’t really a lot going for him, Brock was now Universal Champion so he couldn’t get anywhere near that scene, he started a feud with Bray Wyatt going into the summer of 2017, and while Balor did win, the feud itself wasn’t overly interesting and was in danger of going into downright awful territory if the universe didn’t intervene and give Bray Wyatt the mumps, stopping their final match from happening.

Over the next year or so, Balor would have some standout moments, like a hard-fought victory over AJ Styles, lasting in the 2018 Royal Rumble for over an hour and one of the best matches on the Wrestlemania 34 card against Seth Rollins and The Miz, but it never felt like the company was ever going to get behind him as a big star like they did when he first debuted. Balor would spend most of the rest of 2018 in a boring feud with Baron Corbin until 2019 arrived and Balor’s fortunes changed once again.

Balor got the opportunity to fight Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship at the Royal Rumble 2019 PPV, and he beat John Cena in order to get that opportunity in the first place. Balor wouldn’t come out victorious int hat encounter, but he took the beast to town for a large portion of the match, and he came out of the match looking better than when he went in. Then, in the build to Wrestlemania 35 this year, Balor feuded with Bobby Lashley, capturing the Intercontinental Championship from Lashley twice, at both Elimination Chamber and Wrestlemania, and he still holds the title to this day.

It’s undeniable that Balor’s time on main roster has had a lot of crap moments, but honestly, I’d struggle to find someone who hasn’t suffered that at some point in their careers. Balor has had more highlights than most in the WWE have had int he past few years, and he’s almost always taken full advantage of those opportunities and has made a big star of himself, that I’m sure will only get bigger over the coming decade.

3 – Kevin Owens

Days as NXT Champion: 142
Called Up On: 5/15/15
Best Match Since Callup: Kevin Owens at Elimination Chamber 2015
Championships Since Callup: 1x Universal Championship, 2x Intercontinental Championship, 3x United States Championship

I know I complimented Balor’s debut, but Owen’s debut is by far the best of anyone on this list.

Kevin Owens was the first former NXT Champion to really be treated like a big deal when he made his way to the main roster. At the time of his debut, Owens was actually still NXT Champion, and he came out to answer John Cena’s weekly open challenge for the US title, much like his former best friend Sami Zayn had done not too long ago. Owens didn’t come out to have a match though, instead, Owens cut a scathing promo on Cena, including a brilliant touch of Owens pointing out his 15 years of experience when Cena tried to give him some “veteran advice”.

This animosity boiled over to a full-blown feud, the first match of which took place at the Elimination Chamber 2015 PPV, wherein one of the most shocking results in recent memory, Kevin Owens pinned John Cena clean as a whistle. In later years this wouldn’t be as big of a deal, but in 2015 it was still an absolute shock to see Cena lose clean like that, and to a rookie in the debut match no less, it was clear big things were on the horizon for Owens. Following two straight losses to Cena of course.

Once Owens had moved on from Cena, he challenged and defeated Ryback for the Intercontinental Championship in what wouldn’t be a super long reign, but in this time he did get a high profile spot at Survivor Series, making it to the semi-finals of a tournament for the then vacant, WWE Championship. Owens would lose the IC title to Ambrose at the end of 2015 but would gain it back just before Fastlane 2016 and hold onto it until Wrestlemania 32.

After a few months of placeholder feuds, the 2016 brand split came about and did wonders for Kevin Owens, firstly it partnered him with Chris Jericho in what would become one of the most entertaining pairs on Raw for the rest of the year, and following Balor’s unfortunate injury, Owens was crowned Universal Champion. This title reign would be somewhat underwhelming, with most of his retentions coming through interference or disqualification, and he would constantly be made to look a fool in non-title matches, however it was a fairly long reign and he was always the main focus of Raw during that time, which is more than can be said for many champions.

After losing the title to Goldberg in humiliation, Owens went into a feud with Chris Jericho, whom he had turned on a couple of weeks prior at the excellent “Festival of Friendship” segment. Owens came out victorious at Wrestlemania and gain the United States Championship in the process and dub himself “The New Face of America”. Owens lost and quickly regained the title twice during this period, before eventually losing it for good to AJ Styles thanks to a surprise return from Chris Jericho. Owens’ feud with Styles was pretty heavily marred by wonky finishes and Shane McMahon getting involved at almost every opportunity, so this was quite the low point for Owens.

Owens then focused solely on Shane McMahon and the two would have a brutal feud, including a Hell in a Cell match where Owens would reunite with his former best friend Sami Zayn. At this point, the feud got quite confusing and boring, as Shane and General Manager Daniel Bryan were bickering over how blatantly biased Shane was against Owens and Zayn even though the story was still trying to present Shane as the good guy.

After several months and an awful feud with Styles where Owens and Zayn would lose to Styles despite having a 2 on 1 advantage, the feud would culminate when Daniel Bryan was medically cleared to compete after 3 years on the shelf and Bryan & Shane put Owens & Zayn away at Wrestlemania 34. Following Wrestlemania, Owens & Zayn were both moved to Raw and Owens wouldn’t do a whole lot of anything except for constantly being destroyed by Braun Strowman until he would sadly be taken out of action with an injury.

Owens would quickly recover upon returning though, as, in early 2019, he returned to Smackdown live as a babyface, replacing Kofi Kingston in the WWE title match at Fastlane in the process. That match would later become a triple threat including Mustafa Ali and it would be very good, although Daniel Bryan would end up retaining. Owens was left out of the Wrestlemania 35 card, but instantly was thrown back into the WWE title mix following the show of shows, turning heel on the New Day and challenging Kofi Kingston for the WWE Championship in a feud that doesn’t look like it’s going to end anytime soon.

As much as the negatives can make things seem a lot worse than they are, Owens has had a really good time of it on main roster. He’s almost always been in one of the major stories on whichever show he’s on and spent a good couple of years in contention for one title or another, and given what’s been going on since his 2019 return, it doesn’t look like that’s going to change anytime soon.

