Eva Marie: The Problem of Her Being in WWE NXT

There’s a lot of quality in the NXT women’s division, but one woman in particular is gaining an interesting reaction from the NXT crowd. 

When the likes of Charlotte, Becky Lynch and Sasha Banks were called up to the main roster as part of the Divas Revolution there were some fans who worried that the women’s division in NXT would be a shadow of its former self. With Bayley as the champion and the standard-bearer, there’s a whole host of other women lined up to take their shot at the champion and her gold.

In recent months we’ve seen the debuts of Asuka and Nia Jax, as well as already established stars such as Emma and Dana Brooke ready to take on the champion.

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This week we saw Alexa Bliss get her opportunity to dethrone Bayley, something she couldn’t quite manage to do. As Bayley stood in the ring soaking up the applause from the crowd, out came Eva Marie, a woman who has hardly gone down well with the crowd at Full Sail University. When she entered the ring and started to talk, literally the loudest boos you’ll hear anyone receive, only this wasn’t heel heat, this was actual “we hate you” boos. This was “if you end up in a match with Bayley for the title, we will actually destroy your career” boos.

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As Eva Marie attempted to get her seemingly scripted promo out, she looked visibly shocked, almost like she didn’t know how to react to what was happening. It was hard to watch as she repeated herself to Bayley that she’d be challenging her for the title on next week’s show (which will be taped tonight). The only response that Eva Marie had to the boos was to pose with her arms outstretched, tell the crowd they were dorks and then tell them to be quiet. If you need any more evidence as to why Eva shouldn’t be in this spot then this is it. Any other heel would kill for the kind of reaction she garners from the crowd. If someone like Kevin Owens was in that position he would have been able to use it to his advantage, Eva Marie just stumbled on her words and looked desperate to get out of their.

I totally understand the reason behind the push that Eva Marie is getting. She’s one of the stars of Total Divas and she fits the stereotypical “WWE Diva” mould. In the ring she has improved in recent months, but is still nowhere near ready to be pushed as a main event level performer. There’s a handful of other women better suited to that spot who would be able to use it to their advantage and produce a quality match as the opponent to the champion. When the crowd reacts to you the way that crowd did last night it will be hard, if not impossible, to change their minds and make them get behind you.

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Eva Marie will face Bayley for the belt and the latter will more than likely beat her after dragging her to a good match, Eva will get booed out of the building and not be able to answer it. The NXT crowd can be brutal at the best of times but they could easily leave Eva a broken woman in the ring. Heaven forbid she ends up with a match at the NXT special in London in a few weeks time. If you think that the crowd at NXT in Full Sail were tough on her, that would be a whole new level of brutal.