Tag: NXT

Every Current Championship in WWE Ranked

A debate that never seems to end on the internet is just how important wrestling championship title belts actually are. Some insist that they’re little more than props and storytelling devices, while others claim they embody the company they represent and are dripping with all the heritage of everyone who has held it. Personally, I think there’s a case to be made that putting too much weight in a championship can be a bad thing, but at the same time, I like shiny things and wrestling titles are among the shiniest.

WWE is currently awash in championships, with no less than 5 different brands all with at least one championship (often more) to their name, so as someone who has spent far too much money on replica title belts, I thought it’d be a fun idea to rank all of the titles currently in WWE from worst to best. The only rule here is that title belts that are just pallet swaps of each other (for example, the Raw Tag Titles and the Smackdown Tag Titles) will be grouped into a single entry.

I’d also like to make it clear that I’m ranking these titles on DESIGN ALONE, I’m not taking into account things like heritage, prestige or the current champions. With that out of the way, let’s get right into it.

13 – 24/7 Championship

There’s no denying that all of the 24/7 title skits have been on WWE shows this year have been great. The title has provided us with a whole host of genuinely entertaining and funny moments as a hoard of wrestlers chase each other around the arena trying to hold the title for just 5 minutes if they can. It’s provided a nice beam of light to break up gruelling 3-hour shows and doesn’t seem to be losing steam anytime soon.

However, the title itself looks like a child’s toy.

Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter that this title looks crap because it’s designed to be tossed around all the time and change hands at least 3 times on any given night. It’s a title that isn’t really supposed to mean anything in the grand scheme of things so not a lot of effort went into designing it and it shows. I quite like the dark green & gold colour combo, but all three of the plates on it look like they’re badly glued on and have absolutely no detail to speak of.

Like I’ve said, it’s not a title that needs to look good in any way, but that doesn’t excuse it from the fact that it looks like a 4th-grade arts and craft project.

12 – Raw/Smackdown Tag Team Championships

These titles are an interesting case because although I don’t like these designs, I did quite like the look of the previous designs that existed before the brand split, which consisted of bronze plates and a black strap. Unfortunately, I’m here to judge the current designs, not the previous one and these really don’t tickle my fancy in the slightest.

The problem here is entirely down to the colour because the Red & Silver and Blue & Silver combo just don’t come together for these titles. I understand that you need Red and Blue to represent Raw and Smackdown, but both of these colours only serve to make the silver of the main plates look cheap as hell. The thing is, I don’t think that bronze or gold plates would look any better with the blue or red either, perhaps even worse.

I quite like the actual designs on the plates themselves and they’re very easily identifiable as tag team championships, but you’d need a complete redesign on the colour scheme to make them work.

11 – Cruiserweight Championship

Ok, so I need to make it clear that from this point onwards in the list, I like all of these title designs. A lot of them aren’t anything to set the world on fire of course, but I wouldn’t classify any of these titles from this point onwards in the list as “bad”.

I feel like I should like the Cruiserweight championship design a lot more than I do because it’s got just about everything I like when it comes to title designs. The main plate is an unconventional shape with a lot of detail all around, the side plates frame the belt perfectly and the strap is purple, which is my favourite colour and yet when I compare it to all the other titles on this list it ends up falling down to 3rd from bottom.

In a horrific twist, I think it’s the purple on the strap that’s ruining the design. If it were darker then maybe it would work, but as it stands, the purple is quite a bright shade and it makes the whole thing feel a bit cheap. It means that when I look at the main plates, I see tin, not silver and it brings the whole thing down as a result. Not to mention there was that one-time Kalisto brought out a version of the championship with a black strap instead and it looks gorgeous, but we never saw that version of the title again.

10 – Raw/Smackdown Women’s Championship

There’s an argument to be made here that these are just pallet swaps of the WWE Championship, which is absolutely true, but I think there are enough differences to warrant a separate entry in the list.

These titles are ones that I’ve actually slowly grown less and less fond of overtime. When the new women’s championship (now Raw women’s championship) was unveiled, I thought it was a thing of beauty, I’m a sucker for a white strap and the coloured background made it stand out bright and bold, but as the years have gone by, I’ve soured on them.