2 – Charlotte Flair

Days as NXT Women’s Champion: 258
Called Up On: Raw 7/13/15
Best Match Since Callup: vs Becky Lynch at Evolution 2018
Championships Since Callup: 4x Raw Women’s Championship, 4x Smackdown Women’s Championship, 1x Divas Championship

It’s hard to argue that Charlotte isn’t one of, if not THE greatest female competitors in WWE history in terms of her overall career.

Charlotte Flair is perhaps the personification of how far women’s wrestling has come in the past 5-6 years. When she debuted alongside Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch that night on Raw, it was clear that Charlotte was going to be the one who had the biggest spotlight on them and that’s exactly what happened. In just a few months she had defeated Nikki Bella and won the Divas Championship for herself, defending it against all comers and turning heel in the process, Wrestlemania 32 rolled around and it was time to get rid of the last relic of the old era of women’s wrestling in WWE, that horrible looking Divas Championship.

So on that night Charlotte would defeat both Sasha and Becky in a Triple Threat match (with a little help from her father) and become the first holder of the new WWE Women’s Championship in a historic moment for the women’s evolution in WWE. Charlotte continued her run of dominance for almost a whole year, during which time the WWE Women’s Championship would become the Raw Women’s Championship in the 2016 brand split, where Charlotte lost and quickly regained the title from Sasha Banks on several occasions in lots of very good matches. Charlotte’s time with the Raw Women’s Championship eventually came to an end (for the time being) when Bayley defeated her in a surprise upset on a February episode of Raw and failed to regain the title at both Fastlane and Wrestlemania that year.

Following Wrestlemania 33, Charlotte was moved over to Smackdown in the Superstar shakeup where she’d be able to thrive as a face and against the whole host of new opponents. She took part in but was unsuccessful in the first-ever women’s Money in the Bank ladder match before losing to Natalya at Battleground causing her to miss Summerslam. She would also take some time off during this period to care for her Father who had a major health scare.

Upon her September return, it didn’t take very long at all for Charlotte to catapult herself back up into the Smackdown Women’s title scene and won the blue brand’s title in November from Natalya. Charlotte then went on to face and defeat Raw Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss at Survivor Series that year before carrying her title into Wrestlemania 34 following defences against both Natalya and Ruby Riott. At Wrestlemania 34, Charlotte would once again make history, becoming the first person in WWE history to inflict a pinfall loss on Asuka, retaining her title in the process. Charlotte wouldn’t have long to dwell on this victory however, as the next night Carmella cashed in her Money in the Bank contract to take the title from her.

After an unsuccessful title defense Charlotte once again failed to capture the Money in the Bank contract and then went on hiatus for another few months to have surgery on a ruptured breast implant but would once again return and make her mark for Summerslam 2018, inserting herself into the Smackdown Women’s Title match between Carmella and Becky Lynch, only to win the title and cause Becky to lose her shit in what was supposed to be a heel turn, but the roles were reversed by the time their feud reached its climax. Charlotte had several matches with Becky, the best of which is the pair’s Last Woman Standing match at Evolution, although Charlotte was unsuccessful each time.

Charlotte would be unsuccessful one more time against both Becky and Asuka in a TLC Match at the TLC PPV where Ronda Rousey would cost both Charlotte and Becky the title. Charlotte was then the runner up in the 2019 women’s Royal Rumble match, losing to a surprise Becky Lynch, but found a way to weasel her way into the main event match between Becky and Ronda by having the surname Flair. In the build-up to this match, Charlotte would dispatch of Asuka just two weeks before Wrestlemania 35 and win her 3rd Smackdown Women’s Championship.

Charlotte lost at Wrestlemania, but that wouldn’t stop her pursuits, as most recently at Money in the Bank 2019 Charlotte took advantage of an exhausted Becky Lynch and a manipulated Lacey Evans to take back the Smackdown Women’s Championship – breaking the record for most titles won by a female competitor in WWE in the process at 9 – only to lose it moments later to Bayley who cashed in her Money in the Bank contract she won earlier that night to win the title.

Charlotte as a wrestler isn’t for everyone, many say she’s a boring character which I can see both sides of, but when she has the right opponent in the right story, Charlotte puts on some of the best women’s matches in company history. You can sit there all day moaning about how Charlotte is being shoved down our throats and is the “Roman Reigns of the women’s division” but the women’s evolution in WWE would not have gone anywhere near as smoothly if it wasn’t for someone as solid as Charlotte for WWE to get behind, and honestly I’d go as far as to say that she IS the greatest female competitor in WWE history.

1 – Seth Rollins

Days as NXT Women’s Champion: 133
Called Up On: Survivor Series 2012
Best Match Since Callup:vs John Cena vs Brock Lesnar at Royal Rumble 2015
Championships Since Callup: 2x WWE Championship, 2x Universal Championship, 2x Intercontinental Championship, 1x United States Championship, 4x Tag Team Championship

I mean come on, could it really be anyone else?

No matter what metric you want to use to measure it, number of championships, number of amazing matches, number of PPV main events, Seth Rollins runs away with this as the best former NXT Champion to grace the WWE main roster.

Rollins made his historic debut alongside Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose the night of Survivor Series 2012, attacking Ryback and John Cena allowing CM Punk to retain his WWE Championship and forming The Shield in the process. The Shield would go on to become one of the greatest factions in WWE’s history, taking out everyone in their path. John Cena, Daniel Bryan, The Rock, The Undertaker, Evolution and so many more would taste The Shield’s brand of justice in many incredible matches, reminding everyone just how awesome 6 Man Tag Team matches can be in the process. During this time Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins also took out Team Hell No, for Rollins to win his first of many Tag Team Championships in WWE.

Good things can never last forever though and one fateful night in May of 2014, Seth Rollins would destroy The Shield, slamming a steel chair into Roman Reigns’ back and laying out Dean Ambrose. Rollins was then heralded as The Authority’s golden boy, labelled the future of WWE Rollins walked into Money in the Bank 2014 and handedly walked out as Mr Money in the Bank. Rollins spent most of 2014 feuding with his former Shield-brother Dean Ambrose, putting on multiple great matches month in and month out and always finding a way to come out the victor. Rollins would next get in the way of one, John Cena, as a match was set up for Survivor Series 2014 that saw Rollins’ benefactors in The Authority ousted from power.

