What does that have to do with anything? I've been thinking about how the WWE has been handling the debut of new talent from NXT, and even the indies, in the last year. There is obviously a problem. I am not even the only one seeing it. I notice more and more wrestling fans bringing it up. The WWE just seems to be running on the assumption that people are watching NXT and know who these wrestlers are. If someone is making some noise in NXT, the WWE seems to act like they are automatically stars when they come to the main roster.
These are prefab stars. The WWE is treating NXT like it is just some kind of star factory. And it isn't. These performers are only connecting with a minority of the WWE's total audience. By treating these workers like they are already established, the WWE is alienating a lot of fans. They are either going to start following NXT, and likely subscribing to the WWE Network, or they will just get annoyed and stop watching. If they are having a tough time connecting with the product, why should they keep watching?
One of the things about prefab homes is that the site still has to be prepared. There is work to be done once the sections of the house get there. Workers don't just dump it and leave. The "site" these prefab NXT stars are coming to is obviously the main roster. And that is a mess. The brand split did not fix anything. If anything, some depth issues might have popped up due to the brand split. The WWE is inefficient on the main roster. Smackdown is a little more efficient than Raw, but that doesn't mean it is perfect. It has not been regularly getting more viewers than Raw, even with Raw going against football now. The main roster needs to be handled better to create a better foundation. All houses need a solid foundation. The same goes for the WWE.
Another reason the WWE should not be relying on NXT as a star factory, it is just better for fans to see that growth and development for themselves. There is entertainment value in that and that is what really helps someone get over. If the WWE just brings someone from NXT or the indies and starts talking about how great he is, the millions of viewers that don't follow NXT and the indies will just be hearing all this hype and might not be seeing the actual character development to help that worker get truly over. There is nothing entertaining about building a house. I have never built one, but I have been around when the house I am living in went through renovations. Very stressful. But this is pro wrestling. It is supposed to be entertaining. And building a star should be entertaining for the fans. Let me bring up a few names to illustrate my points further.
Look at AJ Styles. He didn't go through NXT, but he is an indies guy. Needless to say, wrestling fans loved this guy for over a decade. When the WWE debuted him, they hyped up how popular he was. Who is being targeted with that? Wrestling fans already love the guy. The wider audience is supposed to love the guy because other people do and the WWE is telling them to? The WWE then went through various motions with Styles and he has been heel for the last few months. If he was really so popular, why didn't his heel turn flop because fans refuse to hate him? Smarks will cheer for him because they cheer for guys like him, but the wider audience definitely does not appear to be sold on him.
Look at Daniel Bryan. The WWE wishes AJ Styles could be that over. Daniel Bryan was loved by wrestling fans even before coming to the WWE. They were the ones that really fought for him to come back after being fired. But he did not yet have A+ overness. How did he get it? Thanks to the whole "Yes!" and "No!" chants. And it all played out for the audience to see on the main roster. It was something that energized them and something they could play along with. AJ Styles has not done anything like that. #BeatUpJohnCena appeals to the smark crowd, the ones already loving Styles before he came to the WWE and that have been annoyed by Cena for the last decade. He has not done anything to become A+ over on the main roster.
American Alpha did go through NXT. If you think about it, these two are the kind of guys that wrestling fans should love. They are wrestlers. But they are pretty boring and have not gotten as over as the WWE might have expected. The WWE put that focus on this team when Smackdown became its own brand again. They looked like the obvious winners of the new tag titles that were being made. They flopped. Heath Slater & Rhyno rose. These two guys, unlike American Alpha, actually had an interesting storyline that played out for the general audience to see. American Alpha needs to be a part of some interesting angles. It is not as easy to pander to wrestling fans as it might sometimes seem.
Women's wrestling has been hot in NXT. Some women made a name for themselves down there. But how have these women done on the main roster. In terms of their performances, none of them have lived up to the hype, in my opinion. I just expected much better from these women after all the hype I have been hearing in recent years. And I don't just mean in terms of wrestling. Their promos are also often not as great as I expected. Their characters also do not seem that entertaining. Blame the WWE for certain things, but these women also need to improve. In terms of their overness, none of them are as over as they should be. One of the dumbest things the WWE has done with them in recent weeks was that Sasha Banks angle on Raw. Why even fake a retirement for her? I talked about it before, so I won't say much more. I will say that they put her in a position to draw and it flopped. If the WWE fell for the hype generated by smarks over Sasha Banks, they made a terrible mistake. Sasha Banks still needs to be pushed a lot better than she has for her to get over to the point where she might draw.
On the other side of that, look at Mickie James. She wasn't a big name in wrestling when the WWE signed her. OVW back then isn't like NXT now. There was no big hype for her when she debuted on the main roster. She eventually became the most over diva on the roster, connecting well with both wrestling fans and the general audience. And she did it without the hype that women like Sasha Banks and Bayley have gotten. How did she do it? She earned it on the main roster. Even when the WWE took away her psycho gimmick and gave her the inconsistent treatment of a generic credible jobber, she solidified her overness. She did it by just having qualities that could appeal to various types of fans. She was a solid in-ring worker that can get wrestling fans on her side. She had an appealing look that could attract fans interested in that. And she had a charisma that could also draw in fans. Sasha Banks has been pushed like a credible jobber in her rookie year on the main roster, which makes the WWE's decision to give her that fake retirement segment even more weird. Unlike Mickie James, she is not a credible jobber that has earned her overness on the main roster. She cannot simply rest on her success in NXT. And if the WWE is serious about her being a star, they can't make that mistake, as well.
Building a prefab house is not as easy as it may sound. There is still a lot of work to do, both at the factory and at the site. The same thing has to be true for prefab stars the WWE is creating in NXT or taking from the indies. Yeah, develop them in NXT, but there is still work to be done when they get to the main roster. There are millions of fans that did not see them in NXT or the indies and are not going to be sold on them right away. To treat these workers like they are already established is something that could lead to these fans not watching anymore. And the foundation on the main roster needs to improve. Without that, a lot of these prefab stars are just going to flop on the main roster. Just like a building needs a good foundation, so does the main roster.
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