Moving Killian Dain back to NXT was the best move for him

WWE clearly had no plans for big man Killian Dain, so the decision to send him back down to NXT may be the fresh start the former SAnitY member needs.

If you’re an avid sports follower, you probably know that all four of the major North American leagues have some sort of minor league system: MLB has AAA (not that one) AA, and A, the NBA has the G League, the NHL has the AHL, and the NFL simply chooses to let college teams exploit unpaid labor for three years.

These leagues operate as a proving ground for up-and-coming talent as well as a lifeline for journeyman athlete who hopes to rejuvenate their career.

In theory, and sometimes in practice, this best describes WWE’s relationship with their in-house developmental brand NXT.

While it’s primary function has been as a finishing school for some of the indy circuit’s best wrestlers, NXT has produced several success stories from their Performance Center while occasionally serving as a wayward home for misused main roster stars (e.g.: Tyson Kidd, Emma).

Which brings us to Killian Dain. By now, you may have already heard that “The Beast of Belfast” will return to NXT following the Superstar Shake-Up-induced dissolution of the SAnitY faction.

If such a move were to happen in most of those aforementioned legit sports leagues, it would be labeled a demotion, which it technically is. However, Dain’s reassignment to Full Sail could be the best thing for him and the fans who enjoy his bell-to-bell work.

Outside of a few cases, the main roster hasn’t been kind to recent NXT call-ups; even the handful of names who have become featured acts on either RAW or SmackDown have endured their share of questionable booking decisions.

SAnitY fell on the lower end of this spectrum; the group only made sporadic TV appearances over the last year and when Vince McMahon and the creative team bothered to schedule them for a match, it was to put someone else over.

Look, as flush with talent as the main roster is, fans understand that everyone can’t receive a push. But in a company that, in 2018, found screen time for anodyne lugs Big Cass and Baron Corbin and devoted an entire “World Cup” tournament to plant the seeds for a Shane McMahon heel turn, surely the people responsible for booking these shows have enough ingenuity to script some interesting stories for an anarchist faction.

And no, jobbing to The Miz in a handicap match doesn’t qualify as a good use of them.

Clearly, McMahon and the writers had no idea how to present Dain, Eric Young, Alexander Wolfe, and Nikki Cross as a menacing quintet, so splintering them across the company’s myriad of shows isn’t the worst thing.

Young, a quintessential “mechanic”, will likely spend his RAW tenure putting over upper midcarders and main eventers before transitioning into a producer role. Wolfe should thrive on NXT UK as a solid mid-card act. Cross’ direction is a little more uncertain, but she will doubtlessly bring that same manic dedication to her character that served her well in NXT.

As for Dain, his relegation to NXT should serve him well too. For as scarcely as he and the rest of the group were used on the main roster, Dain didn’t take any meaningful pinfall losses, so his monster aura remains somewhat intact — I’m still pleasantly surprised that McMahon didn’t turn Dain into this generation’s version of the A-Train.

Even if Dain’s in-ring credibility had been dinged during his time on the main shows, it wouldn’t take Triple H and the NXT creative team long to correct those mistakes and position him as an imposing heel who paves over most of the roster, perhaps leading to a title match against NXT Champion Johnny Gargano.

With the NXT talent pool losing some big names to the main roster, the black and yellow brand needed some reinforcements of fill out the top of the card. In Dain, a mountainous big man with the in-ring grace of a cruiserweight, they have gotten exactly what the show needed, and so has Dain.