Why Does WWE Keep Missing NXT Opportunities?

NXT superstars were backstage for the RAW show in Tampa, so why weren’t they featured?

The internet is a fickle mistress. She provides unfiltered access to our daily lives yet still manages to maintain an aura of mystery and wonder when used properly. Lest there be any confusion, the WWE doesn’t know how to use social media and apparently neither do its superstars.

Case in point, before RAW rolled into Tampa on Monday, June 28th, Finn Balor posted some cryptic pictures to his Twitter account, then subsequently deleted the tweet only to take another one later in the day. The incessant teasing from Balor led many to speculate that he could make an appearance on RAW, perhaps assisting John Cena during his inevitable clash with AJ Styles and The Club.

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Alas, it was not to be. As usual, RAW started out strong with promises of some intriguing matchups before quickly devolving into predictable nonsense. The Miz made his return after wrapping up the filming of yet another sequel in the Marine franchise that literally no one has asked for and was told by Stephanie McMahon and Corporate Kane that he needed to defend his IC title against…wait for it…someone. Ok, so maybe THIS is what Balor was talking about. Color me excited.

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Well, as you most likely already know, The Miz came out and his opponent was revealed to be…49-year-old Demon Kane. It was the equivalent of someone putting on Hotel California during a house party. Yea, no, I’m having a good time…I just…I need to go for a walk. So why did Balor tease us with his attendance if he had no intention of performing?

This is Balor’s bread and butter. He posts things to twitter that makes fans salivate and more often than not, they are red herrings which lead us nowhere. But why must they always be dead ends?

The Miz/Kane match ended in a count out so technically Kane got the victory but wasn’t able to obtain the IC belt. This is one of the oldest tricks in the book. The face maintains credibility and still gets a win while the heel gets to run away (as they are wont to do) but keeps their championship. No one comes out looking bad here, so why waste this scenario on Kane? Was this supposed to also be his return to in-ring action? Was any WWE fan asking, “I wonder when Kane will come back? I miss Kane. You know what RAW needs? More Kane.”

The answer is no. No one was asking this.

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What people have been asking for is new blood. The WWE is in a unique position with NXT as it acts as not just a training/proving ground for future stars, but is their own personal pipeline to RAW and Smackdown. As such, why don’t more NXT stars appears on RAW, most especially when it’s geographically convenient? These don’t have to be permanent call ups but instead could act as tryouts for those wrestlers being considered for the main roster.

Stephanie McMahon was recently interviewed by Business Insider and talked about how crowd reaction affects the WWE business model.

"“[Fans] engage, they chant, they cheer, they boo. There’s a problem when they don’t react. So, in essence, every live event is like a focus group. So we are getting that real-time feedback from them, in the arena.”"

Perhaps if we had applied this “try out” method to some current stars on the roster, we wouldn’t have suffered through the trainwreck careers put on display by people like Tyler Breeze, Fandango, or Adam Rose. They may have been good in NXT but they simply weren’t ready for prime time.

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