I still like the white strap, but now it’s the coloured background that rubs me the wrong way instead. As I mentioned earlier, I’m not the biggest fan of the “Red for Raw, Blue for Smackdown” mentality WWE has taken to title designs in recent years and now I think that – like with the cruiserweight title -the bright colours serve to cheapen the look of the title as a whole and I can’t help but feel I would prefer something a lot more regal looking for the women of WWE, perhaps more reminiscent of AEW’s Women’s Championship.

9 – United Kingdom Tag Team Championships

These titles are somehow simultaneously over-designed AND under-designed.

At a glance, these titles actually look quite nice, but when you take the time to look at them for an extended period of time, a few problems surface pretty quickly. The first, and biggest, one is the fact the main plates have way too much on them. There’s the reef design to border it, the UK Lion & Unicorn either side of the main plates, in the same colour as the reef and then both sides of the globe AND the NXT logo in the middle, it’s far too much. If either the reef or the stuff in the middle was coloured silver instead of gold then I think it might work, but as it stands the whole thing is one colour and it just looks overdesigned to all hell.

Then you look outside the main plate and realise that there’s nothing else of interest on the entire belt. For one thing, the main plate looks a bit too small on the strap anyway but side plates are the standard WWE Logo in a circle which is so boring, especially compared to the main plate right next to it. Also, I don’t think the strip of metal between the main and side plates is necessary, it seems to space the plates out too far.

Of course, I have still ranked this higher than a couple of belts I’ve seemed more positive about, but the fact is I’d rather have an overdesigned championship like this one, than a really basic one like the Raw & SD tag titles.

8 – WWE/Universal Championship

Ok, let’s make this clear, if I had ranked the Universal title separately then it would’ve only been just about the 24/7 title because the red is horrible, but I quite like the black strapped WWE title design so I’m mainly focusing on that here.

There is an argument to be made here that this base design is quite boring and while I don’t necessarily disagree with that, I think it’s relative plainness works in its favour. It’s quite a simple design, with a jewel-encrusted WWE logo, bordered by more jewels and a small plate with “World Heavyweight Champion” at the bottom directly on the leather.

For some people, this design is way too little, but I really like the look of it. It’s clean and clear in what’s it’s communicating, with many other belts you often have to focus for a couple of seconds to notice the logo in amongst all the gold and silver patterns (*cough*AEW*cough*) but when you look at this, there is instantly no mistaking what championship this is and who it belongs to. I also love the personalised side-plates, it adds so much more character to a title than the simple nameplate and although that feature has made it’s way to several other titles in WWE now, this one did it first.

7 – United Stated Championship

If you had asked me to draw what I think an unapologetic American wrestling company would have as the design for their United States Championship, what I draw wouldn’t look very dissimilar from this title. There is no way you could ever wonder what this title is for, it’s loud and proud, plastered with enough red, white and blue to make an army general think they have to salute it and I love it.

I’m speaking as a non-American here, but I get a kick out of how in-your-face this title is, so much so that I look at the old WCW and laugh at how pitiful it looks in comparison. Aside from the bold colours, the WWE logo, nameplate and central text are positioned in the right places to ground the title a bit and stop it from being WAY too much. It’s undeniably gaudy, but that’s arguably the point and it makes it a lot of fun to look at.

6 – Women’s Tag Team Championships

These belts take some of the best elements of both the tag titles and the women’s titles to make an incredibly elegant looking title belt.

First off, the unorthodox shape is a great place to start, I honestly think the four prongs along make this championship look so much better than it would do as just a flat circle. Then there are the colours which are spot on, the gold is noticeably lighter than on most of the other titles but I think that adds to the effect and goes really well with the silver on the plate and the white on the strap.

Using the gold as a framing for the silver was a nice touch too, but the arrangement of them is what brings this design to its true form. The rings of gold and silver specifically serve to draw your eyes right into the centre of the title, where the words “TAG TEAM” stand loud and proud. The reef that goes around the silver ring is a nice touch to stop it from looking too plain and creates that nice sense of elegance I mentioned. It’s just a shame we don’t get to see these titles on TV all that often…

5 – NXT Tag Team Championships

This title is an interesting one, because there’s a lot to it at first glance, to the point where I wouldn’t blame you if you saw it as over-designed, but there’s a big difference between these and the UK tag titles.

