Who is the NXT Big Thing In WWE?

Who is the Next Big Thing to come out of NXT? In this article we will be focusing on who we think will be the Next biggest star to come out of NXT and hit the main roster.

By David Travers

NXT is the developmental territory  for the WWE, and have produced without a doubt the best matches in the WWE, as the main roster have been slacking for some time. NXT on the other hand have just been rising up and up with stars such as Baron Corbin, Finn Balor, Jordan and Gable and Dasher and Wilder to name a few to those that have progressed onto the main roster; The Lucha Dragons, Kevin Owens ,Tyler Breeze, The Ascension and Neville.

But who will the the next star in the rough to shine through to the other side and make and impact on the main roster?  As those who have progressed are either now receiving pushes or have fallen out of the main picture. Such as The Ascension one time NXT tag champs, came onto the scene debuting on RAW on December 29th against The Miz and Damien Mizdow in a successful first match on the main roster.

They then established themselves as a heel team as they compared themselves to that of legendary tag teams such as  The Road Warriors, The House of Pain and Demolition.  To which they resemble due to their wasteland like gimmick and power house wrestling styles.

They then had a confrontation with the likes of APA (Bradshaw and Faarooq), NWO (Scott Hall, Kevin Nash, X-Pac) and New Age Outlaws  (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn) this resulted in The Ascension reviving a beat down from the legends for their troubles.

They then faced New Age Outlaws in a tag match at the Royal Rumble Pay-Per-View in which they emerged victorious.

They formed a stable with Stardust be called The Cosmic Wasteland, The Cosmic Wasteland team with Bo Dallas and The Miz in a  loss at the Survivor Series Pay-Per- View  against the team of The Dudley Boyz, Neville, Titus O’Neil and the returning Goldust.

They then returned to NXT, where they lost their first match back to Jordan and Gable.

Tyler Breeze  is the newest superstar from NXT to appear on the main roster. He debuted on October 22nd Monday Night RAW on the MIZ TV segment attacking Dolph Ziggler and gaining Summer Rae as a valet.  His first in ring debut came against Dean Ambrose  in the first round of the tournament to crown as new WWE World Heavyweight Champion, Breeze lost to Ambrose in the first round. In November Breeze began to feud with Dolph Ziggler who was looking for a bit of revenge after Breeze attack him back in October.

The two faced off at the Survivor Series  Pay-Per-View in which Breeze was the victor, but Breeze would lose the re match to Ziggler.

*Breeze and Ziggler should form a heel tag team, The NEW Hollywood Blondes, but I will save that for another article.*

The man that gravity forgot, flew into the WWE on Monday Night Raw on March 30th 2015 against Curtis Axel in a winning effort. The following week he faced then WWE World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins, Although Neville put up a valiant effort due to interference from J&J Security (Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury)  and lost the match.

He then made his first Pay-Per-View appearance on the main roster  on the pre-show of the Extreme Rules Pay-Per-View where he defeated Bad News Barrett. He would face Barrett again but then time on the WWE Network this time coming up short in the finals of the 2015 King Of The Ring tournament.

Neville received another championship opportunity as he answered John Cena’s United States Championship open challenge  despite being victorious he did not win the championship as Rusev  got involved in the match and caused Neville to win the match by disqualification.

At the Money in the Bank Pay-Per-View he participated in the ladder match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, the match was won by Sheamus.

On June 8th he accepted and challenged Kevin Owens for his NXT Championship he was unable to win the championship.

December 3rd saw a tease at a Neville heel turn, during his appearance on MIZ TV, The Miz handed Neville a card and informed him if he ever wanted to be champion in the WWE he should give  The Miz a call, Neville held onto the card.

*Will neville turn to the dark side? Will he go from Super Hero to villain?*

Fight Owens Fight! unofficially appeared on Monday Night RAW on May 18th 2015, accepting John Cena’s United States open challenge, establishing himself as a heel in the process by attacking Cena and stamping on the US title. This would create a non title match between Owens and Cena.

Both Cena and Owens held championships at the time (Cena  holding the United States championship and Owens was the current NXT Champion).  The two would go one on one at the Elimination Chamber Pay-Per-View with Owens coming out on top, cleanly pinning Cena.

The two would face one another again  this time at  Money in the Bank, this time Cena would have his armed raised at the end of the contest, equaling the feud at 1-1. The feud came to an end at Battleground with Cena winning the feud 2-1, emerging the victor via submission.

From then Owens went onto feud with Cesaro who at that point had been receiving a major push and collecting a string of victories. Owens would win the feud beating Cesaro at both Summerslam and on RAW.

After the Cesaro feud had ended Owens would win his first championship since debuting on the main roster, pinning Ryback at Night of Champion on September 20th winning the Intercontinental Championship, which he would hold for 84 days, until dropping the championship to Dean Ambrose at the TLC Pay-Per-View on December 13th.

I feel that out of the five superstars I have mentioned  to make it onto the main roster from NXT, Kevin Owens made more of an impact as he entered a feud with Cena, got a clean victory over the golden boy in his first match and first Pay-Per-View match.

He also bounced back from the two losses to Cena by defeating another superstar who had been receiving a well deserved push in the company in the form of Cesaro, and then captured the Intercontinental Championship, and has been a successful heel since his arrival. Hopefully he won’t drop off since losing the title at TLC.

Neville I feel hasn’t been booked right, yes he has some good wins over the likes of Sheamus and Bad News Barrett and having two good matches with Seth Rollins. Hopefully they will turn him heel as I have a feeling that would be interesting to see.

Breeze, is irrelevant as a singles competitor on the main roster, the best thing for him form The NEW Hollywood Blondes heel tag team with Ziggler and chase the tag titles as he won’t get over anyone as a singles wrestler.

The Ascension have been irrelevant since their arrival. I was personally excited to see them, but they are just L.O.D/ Demolition 2.0. The Cosmic Wasteland stable is best for them, as they have dropped off the radar.

In Conclusion the Next Big thing to come from NXT I feel would be Finn Balor. I don’t see him making it onto the main roster any time soon, I feel he would be the right fit. He has such as massive following  in both the orient and in the UK as he has wrestled for both New Japan Pro Wrestling in Japan and Insane Championship Wrestling in Scotland.

Since his arrival in NXT has wowed the crowds with his demon body paint and his stiff technical wrestling style. But when it comes to the main roster he would help to create good matches,  if he goes on to feud with the likes of Bray Wyatt, Seth Rollins, Cesaro,  Dean Ambrose and John Cena and he would work well as either a face or a heel as he possess both attributes, but would most likely be booked as a face.