Let’s keep a list of the debuts of NXT guys and girls to the main roster. Last night saw some, um, memorable first impressions of ‘superstars’
EC3: Shown in a split screen alongside Apollo Crews, Curt Hawkins and the B Team in a line of people asking for something (!) from Vince. Says nothing, gets zero reaction and leaves.
Nikki Cross: Joins Natalya and Bayley as they take on the Riott Squad for the 55th consecutive week in a 6-person tag.
Lacey Evans: Shown standing and talking backstage to Dana Brooke (who wasn’t identified) and someone else as Finn Balor heads to the ring before a commercial break. She says nothing.
Otis Dozovic: Interrupts the Moment of Bliss talk show by grunting, saying indiscernible things and staring at Alexa Bliss. This gets zero reaction, as no one in the crowd knows who he is.
Tucker Knight: Comes out to ‘help’ Dozovic with a bunch of refs. Again, no one knows who he is. The announcers seem confused.
Otis is DOA. Debuting as a babyface comedy character is death. Unless you’re a small guy who does cool moves or really well known outside of WWE debuting as a babyface in general is death but as a goofy comedy character especially. I can see it getting really ugly very quickly if tonight is any indication of what they do with him. I hope all the call ups debut as heels for the sake of their careers.
Totally agree. What was the purpose of that at all? No one knew who he was and he was just muttering incoherently. It made zero sense. Just horrible, awful stuff. Guys should be turning some of this shit down.
I know not everyone can debut coming in and killing someone, or challenging a top star (if there were any to challenge), but debuting waiting in a line with a bunch of losers to talk to the boss, chatting with a loser backstage and seemingly being there for no reason, and running out to yell about nothing and being stopped by another nobody (who is also debuting), are surefire ways to have the crowd think negatively about you before your actual debut promo or match.
Nikki Cross’ was not as bad, but why would she be teamed with Bayley and Natalya for any reason, ever?
Let’s face it, this pretty much prove that they really have no plans for any of them.
EC3 appearing in a backstage segment would have been good… If it wasn’t in a segment featuring all the WWE Main event guys. The fact that they put him in the same segment as Curt hawkins, The B team, Slater and Rhyno didn’t do him any favor and that’s sad because out of the group i thought he had the most upside.
Lacey evans talking to Mickie and Dana pretty much cement her position as a afterthought.
The heavy machinery skit was dumb as well and pretty much put them in the same category as the ascension which is a bad spot to be in
Finally nikki cross being put in a match was a decent step outside of the fact that they did the same thing a few months ago in england. Nikki either need to get put with Sanity or just get the fans to really understand the gimmick. By just putting her out there it make and letting her wrestled really doesn’t help her connect with the fans.
In the end, this was a bad way of introducing them and let’s face it, they are being called up mostly because WWE as nothing for them in NXT, most of them don’t fit in the WWE rosters and will be lower midcard wrestlers by the time mania arrive.
Playing Animal from the Muppets? What does that mean? I guess he needs a drum set. There was absolutely nothing obvious about that train wreck of a segment.
The Cross debut was the only one that was ok. The problem is that I think the character has a VERY short shelf life. They will run the “crazy” gimmick into the ground probably by next week.
Mandy Rose has been on the main roster for over a year now. When was the last time Otis did that with Mandy Rose? And how is anyone supposed to remember or care? Clearly no one did.
Aren’t you the same guy who talks about how stuff in NXT doesn’t work on the main roster? So why reference something no one remembers or cares about?
Wasn’t ‘Animal’ actually an established character on Muppets before he did that gag? Otis just appeared out of the blue and grunted like a moron. Slight difference
Animal been doing that gag from the first Muppet movie. And appearing out of the blue grunting like a moron and saying one word over and over is the gag verbatim.
Show was actually good from top to bottom but everyone choosing to focus on these debuts of people not even assigned to one show yet and being shopped around.
I’m going to be the bad guy again but WWE needs cuts. I think the only way you could have everyone on TV would be to have a third show like Raw or smackdown during the week. It’s that or cuts. Make your choice.
They’d rather have people take their money so they don’t “make a name for themselves” elsewhere…you can name only a handful of people who actually did that the past ten years.
while i’m one of those that feel that they really need to do a spring cleaning, i get why they don’T release anybody anymore. Especially now with AEW getting added to the mix of super indy fed. The last thing you want is somebody that been on the main roster going out and signing with one of those major fed.
It’s better to just sign them to long term contract and use them on live event and on main event then having them cash in on the WWE notoriety.