The main plate has a lot going on with it (a feature of most NXT titles) but here everything comes together in a much better way than on the UK tag titles for two major reasons. The first is shape, not the shape of the plate necessarily (although I do like that) but the shapes on the design itself, most of it is very rigid and pointy, there are clear lines and bordered between each segment, which allows the only circle on there to stand out and highlight the NXT logo in the centre.

The other reason is the colour. The gold is all over the title, but it actually only serves as a frame for the centrepiece of the title, it’s there to keep the aesthetic of NXT clear with the black and gold, everything important in the centre of the title is actually in silver, which makes it stand out so much better. Not to mention that gold, silver and black are colours that go well together. It all comes together to create a design that’s got a lot going on with it, but not so much going on that you feel overwhelmed.

4 – Men’s/Women’s United Kingdom Championship

It would’ve been really easy when designing this championship to just pallette-swap the US title with a Union Flag and call it a day, but I’m very glad they took a different route because I love this title.

To get my only major complaint out of the way first, I’m not a big fan of the shape being identical to that of the WWE Championship, I think that is a shape that only works for that particular championship and I wish something a bit more creative could’ve been done with it. Outside of that issue though, this ticks all my boxes.

I’m usually not a fan of one plain colour (in this case, gold) but I think it works in this instance. The whole aesthetic WWE set forth for NXT UK was focusing on the regalness and typical colours therein, so keeping most of the main plate gold and black doesn’t bother me, plus the red of the shield in the centre breaks it up enough so that it doesn’t become plain. Then there’s the actual design, which follows that of the UK coat of arms. I think that design looks great at the best of time, but seeing it on this title made me love it all the more, it’s framed so perfectly that it makes the shape of the belt itself not seem as bad and the banners reading “United Kingdom Championship” at the top and bottom fill in what would’ve been empty space very nicely.

While I wish the shape was something more interesting, I think the design of this title is the perfect fit for NXT UK and just looking at it creates an air of prestige for the division.

3 – North American Championship

Whoever came to the realisation that a burgundy strap was the way to go, I hope you got a raise for the idea.

For the most part, I’d agree that any colour strap other than black or white is a bad idea, I’ve talked about it already with the men’s tag and cruiserweight titles, but this is one of those rare instances where a different colour adds so much to the effect of the title. The burgundy colour invokes this old school feel – as many championships from the ’60s and ’70s had similarly coloured straps – and given that the main appeal of NXT is the insanely high match quality, a more old-school looking championship is a perfect choice.

The main plate had quite a simplistic design, but I think that adds to the overall feel of the championship, if it had been much more than what it is, it would’ve felt overdesigned and at odds with the rest of the belt. The colours are a perfect choice, there’s a more yellowish-gold than we’re used to seeing on titles, but it goes perfectly with the burgundy of the strap and the black and silver being the main colours of the centre plate keep the design simplistic without looking plain.

This title was able to stand out amongst the very high-quality crop of NXT Championships, creating a division that feels surprisingly different from the main event scene in the best way.

2 – Intercontinental Championship

The Intercontinental Championship has gone through several designs over the years, but I’m very glad they eventually went back to this classic design because the 2000s version of the title looked awful.

First off, it’s got a white strap, which instantly gets bonus points because white straps look brilliant on championships, especially ones like this that are almost entirely gold in colour. The shape is also a brilliant choice, it doesn’t quite conform to the standard shape of most other wrestling championships (especially not in WWE) and I really love the slimmer look on the main plate, it sits really well across the lower torso when it’s worn.

As for the plate itself, there’s just the right amount of detail. The banners displaying the name of the title are in the perfect places, sitting at the exact right size to draw all the attention to the globe in the middle, where the blue of the ocean break up all the gold and add an extra dash of the character to the whole thing. Then when you look around the plate, there are only a couple more things to look at, mostly just the stars which help to frame the globe in the centre a bit better and are just generally some nice details.