Rollins went after Cena for this injustice, losing to him in a tables match at TLC, until Rollins took the opportunity one night on Raw to threaten Edge’s problematic neck, forcing Cena to reinstate The Authority. Rollins was rewarded with a spot in the WWE Championship match at the Royal Rumble, where he put on an absolutely incredible match, that I still love to go back and watch to this day. Then came Rollins’ crowning achievement at Wrestlemania 31. After he ate one of the most amazing looking RKO’s ever earlier on in the night, Rollins came sprinting down the ramp as the WWE Championship between Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns was going on, cashing in his Money in the Bank contract and coming away with the title.

Rollins held the title all the way through till November due to an unfortunate injury he suffered, however during his title reign he once again went on a streak of constantly putting on brilliant matches against the likes of Dean Ambrose and John Cena, briefly picking up the United States Championship and becoming a double champion in the process. Unfortunately, as I mentioned, Rollins tore his ACL, MCL and meniscus at a live event in November that forced him to vacate the title and sit out 7 months of action.

The moment Rollins returned, he went right back into the thick of the action as he made a surprise appearance at the end of Extreme Rules 2016, to pedigree the WWE Champion Roman Reigns. The pair would have a great match at Money in the Bank the following month that resulted in Rollins reclaiming the title he never lost, unfortunately, it was very short lived as Rollins’ constant foil Dean Ambrose showed up with his newly won Money in the Bank briefcase to snatch the title away from Rollins. Over the next couple of months, Rollins would chase Ambrose for the title, including multiple singles matches and a triple threat between all 3 former members of The Shield, however, Rollins would come up short every time.

After being drafted to Monday Night Raw in the brand split, Rollins was one of the men who was picked to fight for the brand new Universal Championship against the newly debuted Finn Balor. The pair would put on a great match (even if the crowd didn’t seem to care), but Rollins would once again fail to capture title gold, this would happen again two weeks later in a fatal 4 way for the Universal title, because Triple H would shockingly turn on Rollins, turning the architect face in the process. Rollins spent the next couple of months taking on Kevin Owens for the Universal Championship but was thwarted at every turn by Chris Jericho.

Rollins would involve himself in fairly minor feuds until January rolled around, when Rollins refocused and set his sights on the man who turned on him a few months ago, Triple H. Rollins went on a warpath to get his hands on The Game, even going as far as to show up at NXT Takeover: San Antonio in order to call him out. After a minor knee injury threatened to jeopardise the whole story, Rollins thankfully recovered in time and the match was set for Wrestlemania 33. Rollins ended up defeating Triple H in what, for my money, was the best match that night, finally ridding himself of the stormcloud that had hovered over him for months.

Following Wrestlemania, Rollins wouldn’t do much of note for a few months, beating Samoa Joe and losing to Bray Wyatt in feuds that were fun to watch but not very consequential. That changed come summer time when Rollins set his sights on redeeming himself for his past sins and trying to reform The Shield, first winning over Dean Ambrose and winning the Raw Tag Team Championships, before later getting Roman Reigns on-side as well to take out The New Day at that year’s Survivor Series.

Once 2018 rolled around, business really picked up for Rollins. Following a brief run as tag team champions with Jason Jordan, Rollins walked into Wrestlemania 34 and came out of it as Intercontinental Champion. The rest of the year was filled with Rollins putting on fantastic singles matches every single week for the title against wrestlers like The Miz, Elias and Dolph Ziggler. Ziggler is especially noteworthy, as Rollins and Ziggler traded the title a couple of times thanks to Ziggler seeking aid from the debuting Drew Mcintyre until Rollins would get an ally of his own in a returning Dean Ambrose.

This led to one of the best matches of 2018, as Rollins & Ambrose would take on Drew & Dolph in a losing effort. Things took a turn for the worse during the autumn of 2018, as Roman Reigns would tragically announce the return of his leukaemia forcing him to take time off, this led to Ambrose & Rollins winning the tag titles later that night, only for Ambrose to shockingly turn on Rollins. This would come to a head at TLC 2018, where Ambrose defeated Rollins for his Intercontinental Championship.

Rollins bounced back pretty well though, as he won the 2019 men’s Royal Rumble match the next month, putting him on a collision course with Universal Champion Brock Lesnar at Wrestlemania 35. In shocking fashion, Rollins slew the beast at the start of Wrestlemania 35, nailing a low blow and 3 Curb Stomps to take Lesnar down and claim the Universal Championship for the first time, and his third world title overall. As of the time of writing, Rollins’ title reign is still going strong, defeating AJ Styles in a fantastic match at Money in the Bank and is currently embroiled in a feud with Baron Corbin that he seems destined to win.

No other former NXT Champion has seen anywhere near as much success as Seth Rollins had on the main roster. No-one in the past few years has been able to put on such consistently great matches in WWE every week he’s about, winning championships left right and centre, and almost always being in one of the major stories of whatever show he’s on. Rollins has very much become the face of the company in this generation of wrestlers and honestly, I don’t think there’s a better man for the job.

And that’s the list! Thank you very much for taking the time to read this, I know it was a long one and a share on social media would be greatly appreciated. You can also let me know what you thought of the list in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo. I’ll see you on Friday for my predictions for Extreme Rules!

Ranking Every Former NXT Champion Since Their Main Roster Debut (Part 2)

Read part 1 here.

Splitting this list into thirds has achieved something pretty interesting, because part 1’s reflection on NXT’s former champions was quite a depressing one, filled with wrestlers who sadly weren’t used to their full potential, or have hardly been used at all yet, this part is filled with those who have done ok for themselves, or have yet to reach their full potential, and part 3 can be a nice celebration. This week, we get to look at the NXT Alumni that have ended up doing a lot better for themselves since moving to the main roster…mostly.

Enough faffing about, let’s carry on with the rankings.

10 – Drew Mcintyre

Days as NXT Champion: 91
Called Up On: Raw 4/16/18
Best Match Since Callup: w/ Dolph Ziggler vs Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose at Hell in a Cell 2018
Championships Since Callup: 1x Tag Team Championship

Drew’s a slightly weird one in the context of this list.

