How to Book Kevin Steen When He Debuts

If you did not see the big news/spoiler from late Thursday night, Finn Balor (formerly known as Prince Devitt in New Japan Pro Wrestling) made his highly anticipated NXT debut. He teamed up Hideo Itami (formerly known as Kenta), who had made his debut at NXT Takeover: Fatal 4-Way, to fend off The Ascension.

The original speculation was that Kevin Steen, WWE’s third big signing of the summer, would team up with Balor to form a tag team. With him teaming up with Itami, that may not be the case anymore, but still possible.

A stable with Balor, Itami, and Steen would be an interesting possibility. Instead of throwing them into the fire as singles competitors, putting them together would give them a great chance at succeeding, judging by how recent WWE stables like The Shield and the Wyatt Family have performed. All three wouldn’t get over-exposed to the crowd and would be able to transition into the WWE main roster with ease. Once they would be ready to go on their own, they could break free from each other.

A reason to put these three into a stable is from what has happened with recent call-ups like Adam Rose and Bo Dallas that have been used horribly and have moved into the low-card of the roster. Rose’s gimmick may not be a favorite of many, but he was never given much of a chance to succeed. Dallas had a long winning streak that was broken by R-Truth. Since then, the brother of Bray Wyatt has sunk into irrelevancy after losing a feud to Jack Swagger. Dallas was seen highly down in Florida as the holder of the NXT Championship for awhile, but that success hasn’t translated while being under Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn.

If Steen is not placed into a stable, he will obviously be put into singles competition on his own.

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The NXT booking staff will have to be very careful how they utilize him. They’re trying to build up another large force in Bull Dempsey at the moment, but it hasn’t gone over well with his squash matches and a terrible flying headbutt finisher. They have him locked in the NXT mid-card and it doesn’t look like that’s going to change anytime soon.

To make sure what has happened to Dempsey doesn’t happen to Steen, they should introduce him like they did with Itami. Putting the star formerly known as Kenta against two legitimate foes in the Ascension immediately gave him credibility. The problem here is that who do you put him against? Do you have Tyson Kidd, who has put plenty of life back into his career, feud with Steen only to end up jobbing to him?

Another possibility could be putting him straight into title contention for the NXT Championship. It would be a bold move and could happen if Balor and Itami stay as a tag team. It would be somewhat unlikely, however, give WWE’s history of bringing along their talent.

Kevin Steen’s debut should happen sometime this fall at Full Sail University. When it does occur, it should be interesting to follow.

How do you think Steen should be introduced when he debuts?