Alexa Bliss is the WWE NXT Women’s Division’s Next Star
By AJ Balano
Alexa Bliss and her continuing improvements in NXT.
The most recent episode of NXT featured a backstage segment between Carmella and Alexa Bliss, where Bliss truly shined with her impressive mic work. Ever since Alexa turned heel, ditching the peppy princess look, getting a little dubstep into her entrance theme, and dying her hair from blue to red, she has grown as a performer and come into her own as a natural villain. While her work serving as the valet to BAMF (Blake And Murphy Factor) for the better part of the last year and a half may have caused some to overlook her talent in favor of Nia Jax, Carmella, and Dana Brooke (the latter of whom made her main roster debut), Bliss may be the most improved women’s wrestler in NXT’s roster.
Alexa’s had two NXT Women’s Championship matches, one against Sasha Banks as a babyface, and one against Bayley as a heel. However the difference between the opportunity in her hometown of Columbus, Ohio against Sasha to the one she had against Bayley as a heel is night and day. No longer the wide-eyed, bubbly, almost cheerleader-esque competitor she was against Sasha, she had transformed herself into a little spitfire with a unique look (complete with evil mistress claw) and mannerisms, in particular, displaying a variety of emotions with her face that not many in the division have been able to pull off.
Alexa cut a great promo on Bayley following the champ’s successful title defense at Takeover: Respect, showing tremendous improvement on the mic. Since then, Alexa has slowly but surely evolved her character, including her timing and presence, and as a result, has gotten over with the Full Sail crowd, despite being a heel.
Alexa showcased her subtle comedic yet trademark cowardly heel tactics in a triple threat match to crown the number one contender for the NXT Women’s Championship, and although she lost, the audience was in her favor. In Alexa’s situation, wins and losses may not necessarily affect her, so long as the audience becomes more and more invested in her matches. The Full Sail crowd has started to pop whenever her music hits and perhaps more importantly, react to her heelish tactics.
The NXT women’s roster needs a true trash-talking whiny heel and has been without one after Sasha Banks was called up last summer, and Alexa is easily the one to fill the role
With Bayley’s position in the division still up in the air (it’s unclear as to whether or not she’s staying in NXT or getting called up to the main roster) and with Asuka as the current NXT Women’s Champion, Alexa has the potential to be the definitive star of her class as she now enters a feud with Carmella, arguably the third most popular wrestler in the NXT women’s roster behind Bayley and Asuka. Between herself, Nia, and Carmella, Alexa has the most upside as the premier heel of the division, a role she looks to be far more comfortable and natural in, a little more so than Nia Jax, the resident immovable, unstoppable bully of the group. The NXT women’s roster needs a true trash-talking whiny heel and has been without one after Sasha Banks was called up last summer, and Alexa is easily the one to fill the role.
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Alexa Bliss, from a physical standpoint, is a near spitting-image of Trish Stratus, one of her influences, with her character evoking the Hall of Famer’s classic heel run from 2004-2005 when Stratus (channeling The Rock’s own “Hollywood” villainous turn) feuded with Lita. She’s a star in the making, perhaps more so than Carmella, as the breakout talent in this third class of NXT women’s wrestler (following the Four Horsewomen, and the early days of Paige and Emma).
All she has to do is keep doing what she’s doing; her matches are getting better and better by the day the more she works. She’s slowly building up a repertoire of signature moves, in particular, a choke that fans have been eagerly waiting to see her develop into a full on chokeslam. As she solidifies herself as a heat-seeking heel and with Bayley still hanging around, one more feud against the face of the NXT women’s division, with everything Alexa has learned and built upon up to now, would certainly help Alexa’s cause.
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Outside of being a manager for Blake and Murphy in their match at Takeover: Brooklyn, Alexa’s yet to have a match on a live special, something that’s sure to motivate her to succeed as many may have forgotten that she was the third woman in Triple H’s epic Wrestlemania XXX entrance, alongside eventual stars Charlotte and Sasha Banks. Alexa’s gotten a small taste of the big stage once, and hopefully, she can parlay that experience into yet another NXT Women’s title shot, and more importantly, a huge win to take her career to that next level. She has everything that WWE is looking for in their female talent.
Related Story: Alexa Bliss' Rise as a Heel
Don’t let her small stature fool you, Alexa Bliss is definitely ready to take that big step.