Drew Mcintyre would sign with WWE for the first time in 2007 and debuted on Smackdown in 2009. During this time he would be dubbed “The Chosen One” after being handpicked by Vince McMahon as a future star, so it was very strange when come 2013 he was in eternal jobber faction 3MB and losing singles matches to a midget dressed as a bull.

He was released from WWE in June 2014 and would spend the next few years touring the independent scene, with long term appearances in ICW and Evolve. Drew’s physique would wildly change in this time too, he would become a lot more muscular than he was at the end of his first WWE run, dye his hair jet black, grow a grizzled looking beard and become a very angry Scotsman. This new look and vastly improved wrestling style would lead him to re-signing with WWE in early 2017, as a part of NXT. On the same night, his NXT Championship run ended he suffered an injury that would put him out of action for several months.

Come the 2018 Superstar Shakeup, Mcintyre was fully healed up and debuted on Raw to confusingly align himself with a heel Dolph Ziggler. He would spend most of this alliance looking strong as Ziggler’s muscle, helping Ziggler win singles matches with constant interference, and being a constant thorn in the side of Seth Rollins. While still at Ziggler’s side, the pair would win the Raw Tag Team Championships from The B-Team and go on to have one of the best matches of 2018 at the Hell in a Cell PPV.

The alliance would eventually dissolve following several losses to The Shield and Mcintyre would flounder for a bit. He lost singles matches to both Ziggler and Finn Balor while Balor was on his way to a match with Brock Lesnar which hurt him a bit, and yet MORE losses to The Shield also weren’t helpful. However going into Wrestlemania he was poised as Roman Reigns’ big return singles opponent, which even though he lost, is a good position to be in.

As much as Mcintyre has quite done anything special just yet, he’s right on the brink of being a megastar, and I imagine if I were to revisit this list in 3-5 years time, he will be top three, as I’ll be very surprised if he doesn’t capture his first world championship at some point during the next 12 months.

9 – Paige

Days as NXT Women’s Champion: 273
Called Up On: 4/7/14
Best Match Since Callup: vs AJ Lee at Summerslam 2014
Championships Since Callup: 2x Divas Championship

Paige is a unique case in this list because you have to consider some factors that don’t apply to anyone else.

Paige came into WWE about a year and a half before all the women’s revolution kicked off in WWE, so she spent the first stint of her career fighting pressed up against the thickest glass ceiling in WWE history. This means that when looking at her accomplishments, you have to compare it to what the women’s wrestling scene was like at the time, not what it is now.

When you look at it from that perspective Paige is probably the greatest of the era, she debuted on Raw the night after Wrestlemania 30, and would immediately win the Divas Championship from AJ that night. Paige would then go on to have lots of short and forgettable matches for the title against the likes of Tamina, Alicia Fox and Cameron, which was, unfortunately, par for the course at the time. It wouldn’t be without it’s redeeming features, however, as she would have some pretty good matches against Naomi and AJ Lee over the next few months, culminating in a surprisingly good Triple Threat match against AJ Lee and Nikki Bella.

Paige wouldn’t do much of anything for the next 8 months or so, being a heel who lost more and more credibility by the week, she began to fade back into just being “another woman”, which is a very sad indictment of how WWE thought of women’s wrestling at the time.

This would continue until the summer of 2015, where Paige become the catalyst for the women’s revolution and the on-screen flag bearer for the “Give Divas a Chance” hashtag, even if Stephanie McMahon would steal her thunder at every opportunity. Paige would team up with the newly debuted Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch to form the faction “Submission Sorority”, named after the trio’s skill in submission based wrestling.

…what do you mean that’s the name of a porn series?

After being renamed “Team PCB” – because creative names aren’t WWE’s forte – the Paige, Charlotte and Becky Experience would be the trio to lead the charge against the Bella Twins, with Paige standing as an ally for Charlotte as she unseated Nikki Bella as Divas Champion. Following this, she would turn heel and try to take the title from Charlotte in a feud that is sadly only remembered for Paige’s uncomfortable comment about Charlotte’s dead brother, Reid.

After doing a whole lot of nothing for the next year or so, Paige would sadly suffer an injury to her neck that would take her out of action for over a year, and unfortunately, things don’t get much better from here. She returned to Raw in September of 2017, where she would form the “Absolution” faction alongside Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville, but wouldn’t be able to compete for very long, as a second neck injury in December would eventually force her to tragically retire from in-ring competition the night after Wrestlemania 34.

Paige would spend the rest of 2018 as the on-screen General Manager for Smackdown, and ended up being one of the best General Managers in recent memory, before being ousted from the role in late December when the McMahon family declared the audience to be the authority and subsequently ignored our every wish. Paige would most recently show up on Smackdown live once again, this time as a manager for the team of Kairi Sane and Asuka, so she’s not going away any time soon.

While Paige’s career was sadly cut short, she was able to do a surprising amount with what little time she had. If it wasn’t for her, the women’s revolution could’ve gone very differently; we’ve just had the first ever all-women Wrestlemania main event, and it’s entirely possible that it wouldn’t have happened without Paige. Even in retirement, she’s made the most of a bad situation, becoming one of the few management characters to not be insufferably annoying and is still keeping us entertained to this day.

8 – Bayley

Days as NXT Women’s Champion: 223
Called Up On: Battleground 2016
Best Match Since Callup: vs Charlotte Flair on Raw 2/13/17
Championships Since Callup: 1x Raw Women’s Championship, 1x Smackdown Women’s Championship, 1x Women’s Tag Team Championship

When people talk about NXT callups not being handled well on main roster, Bayley is almost always one of the main wrestlers brought to the discussion. That argument certainly has some merit to it, but when you step back and look at things as a whole, it’s really not as bad as it seems.

Upon being brought up to Raw, Bayley was immediately thrown into the mix with Sasha and Charlotte for the Raw Women’s Championship, having an excellent showing in a Triple Threat Match at Night of Champions 2016. She would then move to a more underwhelming feud with Charlotte’s then lackey, Dana Brooke before being on the victorious side of the Elimination Tag Match at Survivor Series. This took a little while to boil over before she would have her first one on one match for the title at Royal Rumble, where she, unfortunately, lose to Charlotte.

