WWE NXT: How Bad Booking Hurt Andrade Almas

Is Andrade Almas’ WWE career over before it began?

For the most part, NXT fires on all cylinders. But every once in awhile, there’s bound to be a hiccup or a bump in the road. Such is the case currently with NXT’s recently revealed star, Andrade “Cien” Almas.

Almas debuted at Takeover: The End where he faced off with the red-hot and increasingly over Tye Dillinger (who at this time has official merch, which is typically a good sign of a talent’s push and an indicator of their popularity). Almas was presented as the protagonist and Dillinger the antagonist. Dillinger even entered with a bedazzled vest with a hugely exaggerated cowl that looked like something a Dragon Ball Z villain would wear. However, by the time opening bell rung, the crowd was unexpectedly more in favor of Dillinger than the debuting Almas.

Unexpected, honestly, is the wrong word to use here. It’s become common knowledge that heels tend to be more popular than babyfaces, especially by today’s standards where faces in general rarely get the level of support they used to back in the golden age of the 1980s. That said, surely the booking team had to have known that going into this match, which by all accounts was supposed to be Almas’ showcase.

Almas ended up defeating Dillinger, but the damage may have already been done. Given the reaction Almas got during the course of the match and the relatively weak pop he received for winning, the crowd most likely already made up their mind about Almas. And this is no ordinary crowd, this is the Full Sail audience, with a reputation of their own, who has come to be known as an important factor in the making or breaking of a star based on their reception to individual talent, much like the old ECW fans.

To make matters even worse for Almas, he defeated Dillinger in a rematch on the following episode, which certainly did not help him gain any popularity from the already irritated NXT crowd. A relative unknown babyface defeating an established, popular heel on back to back episodes is almost a death sentence in today’s WWE.

There’s an old saying that goes “first impressions kill”

There’s an old saying that goes “first impressions kill”, and if that was Full Sail and the network subscribers’ first impression of Almas, you would think his career with WWE was done before it even began. Perhaps NXT went to the well one too many times by using Dillinger as the guy who works with debuting babyfaces. Last summer, Dillinger wrestled against Apollo Crews in Crews’ NXT debut match at the Barclays Center.

However, the difference between Dillinger at Takeover: Brooklyn and Dillinger at Takeover: The End, is that despite a small section of the crowd boisterously cheering for him then, Dillinger’s “Perfect 10” gimmick was still in its relative infancy. He was also wrestling somebody whose reputation preceded him in Apollo Crews, who previously worked in the independent circuit as Uhaa Nation. Despite having success outside of WWE, not much was known about Almas prior to coming to NXT. He essentially flew under the radar; to no fault of his own, he was unfortunately surrounded by more recognizable names such as Nakamura, Aries, and Bobby Roode.

Ten months later, come Takeover: The End, Dillinger has become more and more and more over with the crowd, the same way fellow Canadian heel Tyler Breeze was prior to getting called up to the main roster. In the time since Brooklyn, Dillinger has propelled himself in becoming one of the top 5 most popular singles competitors currently in NXT, babyface or heel, following Finn Balor, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Samoa Joe.

NXT essentially threw Almas to the wolves

The booking decision that NXT made essentially threw Almas to the wolves against a popular, endearing heel who got over due to his hard work and persistence, coupled with a blossoming fanbase which appears to get bigger and bigger with each episode. Almas’ situation is also not the same as Austin Aries’ or even Roman Reigns’ predicament on the main roster.

Aries had unfortunate timing in the sense that he had his debut match on the same card as Shinsuke Nakamura; Aries’ star, while bright on its own, simply got overshadowed by the hype of the Nakamura signing. Reigns initially got over as a heel on the main roster when he debuted with a supporting cast that happened to be indie stars Seth Rollins and Dean Ambrose (the former Tyler Black and Jon Moxley) and it rubbed off on him, before his superman push to the moon turned the fans against him. Since then, Aries has turned heel by attacking No Way Jose, possibly saving his NXT run. Reigns, while struggling to perfect the anti-hero role, has gotten suspended, with already the company rumored to bring him back with a redemption storyline.

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Almas wrestled on this week’s NXT, and the crowd continued to boo him or remain apathetic at most. His win over Dillinger may have irreparably hurt him. What can NXT do to salvage Almas? A heel turn is usually the quick fix for situations like this as they have done with Aries, but who can Almas turn on and work with? Perhaps a returning Hideo Itami?

NXT needs to patch this up and relatively quick before the crowd turns on Almas more and more to the point where they will have, essentially, a bust on their hand. Otherwise, Almas, a promising prospect, will get lost in the shuffle and either be repackaged or he’ll be simply left with no choice but to leave as Solomon Crowe and Bull Dempsey did. First impressions kill and very rarely do you get a second chance at a first impression.

Next: WWE NXT: Who is Andrade Almas?

Regardless of the promotion or the company, bad booking has historically proven that it can bring a talent’s run to a screeching halt.

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