NXT Analysis By Brandon Lasher

Welcome to the NXT Analysis. I have loved writing about NXT for over a year now for TJR Wrestling. While John is handling the weekly reviews, I realized how much I missed writing about my favorite pro wrestling show. The NXT event I attended in San Jose this March might be my favorite wrestling event I have ever attended. And remember I attended WrestleMania 31 just two days later.

With that in mind, I am starting a new column called NXT Analysis. It will be a monthly column that will analyze the three title divisions and anything else I think should be covered in the show. In today’s column, I focus on the fallout to the three title divisions after the solid NXT Takeover: Unstoppable show.

Tag Team Titles

Can we really call this a division at this point? Besides giving me a seizure with their entrances, Blake and Murphy haven’t really stood out as tag team champions. Their biggest contributions seems to be changing their hairstyles at this point.

The problem is depth. The division seems to consist of the tag champions along with Enzo Amore and Big Cass. The challengers may be very charismatic duo but their matches with the champions haven’t really clicked yet. I am pretty sure they will get more chances in the future to prove that this feud works.

The bigger problem is that other teams have disappeared or never win. Wrestlers like Marcus Louis, Jason Jordan, Tye Dillinger, Scott Dawson, Sawyer Fulton, Angelo Dawkins and Dash Wilder have had some time in the tag division but cannot seem to win or even keep consistent teams.

The biggest issue is the disappearance of The Vaudevillains. They were loved at the San Jose show and simply have disappeared in the past month of NXT shows. They are one of the most entertaining tag teams in NXT and the only other well-established team at this point. They need to return to television soon if we care going to have a solid division again.

Women’s Championship

The last three Women’s title matches at NXT: Takeover specials (Charlotte-Sasha Banks, Fatal 4 Way and Sasha Banks-Becky Lynch) have arguably been the best match of each show and raised the stakes for women’s wrestling in the WWE. It is hard to ignore that quality and through #givedivasachance has pushed women’s wrestling in the mainstream audience for the first time in years.

The question is how many combinations of the four main wrestlers (Bayley, Sasha Banks, Becky Lynch and Charlotte) can we see in NXT? We have already seen all of them wrestle each other repeatedly and it begs the question where they go from here.

Charlotte has little left to prove. She has multiple matches with especially Sasha and Bayley. She has fallen into the rut of playing “Bayley’s protective friend” and seems a little lost in the storylines. She really needs to move to the main roster soon. They need the help more then NXT.

Sasha needs another challenger. Her match with Becky Lynch deserves a rematch and we really haven’t had a real Sasha-Bayley feud. It seems a good place to go for the amazingly talented Sasha Banks in the coming months as Charlotte moves up to the main roster. There is no need to rush both to the main show and watch them get both get lost in the shuffle of Raw and Smackdown.

The question is what the future holds after the main four women of the NXT roster? Emma seems to be playing the veteran wrestler role by coming down from the main roster (sort of) to assist putting over the talent. That seems to be a temporary stopgap solution. Alexa Bliss is talented but still very raw. Carmella and Dana Brooke seem even greener. They need a lot more time to work in the division. So basically the roster is very thin right now and the WWE needs to think about the long-term future for this standout division.

The NXT Championship

It is amazing how quickly Kevin Owens has taken over the NXT roster. He is an extremely talented worker who has moved up the ladder very quickly. I do wonder how he is going to balance feuding with John Cena and Samoa Joe at the same time. Both the main roster and NXT need Owens but I don’t know if it possible to balance both.

Samoa Joe comes to the NXT roster at the right time. The injuries and main roster losses created a huge void and a name like Joe can fill that hole. Matches with Owens, Balor, Rhyno and Breeze are exciting to think about and can help carry the show in the second half of 2015.

Finn Balor is in an interesting place. He is now the number one contender and could benefit from another feud with Kevin Owens. It seems very important he beats Kevin Owens before Owens moves to the main roster full time. It would waste building the top face in NXT if it were not done.

Breeze is in a critical place. He is pretty over with the NXT crowd and has seemed stuck just below being the top heel on the show for a few months now. Since he seems to have lost a lot of the number one contender’s matches and other main event matches, he is in an important crossroads. With Owens flirting with the main roster, I think Breeze should fill the heel gap.

Final Thoughts-

Thus ends the first edition of NXT Analysis. I was certainly worried about NXT with the injuries of Hideo Itami and Sami Zayn. Both were on the verge of really stepping up their games to the next level. I was worried how they would replace their talent on the NXT Roster. I think we call safely say that Samoa Joe can fill in the gap nicely.

The talent is still clearly in NXT. The issue is finding the right balance when key talent moves up to the main roster. You cannot lose the level of the talent that NXT recently without it affecting the Full Sail shows. The NXT needs to develop depth in each title division if 2015 is going to be as amazing as 2014.

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Feel free to contact me at lasher@pacificu.edu. Additionally, I have my Twitter account, WWEBNRL as well. I would love to hear your thoughts on NXT.