The losing ways wouldn’t last long as two weeks later Bayley would defeat Charlotte (with a tiny assist from Sasha Banks) to win her first singles championship on the main roster, following a retention against Charlotte at Fastlane, Bayley would find herself carrying the title into Wrestlemania. Things got even better when she also found herself walking out of Wrestlemania as champion, putting away Charlotte, Sasha and Nia Jax in a fatal 4-way match. In a little over half a year, Bayley had become a staple of the Raw Women’s division and was standing extremely strong as it’s champion; WWE management would have to do something REALLY bad to undo all of that goodwill.

…oh for the love of-

Unfortunately, we know all too well what happened next. Former Smackdown Women’s Champion Alexa Bliss would be transferred to Raw in the superstar shakeup and immediately get the chance to challenge Bayley for the Raw Women’s Championship at Payback. Bayley would, unfortunately, lose the title in this match, but it wasn’t in awful fashion, so it wouldn’t do her any harm, but it wasn’t over. The feud would continue, building towards the Extreme Rules PPV and all of the shit would hit the biggest fan you’ve ever seen.

Alexa Bliss hosted the now infamous “Bayley: This is Your Life” segment, which is still one of the worst Raw segments in recent memory, up there with “The Old Day” and Sami meeting Bobby Lashley’s “sisters”. We still weren’t done though, as the match between the pair at Extreme Rules would be a Kendo Stick on a Pole match, which is an awful stipulation as it is, but things would be made a lot worse when Bayley refused to hit Alexa with the Kendo Stick because…she was either scared or an idiot and lost the match because of it. Either way, it completely destroyed all the goodwill and credibility Bayley had built up over the past 10 months, crowds would either boo her or not react at all when she came out for a long time following that match because – and I can’t stress this enough – she was scared of a stick.

The next two years were filled with absolutely nothing of any value for Bayley. Outside of a decent showing in the 2017 Elimination Chamber match for the Raw Women’s Championship, she would have no standout moments and spent most of 2018 having an on again off again feud with Sasha Banks that ended up going nowhere.

Eventually, things would start to turn around for Bayley though, as in February 2019, her and Sasha Banks would become the first ever Women’s Tag Team Champions in a great match and a very emotional moment. They would, unfortunately, lose those titles to The IIconics at Wrestlemania, but Bayley has bounced back tremendously, with a move to Smackdown immediately placing her toe to toe with Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch, most recently winning the Money in the Bank contract and cashing it in on the same night to win the Smackdown Women’s Championship. I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that 2019 will be a great year for Bayley.

7 – Asuka

Days as NXT Women’s Champion: 522
Called Up On: TLC 2017
Best Match Since Callup: vs Charlotte Flair vs Becky Lynch at TLC 2018
Championships Since Callup: 1x Smackdown Women’s Championship

Asuka is a case where people often moan at length about how she’s been incorrectly used or “ruined” since coming up to main roster, and while she has performed below expectations, it certainly hasn’t been awful for her.

Coming out of NXT, she had an undefeated streak of unrivalled proportions, going 186-0 during her time under the brand of black and gold. Her debut, on the main roster, would be heavily anticipated on TV, with video packages every week hyping her up, and several women having to compete just for a chance to face her in her debut at TLC 2017, Asuka was presented as an extremely big deal in the lead up to her debut.

Asuka would eventually make her debut in a match against Emma, where she would win handily, and these winning ways would carry on for quite a while. People had concerns that she wasn’t being used to her full potential, but those fears were laid to rest when the first ever Women’s Royal Rumble match rolled around and Asuka came out of it the winner. She would soon let the world know that she was ready to challenge Charlotte Flair at Wrestlemania 34.

The match itself was great, one of the best of the night, and when it was said and done, Charlotte Flair was standing tall as the winner, Asuka’s undefeated streak shattered. This decision split the fanbase at large, I personally think Asuka should’ve won however given that it was Charlotte that did it, I’m ok with it because honestly, who else could have? In addition to this, undefeated streaks can end up being more of a curse than a blessing if they go on too long because they will always have to end, just ask Rusev.

Asuka could’ve quite easily recovered if that was the only major loss she suffered in the spring of 2018, however, that wasn’t to be as Carmella would cash in her Money in the Bank briefcase the next night on Smackdown to take the title from Charlotte, and Asuka was lined up as her first challenger. Asuka would lose the first encounter thanks to James Ellsworth showing up in Asuka’s entrance gear, then she’d lose the second encounter thanks to more James Ellsworth shenanigans and it was just plain awful.

Asuka would sink down into doing a whole lot of nothing for most of the rest of 2018 until December brought about her revival. With a small assist from Ronda Rousey, Asuka would win her first championship since coming to the main roster, pulling the Smackdown Women’s Championship down from atop a ladder after Rousey had laid out both Becky and Charlotte. Asuka would successfully defend her title against Becky Lynch at the Royal Rumble in a very strong showing for her, and things were looking good going into Wrestlemania season.

Unfortunately it wasn’t to last, since there were no viable opponents for Asuka on Smackdown going into Wrestlemania because WWE put all their eggs into the Ronda, Becky & Charlotte basket and forgot they had TWO women’s titles to deal with, so in the laziest move of all time, Asuka would lose her Smackdown Women’s Championship to Charlotte two weeks out from Wrestlemania clean as a whistle, and wouldn’t get a rematch.

Asuka has had a lot of ups and downs during her time on the WWE main roster, and ultimately I’d say she comes out of it looking about average, she has now teamed up with the newly debuted Kairi Sane and they seem to be going after The IIconics for the Women’s Tag Team Championships, however there really is no telling what the future holds for Asuka right now.

6 – Big E Langston

Days as NXT Champion: 153
Called Up On: Raw 12/17/12
Best Match Since Callup: w/Xavier Woods vs The Usos at Hell in a Cell 2017
Championships Since Callup: 1x Intercontinental Championship, 5x Tag Team Championship

Big E was always earmarked for stardom in WWE, although I’m not quite sure this was how anyone imagined it would happen.

