WWE NXT: 5 wrestlers with massive breakout potential

5) Xia Li

Li’s entrance tells you all you need to know about her charisma. She has an immense amount of it, and that is partly a reason so many of the Full Sail crowd find themselves cheering for Li.

As a trained martial artist in Wushu, she brings that unique style to the ring. This is best exemplified in her kicks, which are stiff and brutal looking. They even used her kicking prowess to (kayfabe) break Aliyah’s nose during a match last winter.

Her finisher is creative, a jumping, twisting cyclone kick to the back of a downed opponent.

It’s also apparent that she has taken to professional wrestling rather well considering she only really began training once she was chosen after an NXT tryout in China. She is still a bit green in the ring, but what she does well she does really well.

She is great at taking bumps. She knows how to draw fans in to her comeback sequence (drawing from that charisma). Her facial expressions, particularly of agony, are superb. Just watch the last few minutes of her match with Baszler, which exemplifies all of these points.

Another reason the NXT faithful are so enamored with Li, and why she has massive breakout potential, is she is just a genuine human being. She is earnest in her desires and passions, dedicated to her training and improving, and honest in her emotions. Just watch her reaction to being informed she would be in the 2019 Royal Rumble match:

On a macro scale, all I’ve heard the last 20 years is how China is an “emerging” market, a “robust” market, a market that people and corporations want to “tap.” Li, as pure of a babyface as she is, is the perfect representative for WWE (far more than the Mandarin-speaking John Cena) as a native of the country.

China is still relatively young in terms of professional wrestling recognition, particularly in the West. Li, the first Chinese woman to ever compete in the WWE, has the skills, talent, and charisma to not only be a huge star in China, but in WWE as well.