WWE NXT: Tyler Breeze needs to win the North American Title

Last night on NXT TV, a promo package aired that convinced me why Tyler Breeze needs to defeat The Velveteen Dream for his North American Title at TakeOver XXV.

In a video package that we will most likely see again come this Saturday’s TakeOver event right before their match, champion Velveteen Dream constantly goaded challenger Tyler Breeze for having a less than stellar time on the main roster compared to his breakout role from his original NXT run.

“The night Tyler Breeze found out that he was going to Raw or SmackDown … was the last time that you ever got a standing ovation,” Dream exclaimed a scathing burn.

Now that Breeze has re-joined the yellow brand full time, Tyler Breeze has to win on Saturday.

The promo package highlighted Tyler Breeze as a loser. Which, fair enough, had to be done. His time on the main roster has been lackluster at best and that’s a generous way to put it. A story needed to be crafted between these two addressing that elephant in the room. Now that this is the story that NXT have chosen to highlight, they must follow through with a big win for Prince Pretty.

Thematically, it’s the only way this match could or should end. Dream basically exposed Breeze as a loser in front of the masses who cracks under pressure. If he walks into the match with the facade of a loser and walks out a loser, then I fear Breeze will keep that “loser” mark on his chest for the rest of his WWE career.

Typically, in storytelling – wrestling storytelling especially – when a wrestler says their opponent isn’t on their level or that they can’t do something, that usually sets the stage for that wrestler to prove the other wrestler wrong. Take Daniel Bryan’s WWE Championship win to prove he’s not a “B+ Player,” for example. Or even Kofi Kingston’s recent WrestleMania victory that came weeks after acknowledging that Vince McMahon never gave main event opportunities to “people who look like [Kofi].”

These were situations where both wrestlers desperately needed to win as they could not afford to lose. It would have been a loss that they either would have never recovered from or it would have taken them several years and a rebrand before returning to the main event scene. A prime example is Booker T losing to Triple H at WrestleMania XIX after being told “people like you don’t get to be champion.” It took three years and a rebranding as King Booker before the Houston native could be taken seriously as a main eventer again.

In scenarios like this, the babyface never looks good if they lose because in this scenario, a loss is never just a loss. It’s a loss that proves the heel’s point that the babyface isn’t ready for the big leagues.

Tyler Breeze is in one of those scenarios. His whole main roster run saw him subjected to the butt of a joke as a comedy act and a loser. His return to NXT as a full time Superstar for the black and gold show is – supposedly – meant to rebrand him; restore some luster onto his star and bring him back to prominence. If his first match back is a big loss at the biggest TakeOver event yet, it’ll just be the same song and dance for him. We’ll be echoing the same sentiment that’s been echoed throughout Breeze’s entire four years on the main roster:

Tyler Breeze is a loser.

Between the two men, Dream is in a strong place where he could afford one loss – maybe even to move on to the main event title picture, perhaps – but I can’t say the same for Breeze. A loss for Tyler Breeze could do a lot more to hurt his current rebrand than to help it. However, a title win could not only be the start of a new beginning for The Gorgeous One, but provide the fans with a feel good moment on the 25th NXT TakeOver show, a show I assume will be highlighted as a celebration of not only NXT’s present and future, but the past as well.