Big E (then with the surname “Langston”) debuted in the dying breaths of 2012, and was instantly paired up with Dolph Ziggler to be his muscle…now I’ve definitely heard that one somewhere before. As a team, they challenged for the Tag Team Championships at Wrestlemania 29, though they would be unsuccessful, and the following night Ziggler cashed in his Money in the Bank contract to become World Heavyweight Champion.

Big E’s partnership with Ziggler would come to an end in the summer of 2013, and they would feud until Summerslam, where Ziggler & Kaitlyn would come out victorious in a match against Big E & AJ Lee. After fighting on and off with The Shield for a few months, Big E would take on Curtis Axel for the Intercontinental Championship on Raw in November and win the championship. This run wouldn’t really be the launching platform he’d hoped for, since following solid defences against Jack Swagger and Damien Sandow, Big E would lose the title to Bad News Barrett in spring of 2014 and hasn’t seen singles gold since.

After a few months of doing nothing, WWE would start hinting at an alliance between Big E, Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods, although after about a month of this, nothing came of it and they reverted back to singles competitors. It would then be picked up again in November of 2014 when vignettes started airing for what looked like a Gospel Church style group featuring the three men.

The trio debuted to the mildest of receptions, with them clapping, smiling and preaching the power of positivity, it was boring and no-one cared. However, things would take a sudden turn for the better after Wrestlemania 31, as the group would turn heel, now using the “power of positivity” as an ironic cover for the fact that they would constantly cheat and insult every audience they were put in front.

What followed next was The New Days becoming one of the greatest tag teams/factions in the history of WWE. The comedic chops of the group – Woods and Big E in particular – would be allowed to shine through every time they were allowed to speak, these antics eventually lead to the faction becoming the longest reigning Tag Team Champions in WWE history, defending the belts under the Freebird rule.

Following a face turn in 2016, The New Day would become one of the most beloved acts in all of WWE, a popularity they’ve retained to this day thanks to both their talents on the microphone and Kofi’s recent surge in popularity and WWE Championship win. While Big E’s greatest moments would come as part of a faction, none of those moments would’ve been possible with someone other than Big E in his role. No other trio could’ve done what they did and all three of them were equally important in making it happen, and their popularity isn’t going away anytime soon.

So that’s part 2! Let me know what you think of the list so far in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo and make sure to come back on Monday for part 3.

Ranking Every Former NXT Champion Since Their Main Roster Debut (Part 1)

Oh, it’s time for us all to get sad again…

Ranking NXT Champions is something that has been done to death across the internet, and I really don’t think there’s a great deal I could add to that discussion until NXT’s lineage get significantly longer than it currently is, however, as much as almost every singles champion in NXT has a brilliant reign as champion, this doesn’t always translate to main roster success. Be it through bad writing, injuries, or management just never getting behind them, some former NXT champions completely flopped on the grander stages.

These rankings are going to include every former NXT Men’s and NXT Women’s Champions that have debuted on the main roster as of May 2019, with the sole exception being Kari Sane, since she’s only been on the main roster for a month, so it’s far too early to make any judgements. I’m also not counting Ciampa & Gargano’s “debuts” in February this year because Ciampa’s injury put an end to that a couple of weeks in. Also, this is going to be a three-parter because it ended up being way longer than I had anticipated.

18 – Bo Dallas

Days as NXT Champion: 260
Called Up On: Raw 7/4/14
Best Match Since Callup: w/ Curtis Axel vs The Revival at Summerslam 2018
Championships Since Callup: 1x Tag Team Championship

I can’t say this one surprises me…

Don’t get me wrong, I thought Bo Dallas was a great character as NXT Champion, but as good as it was, it was the kind of character that could only ever really work on a small scale. Sure, in a crowd of under 1000 people, most of whom are pretty hardcore wrestling fans, they’ll play along with the weird shit you’re trying to get over because it’s fun, but in front of over 10,000 people, most of whom have never heard of you, it’s going to happen.

Bo started off well enough with a winning streak that lasted for a little while, however, it was almost exclusively against people at the bottom of the totem pole and before having his winning streak ended by R-Truth of all people. There still seemed like there was some hope for Bo when he got a series of flukey wins over Mark Henry, but one squash match and an injury later, it became clear Bo was never going to get very high on the main roster.

After floundering for a few years, he saw a small measure of success as one of The Miz’s henchman alongside Curtis Axel when Miz moved to Raw in the 2017 brand split with a stranglehold over the Intercontinental Championship. This would never lead to singles success as their unceremonious breakup happened when Miz was drafted back to Smackdown in 2018 without Bo & Curtis, however, they would launch themselves to some success following this, shockingly claiming the Raw Tag Team Championships from Matt Hardy & Bo’s older brother Bray Wyatt at Extreme Rules 2018.

While this was great for the pair, now known as “The B-Team”, it wouldn’t create any longterm success, as once they lost their titles to the Authors of Pain, they would be gone from TV for most of the year. The most recent appearance on the B-Team was on Smackdown a few weeks ago, losing to Roman Reigns, despite having a 2-on-1 advantage and a special guest enforcer biased in their favour, so that should tell you all you need to know about how Bo’s done on main roster.

17 – Bobby Roode

Days as NXT Champion: 202
Called Up On: Smackdown 8/22/17
Best Match Since Callup: vs Ricochet on Raw 4/22/19
Championships Since Callup: 1x United States Championship, 1x Tag Team Championship

It seemed so easy…

When it comes to NXT Champions, there were few who did better character work than Bobby Roode. From the moment he entered the brand of black and yellow, he set out his mission statement and everything he did during his time as champion was in service of that mission. He was the best heel that NXT would ever have until Tommaso Ciampa came about, so please explain to me why, upon his main roster debut, he was a smiling, “just happy to be there” babyface?

It boggles the mind that this was the approach they took when Bobby Roode debuted on the main roster. I get that people were always going to cheer him on his debut, and having him pop the crowds and stuff for his debut match is fine, but afterwards, you need to turn him back into the character that allows him to soar. Unfortunately, this didn’t happen and it left Roode as a character with seemingly no direction, that no-one really wanted to get behind.

