WWE NXT: Winners and Losers For September 27

Who were the big winners and losers on this week’s episode of NXT?

After WWE NXT on Wednesday, there are a handful of superstars who are seeing their stock rise. Likewise, a couple of superstars look like they’ve hit a rough spot. A pro wrestler’s career is always full of peaks and valleys, but in WWE they get magnified because of the number of eyes on them at all times.

With that said, let’s take a look at some superstars on the move after NXT this week.

Winners

• Adam Cole

The leader of The Undisputed Era made his in ring debut this week against Eric Young. It was a solid debut for Cole, who got a chance to show the WWE Universe exactly what he’s capable of inside the ring.

See, anyone can come in to NXT and say they’re a big deal. It always takes that first match – and first victory – to prove it. Cole, along with Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly, are starting to show why so many fans thought it was a big deal that they joined NXT.

My one complaint in this whole thing is that Cole – a former ROH World Champion – couldn’t even win his first NXT match without some kind of a distraction. Yes, he’s the leader of a heel stable. And yes, heels take short cuts in the ring. But it would have been nice to see him do it totally solo.

• Oney Lorcan

It may seem odd that a dude who got utterly annihilated would come out as a winner. But Lorcan is one of the best in ring performers in NXT. And yet for weeks, he’s been drifting aimlessly with no story or direction. He goes out and puts on really good matches, but they all exist in a vacuum.

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This week against Lars Sullivan, it wasn’t exactly a great match. But more importantly, Oney finally seems to be on a path towards something. He’s taking a stand against Sullivan and his treatment of NXT Superstars in recent weeks. And he also seems to have an ally in Danny Burch.

A pairing of hard hitters like Burch and Lorcan is something to look forward to. And WWE/NXT is clearly high on Sullivan, especially if he made the cut to be DLC for WWE 2K18. Curious to see where this goes for Lorcan in the future.

Losers

• Heavy Machinery

Man, this one gets the saddest of sad faces. I honestly don’t think there’s a bigger Heavy Machinery fan out there than yours truly. To put it in perspective, when I went to WrestleMania this year (and loved most of it), I was devastated that issues getting into the Amway Center for NXT TakeOver meant I missed the Heavy Machinery match. That’s not right.

Anyway, my undying support for Otis Dozovic and Tucker Knight isn’t blind support – I can see what happens with my own two eyes. And what I see every time these two monsters have a match is literally the same thing with no change. There’s no evolution. There’s no variety. It’s the same old same old, every single time.

Next: Under The Radar NXT Superstars

This week, they brutalized a couple of enhancement talents. The last time they had a match against “real” talent, they lost in a Tag Team Title match to the Authors of Pain. Aside from that one blip, it’s been squash after squash after squash. To show there’s more to Knight and Dozovic than steaks and weights, they really need a hard-fought victory over a reputable team.