Finally, there’s a brilliant touch on the side plates where, instead of just having WWE logos, there are little pictures of some traditional wrestling holds which is a good shout back to when the IC championship was seen as “the workhorse belt”. I honestly can’t find any major flaws with this design and I hope the prestige of the title sees a nice increase over the next year or so to match that.

1 – NXT Men’s/Women’s Championship

The NXT title is a work of art as far I’m concerned, it manages to blend a traditional feeling championship with modern title design and it’s unmatched in the WWE right now.

The shape of the title invokes those traditional vibes for me, having a somewhat similar shape to WCW’s “Big Gold Belt”, only with pointier edges. The irregular octagon on its own wouldn’t be the more interesting design, bu the prominence of the “X” in the middle that breaks out of the main plate means that it’s much more interesting to look at. When you look at the inside of the plate things get even better, the “X” remains the focal point of the plate and way it’s outlined with thick black lines and filled in with gold looks brilliant, not only that but the grooves it has all the way through add a layer of depth when you’re looking at the title and stops the centre of the main plate from being filled with nothing.

The side plates only add to this effect, it allows the idea of the WWE championship to be kept with the customisable side-plates but makes sure they’re not just circles like every other title with them. Instead, they keep with the NXT aesthetic of sharp shapes and clear cut designs, bringing in a square that points out on the far edges to better frame the main plate and makes the whole thing feel like one big shape that’s been broken up a bit.

This title has a sense of controlled chaos to its design, it keeps in line with the feel of all the other NXT Titles while making sure it stands out on its own merit, knowing exactly where to place the colours and make sure that every little detail on all of the plates are exactly right and that’s why it’s my favourite championship in WWE today.

 

NXT Takeover: Toronto 2019: Every Match Ranked

I feel like we say this every time an NXT Takeover show has finished but holy crap what a show!

As usual, this show did not fail to deliver the goods when it came to its action and once again I came away from it feeling incredibly satisfied and a bit blown away by the fantastic wrestling that was gifted to us last night. Although the show as a whole isn’t in the running for best Takeover ever unlike seemingly the rest of them from this year are, there were still some matches in here which I’d rank among the best to ever take place on a Takeover. Not to mention, even a sub-par Takeover would still be better than most wrestling shows on the planet.

Still, among this heavy competition which matches rose to the top? Let’s discuss it as I rank every match from NXT Takeover: Toronto 2019.

5 – Shayna Baszler(c) def. Mia Yim
(NXT Women’s Championship)

When a match like this happens of a Takeover it’s always a bit difficult to talk about because as much as this match was still great, it wasn’t quite up to the very high standard we’ve come to expect from these shows.

That said, similar to Bianca Belair’s match against Baszler, this was a great showcase for Mia Yim. While I’d been enjoying her work on NXT TV, it wasn’t until now that I felt like I had a good sense of who she was as a wrestler. Baszler did what Baszler does best for a big chunk of this match – being domineering and mean spirited – but for the first time in her title matches, it seemed like there was extra emphasis on Baslzer showing weakness.

After some great moments where Yim took a couple of cheap shots and gave Baszler a taste of her own medicine, Baszler did a brilliant job of playing the victim for a bit. In the end it served both characters well, it showed us that Mia Yim isn’t afraid to get her hands dirty and isn’t going to try and be a pure face if it gets in the way of her goals, while to the contrary it grew the sense of intelligence and strategic mastery of Shayna Baszler, with her taking no time at all to realise her injured arm made the Kirifuda Clutch impractical and seamlessly switched to a brutal looking leg choke.

This might not quite have been as good as we were hoping but it was still a brilliant showcase for Mia Yim and laid the groundwork to further this feud going into the autumn.

4 – The Street Profits(c) def. The Undisputed Era
(NXT Tag Team Championship)

NXT Tag Title matches seem to be the perfect show openers.

Seeing The Street Profits spouting bollocks every week on Raw this past month or so almost made me forget that they’re brilliant wrestlers as well. This matchup was a great contrast of styles between Profits and UE and it made for some great phases in the action as O’Reilly and Fish tried desperately to stop Dawkins and Ford from gaining any kind of momentum, although it was ultimately futile.