It didn’t help that his debut feud was with a heel Dolph Ziggler, who is one of the most boring characters of the modern era, and only ever beat him via roll-up. Roode would eventually win the United States Championship by defeating Jinder Mahal for the vacant belt after Ziggler vacated it for precisely no reason whatsoever. Any potential this win had for Roode was quickly dashed as Roode would have a couple of ok defences of the title before dropping it to Randy Orton in unceremonious fashion.

This would get him a match on the Wrestlemania main card for the title, but he was significantly overshadowed by the white-hot popularity of Rusev, and would eventually lose the match to Jinder Mahal. This lead to a good few months of Roode doing next to nothing on TV, before teaming up with Chad Gable for no apparent reason. This team would stop and start a lot during their time, and while they did win the Raw Tag Team Championships, this was during a time of very low prestige for the titles, where pretty much every team on Raw would win them at some point.

Now he’s split from Gable again, shaved his moustache and demanding we all call him “Robert Roode” who sounds like an uncle of a friend you don’t know all that well, things could potentially be looking up for him, but based on what he’s been doing so far on main roster, I’m not getting my hopes up.

16 – Ember Moon

Days as NXT Women’s Champion: 139
Called Up On: Raw 4/9/18
Best Match Since Callup: Women’s Money in the Bank 2018
Championships Since Callup: None

Ember Moon is one of a few strange cases that we have to tackle at this point in the list because she hasn’t really been on main roster long enough to do anything of note at this point. Admittedly there are plenty of entries later on this list that contradict that statement, but when it comes to the women’s division unless your name is Charlotte Flair, it can take a while for someone to rise to prominence.

Ember also wasn’t helped by an unfortunate injury that befell her at the end of January, taking her out of action for a number of months. All of this means it’s pretty hard to rank her any higher than this. It’s not like she’s been ruined and made to look like a fool, but that’s mostly because she hasn’t really done anything yet. I’m sure (and I hope) that will change in the years to come, but as of right now, there’s nothing really to shout about.

15 – Aleister Black

Days as NXT Champion: 108
Called Up On: Raw 2/18/19
Best Match Since Callup: w/ Ricochet vs The Usos vs The Bar vs Shinsuke Nakamura & Rusev at Wrestlemania 35
Championships Since Callup: None

Much like Ember Moon, Aleister Black suffers from the problem of not having been around on main roster long enough to have made that big of a splash. However, I would argue that he’s managed to make a much bigger impact since moving to main roster than Ember Moon has, in less than half the time, thanks to being paired with Ricochet.

Black & Ricochet being paired up almost immediately upon their debuts turned out to be a blessing in disguise, it stopped these two from getting lost in the shuffle over the course of the past few months and kept a constant spotlight on them. While Black & Ricochet wouldn’t claim any titles as a pair they went on a tear, defeating almost every tag team on both Raw and Smackdown as the weeks progressed.

Not only this, but they had some excellent, and pretty high profile matches, such as the Triple Threat Tag match at Fastlane, where their talents were front and center for the whole match, and one of the better matches on the Wrestlemania 35 card in the 4 Way for the Smackdown Tag Titles; where once again, the pairing were allowed to shine the whole way through.

Now the pair have been split up, we’re yet to see what level of success Aleister Black has as a singles star on Smackdown since he’s only been cutting promos from a dark and smokey room so far. This could go nowhere, but it shows that the writing team are at least trying to invest in the character enough to keep him relevant for the time being, which is generally a good sign.

14 – Andrade “Cien” Almas

Days as NXT Championship: 139
Called Up On: Smackdown 4/17/18
Best Match Since Callup: vs Daniel Bryan 9/4/18
Championships Since Callup: None

The man now known simply as “Andrade”, Almas is a pretty weird case when comparing him to others on the list. He hasn’t had a great deal of success in terms of wins and losses, and he has spent a lot of time absent from TV, however, he always seems to be in the general consciousness of Smackdown ever since he first showed up.

Although he would almost always come out on the losing end, Andrade has had many brilliant matches against brilliant opponents, and slowly but surely building up his star power. Matches against men like AJ Styles, Daniel Bryan and Rey Mysterio have been slowly cementing Andrade as a mainstay of the Smackdown live roster, and a couple of high profile wins against Rey Mysterio and Intercontinental Champion Finn Balor as of late have positioned him for some potentially great things to come.

He arguably hasn’t made as big as a splash as Black in his time on the main roster, but he seems to be in a much more overall solid position in the current hierarchy of WWE, which is arguably better in the long term. That said, he hasn’t done all that much yet, so I can’t really put him any higher than I have.

13 – Adrian Neville

Days as NXT Champion: 286
Called Up On: Raw 3/30/15
Best Match Since Callup: vs Seth Rollins on Raw 8/3/15
Championships Since Callup: 2x Cruiserweight Championship

Neville is one that I found quite tricky to place when everything is taken into account.

Neville was brought up to the main roster with a lot of hype behind him. He was short but shredded beyond belief and he was able to move with a speed and fluidity that we’d never seen in WWE before and it was absolutely mind-blowing. When he debuted in 2015, WWE seemed to flip flop between treating like total trash and their next top star. On the one hand, he was slumming by losing to King Barrett of all people, but then suddenly the next week he would go and have an amazing match with WWE Champion Seth Rollins and was able to pin him for the three, only for it not to count due to a technicality.

In addition to this, for the longest time, he had one of the most protected finishers in the company in the Red Arrow, not even John Cena kicked out of it, with big match John being dead to rights after a Red Arrow, only for Rusev to break up the pin. This kind of back and forth would happen a whole bunch over through 2015 and 2016 until eventually, Neville would go down with an injury that took him out of action in late 2016, which would take him out of action until early the next year.

When Neville came back, he had a renewed fire seemingly lit under him. Now a heel, Neville had traded in his young fresh-faced look for a grizzled beard and a snarling expression that sent shivers through my spine, spitting vile at everyone in the Cruiserweight Division. Neville would do everything he could to bring the quickly floundering Cruiserweight Division to prominence in WWE, and he had a pretty entertaining run as Cruiserweight Championship, during which Austin Aries threw a strop and walked out of the company, which was nice.