As always, this match reached it’s peak once things descended in chaos and everyone started flinging themselves about everywhere. Almost all of the action in the second half of this match perfectly incorporated all four guys in order to create some really fun sequences. I really wasn’t expecting The Street Profits to win, but ultimately I think it’s the right decision, partly because they had much more to lose if they dropped the titles and also it means we won’t be losing them from NXT anytime soon, which is always the best.

3 – Io Shirai def. Candice LeRae

First off, can we just take a second to appreciate how AMAZING Io looked last night?

Admittedly, I wasn’t into this match early on, but around the halfway mark things really picked up. I’m a little salty about the reports saying that the original plan for this match was Io vs Kairi, but that doesn’t take away from how great this match ended up being. I’ve not been over familiar with Candice as a wrestler until now but I can most certainly say I was impressed by this performance.

By the same token, even though I’ve never seen Io’s work as a heel before she joined NXT, it’s obvious from her performance here that she’s an absolute natural at it. One of my main criticisms about Io so far in NXT was her general lack of a persona, but all of those complaints have been totally washed away with this match because everything she did was dripping in personality.

In addition to that, you throw on a match with a lot of fast-paced and impressive looking action (including one of the best looking top rope Spanish Flys I’ve ever seen) and a couple of shocking kick-outs from Candice and this was a brilliant way to get people behind both characters going forward.

2 – Velveteen Dream(c) def. Pete Dunne & Roderick Strong
(North American Championship)

I swear, any other show this would’ve been number 1.

It’s been a long time since we’ve seen a triple threat match on a Takeover and it’s generally a type of match that I always find fun to watch even when I don’t particularly care for the participants, so when the idea of such a match where the participants are the best character in NXT, one of the best technical wrestlers in NXT and Pete fucking Dunne, I was pretty excited and sure enough, this match did not disappoint.

The action in this match was paced to perfection, I enjoyed when all three men were jockeying for position early on and quite honestly I was ready to praise this match for being brilliant by the two-minute mark, but things only got better from there. There was very little time in this match where any one man was down and out, it was an almost constant rolling line of these three men in the ring together and it made for some brilliant watching.

My favourite part of the match was easily the finish because of how out of nowhere it was. I really thought Strong was going to win when he sent Dream flying and hit the End of Heartache on Dunne, but unbelievably Dream suddenly dropped out of the sky to shitcan Strong and steal the pin, incredible stuff. That’s just one spot in a 20-minute match where the action never lets up, definitely one of my favourite matches of the year so far. However…

1 – Adam Cole(c) def. Johnny Gargano
(NXT Championship)
(3 Stages of Hell)

Let’s face it, nothing on this show could’ve topped this match.

I’ve seen some criticize this match for being “overindulgent” and at 50 minutes I can understand where those people are coming from, however, I think this was paced really well.

The first fall was necessary to ramp up the tension and intensity going into the following two. There was plenty of great action the whole way through the first fall and I was very much a fan of how the finish to that fall played out. I knew Cole was never going to be stupid enough to give up a fall like that, but teasing it only for Gargano to be the one to do it was brilliant.

The second fall seems like the kind of match I normally label as boring but something about how these two went about throwing each other around the arena worked for me. It was slower than the other two falls but given how long this match ended up being, we needed it to catch our breath before some of the mental shit that happened during the final fall.

I wasn’t sure about the weapons-based cage when I first heard about it, but I think these two did a great job at avoiding the gimmicky feel that came across when Ambrose & Jericho did this a couple of years ago, also the faces of Gargano and Cole as the cage descended was a nice little touch. As I mentioned this was in danger of crossing into the gimmicky territory, but every weapon was worked seamlessly into every spot it was in, the only time the action ever really stopped was in order to set up the finish which is quite impressive for a match as long as this.

The spectacle in this match was through the roof and I felt it helped aid this idea that Gargano and Cole’s whole rivalry is being encapsulated in one match. I’m still undecided on whether this was my favourite match of their trilogy, but it’s certainly close.

So that’s what I thought of NXT Takeover: Toronto! Thank you very much for- Oh there’s Matt Riddle!

Anyway, thank you very much for reading, let me know what you thought of the show on Twitter @10ryawoo or in the comments below. Make sure you come back here Monday where I’ll be giving my thoughts of tonight’s Summerslam!

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.