Unfortunately, we now have to address the elephant in the room.

Neville would eventually lose his Cruiserweight Championship, to the world-renowned piece of human shit Enzo Amore, and upon finding out he would be taking another loss to the man one night on Raw, he walked out of WWE, never to return. Given that Sasha Banks is still undecided on her future in WWE, as of the time of writing, Neville is the only person on this list to no longer be with WWE, which does drag him down a bit in terms of these rankings.

Sure he’s crushing it on the independent scene and is probably about to tear the house down against Hangman Page at AEW’s Double or Nothing later this month, but in terms of his run on main roster WWE, it’s a major thumbs down.

12 – Samoa Joe

Days as NXT Champion: 134
Called Up On: 1/30/17
Best Match Since Callup: vs AJ Styles at Summerslam 2018
Championships Since Callup: 2x United States Championship

I had trouble placing Samoa Joe on this list, because when you think about his 2 and a half years on the main roster generally it seems like he should be higher up, but when you look into the details, there isn’t really that much great stuff to be had.

His debut was a good start, with him coming to Triple H’s aid when then the King of Kings was feuding with Seth Rollins in the build-up to Wrestlemania 33. Unfortunately, Joe’s shocking sneak attack wouldn’t come without its problems, as a wonky takedown of the soon-to-be Kingslayer would reinjure Rollins’ problematic knee and throw his Wrestlemania clash with Triple H up in the air. Luckily Rollins would recover in time for that match, and injuring Rollins opened up some great story opportunities for Joe going forward as an absolute monster.

Joe would continue with this momentum the next week by defeating Roman Reigns thanks to an assist from Braun Strowman, and would subsequently destroy Sami Zayn at the Fastlane PPV. Unfortunately, the next few months weren’t great for Joe, with him being left completely off of the Wrestlemania 33 card, and then having a pretty underwhelming match with Seth Rollins at Payback the next month, where he would come out on the losing end.

The next year or so was full of ups and down for the Samoan Submission Machine. For every awesome match with Brock Lesnar, there was a boring match with Roman Reigns, and for every dominant performance at Summerslam, there was a 5-second loss to Drew Mcintyre at Survivor Series. Then came the summer of 2018, and Joe’s WWE Championship feud with AJ Styles.

The feud started off great. Joe is one of the best promo guys in the company right now and whenever he was given mic time he would make the most of it; turning to AJ’s daughter and claiming that “I’ll be your new daddy” is something none of us will forget in a hurry. Unfortunately, the pair would only have one match that was anything worth shouting about before shoddy finishes and way too many matches would leave us all wishing the feud would just end.

Luckily Joe looks to be on the up and up again now, with a United States Championship win and a dominant defence of said title at Wrestlemania 35, but it wouldn’t surprise me if yet another down is just beyond the horizon.

11 – Shinsuke Nakamura

Days as NXT Champion: 147
Called Up On: Smackdown 4/4/17
Best Match Since Callup: vs AJ Styles at Wrestlemania 34
Championships Since Callup: 1x United States Championship

That’ll teach us to get our hopes up.

Nakamura sits alongside Roode as one of the biggest examples of an NXT Alumni to be “ruined” by main roster writing and booking, and while it’s true that Nakamura’s time on the main roster hasn’t exactly been what we’d hoped for, it’s certainly not without its merits.

How Nakamura was handled during his first couple of months can be argued as both a good and a bad thing. On the one hand, they treated his debut match as a huge deal, and saving it for a PPV was a great way to build up some mystique around him. Unfortunately, that match was against a heel Dolph Ziggler and I’m already falling asleep with boredom. His second match was then against Baron Corbin, and now I think I might’ve slipped into a coma.

Then he was launched pretty quickly into a big Summerslam feud for the WWE Championship. Great right? Well, technically yes it is a good thing, but it was against none other than Jinder Mahal, who made racist comments about eastern Asian people…yikes. It would get worse, since not only would Nakamura lose to Jinder, twice, but they would be matches so very boring I can’t remember a single detail about them thinking back to it right now, but I imagine the Singh Brothers got involved on multiple occasions.

Still, there was hope on the horizon, as Shinsuke Nakamura would win the 2018 Royal Rumble, in what ended up being one of the best Royal Rumble matches in the history of the gimmick and an epic clash with AJ Styles was on the horizon for Wrestlemania 34. There’s no way they could mess this up right?

…right?

As to whether or not they messed the Mania match itself up is really a matter of perspective. It was a brilliant match, however, it wasn’t anywhere near as good as the pair’s encounter at New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Wrestle Kingdom 13 event from the previous year, so many fans came away disappointed. In addition to this, Nakamura didn’t win, which seemed like an odd decision, however, he did turn heel which seemed like a great move and a genius way to keep Nakamura’s momentum going in defeat.

Unfortunately (I’m saying that a lot in this list…), the feud would continue with most of the matches being pretty disappointing. We got a match at the Greatest Royal Rumble event that would end in a disqualification, a match at Backlash that would end in a double KO thanks to simultaneous dick kicks and finally a pretty good Last Man Standing match at Money in the Bank. Nakamura would once again come out on the losing end at Money in the Bank and he quickly sank back down the card, obliterating Jeff Hardy to take his United States Championship before completely disappearing off of TV for seemingly no reason.

Through no fault of his own, the United States Championship would fall to the least prestigious point it’s been in for year while over Nakamura’s shoulder, thanks to a severe lack of title defenses and almost no appearances on PPV, save for an excellent match against Intercontinental Champion Seth Rollins at Survivor Series; although that wasn’t a title defence and Nakamura didn’t win, so make of that what you will. Most recently Nakamura has teamed up with Rusev and the pair were the afterthought in the 4 way for the Smackdown Tag Team titles at Wrestlemania 35.

Honestly, you could argue Nakamura should be lower down on this list, and I wouldn’t necessarily disagree, but personally, I think his highest moments were some of the best in recent memory, and while it doesn’t erase all of the bad, it certainly pulls him up more than you’d think.

So that’s part 1! Let me know what you think of the list so far in the comments below or on Twitter @10ryawoo and make sure to come back on Saturday for part 2.