History YMMV / WWENXT

** Tian Sha. Some quick backstory- Chinese NXT Superstars Xia Li & Boa received mysterious letters which led to a number of vignettes showing them undergoing TrainingFromHell, causing both to [[TookALevelInBadass become more aggressive.]] While their repackagings were well received, people were enthusiastic about the debut of their aforementioned mysterious new manager/benefactor whose backstory [[note]] She was a Chinese princess whose father was killed by her brother and took over their kingdom, so she made a deal with a dragon to get power to defeat him, but the dragon corrupted her and now she has to spread hatred to others, or something. [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer Seriously]]. [[/note]] makes it impossible to take her seriously. That seems like the kind of character you'd see on RAW or [=SmackDown=], or even the now-defunct Wrestling/LuchaUnderground, not NXT. It doesn't help that all she does is [[OrcusOnHisThrone sit on her throne at the entrance stage]] and look evil.

** Tian Sha. Some quick backstory- Chinese NXT Superstars Xia Li & Boa received mysterious letters which led to a number of vignettes showing them undergoing TrainingFromHell, causing both to [[TookALevelInBadass become more aggressive.]] This led to the debut of their aforementioned mysterious new manager/benefactor whose backstory [[note]] She was a Chinese princess whose father was killed by her brother and took over their kingdom, so she made a deal with a dragon to get power to defeat him, but the dragon corrupted her and now she has to spread hatred to others, or something. [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer Seriously]]. [[/note]] makes it impossible to take her seriously. That seems like the kind of character you'd see on RAW or [=SmackDown=], or even the now-defunct Wrestling/LuchaUnderground, not NXT. It doesn't help that all she does is [[OrcusOnHisThrone sit on her throne at the entrance stage]] and look evil.

** Tian Sha. Some quick backstory- Chinese NXT Superstars Xia Li & Boa received mysterious letters which led to a number of vignettes showing them undergoing TrainingFromHell, causing both to [[TookALevelInBadass become more aggressive.]] This led to the debut of their aforementioned mysterious new manager/benefactor whose backstory [[note]] She was a Chinese princess whose father was killed by her brother and took over their kingdom, so she made a deal with a dragon to get power to defeat him, but the dragon corrupted her and now she has to spread hatred to others, or something. [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer Seriously]]. [[/note]] makes it impossible to take her seriously. That seems like the kind of character you'd see on RAW or [=SmackDown=], not NXT. It doesn't help that all she does is [[OrcusOnHisThrone sit on her throne at the entrance stage]] and look evil.

* UnexpectedCharacter: The "Namer of Dummies" himself, Eli Drake (under the new ring name LA Knight) appearing on the ''NXT TakeOver: Vengeance Day'' pre-show, due to 1). he'd last been seen in the NWA, 2). he had no real reason to sign with WWE at all.

** Tian Sha. Some quick backstory- Chinese NXT Superstars Xia Li & Boa received mysterious letters which led to a number of vignettes showing them undergoing TrainingFromHell, causing both to [[TookALevelInBadass become more aggressive.]] This led to the debut of their aforementioned mysterious new manager/benefactor whose backstory [[note]] She was a Chinese princess whose father was killed by her brother and took over their kingdom, so she made a deal with a dragon to get power to defeat him, but the dragon corrupted her and now she has to spread hatred to others, or something. [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer Seriously]]. [[/note]] makes it impossible to take her seriously. That seems like the kind of character you'd see on RAW or SmackDown, not NXT. It doesn't help that all she does is [[OrcusOnHisThrone sit on her throne at the entrance stage]] and look evil.

* CreatorsPet: Adam Cole. Pushed heavily and largely protected by the company to a degree that not even Eva Marie (another CreatorsPet) was. Adding to this, is longstanding rumors that Cole has explicitly refused to go to the main WWE roster out of fear that he will be "misused", which has a lot of newer NXT fans (who came in when the show started airing on TV and not just streaming only) to opine that not only should Cole have been forcibly removed from the NXT roster and made to join the NXT roster, that Cole and not Shane Thorne (another popular NXT roster member who was forced to the main roster) should have been given the career destroying Slapjack gimmick.

** Subverted HARD with three of NXT's shining "stars" once the show was made available to everyone, including casual and lapsed fans. Adam Cole, Tommaso Ciampro, and Johnny Gargano went from the prized jewels of NXT to reviled Scrappies once they had to step outside the smark bubble. In particular, Adam Cole was so reviled fans were CHEERING former NFL punter Pat McAffee and Dexter Lumis' respective crusades against the Undisputed Era and openly opining that Cole should have been forced out of NXT and given the career destroying Slapjack/Tbar gimmick in Retribution, Johnny Gargano had to be repackaged as a egomaniacle heel rip-off of Chris Jericho and do wacky skits with his wife and Austin Theory in a desperate bid in order to make fans care for him, while Ciampro's been pushed to the undercard and reduced to jobbing to get over Timothy Thatcher.

*** Johnny Gargano, Tommasso Ciampra, and Adam Cole have become this since NXT started airing on TV and opposite AEW. In particular, all three have been slapped with the dreaded "Vanilla Midget" label by new fans to the show and many consider Cole and Ciampra in particular to be generic, boring cardboard cutouts who hog the spotlight and Gargano a personality-less drone. The hate intensified when it became leaking out that Cole, Ciampra, and Gargano had used their pull and influence with Triple H, to prevent them from being sent to the main roster; a factor made worse as fans began voicing opinions that Cole and Gargano should have been the ones forced to the main roster and saddled with the kiss of death T-Bar/Slapjack gimmicks and kept Shane Thorn and Dominik Dijakovic on the main roster instead.
*** Cole in particular is a huge broken base, especially since he's the most boring/generic of the Undisputed Era.

* * CreatorsPet: Adam Cole. Pushed heavily and largely protected by the company to a degree that not even Eva Marie (another CreatorsPet) was. Adding to this, is longstanding rumors that Cole has explicitly refused to go to the main WWE roster out of fear that he will be "misused", which has a lot of newer NXT fans (who came in when the show started airing on TV and not just streaming only) to opine that not only should Cole have been forcibly removed from the NXT roster and made to join the NXT roster, that Cole and not Shane Thorne (another popular NXT roster member who was forced to the main roster) should have been given the career destroying Slapjack gimmick.

** The Undisputed Era during the feud with Pat McAfee's Revenge Society. Or Adam Cole in general, due to how disliked he is in general by casual and lapsed fans that have flooded NXT since it started airing on USA Network.

* EightDeadlyWords: In spite of it's status as a smark/hardcore wrestling fan centric brand, when the network went mainstream on USA, several major NXT wrestlers (and smark fan favorites) suddenly fell victim to this horrific fate from new fans and lapsed fans who stopped watching wrestling in the mid-10s but came back for NXT and AEW. In particular, Adam Cole, Johnny Gargano, and Tommaso Ciampa have been savaged by casual fans and produced some of the worst ratings for NXT on USA Network as far as fans tuning out whenever they are onscreen and critizing their lack of characteristics/personality (Cole and Ciampa in particular).

* CreatorsPet: WWE management was determined to push Wrestling/EvaMarie to the moon in NXT, despite [[TheScrappy the opposition of nearly every fan at Full Sail and beyond]]. Even though she has shown very little wrestling improvement in the ''year'' or so she has been in developmental, she's been booked to win most of her matches and even earned a Women's Title shot in late 2015 that many fans thought she neither deserved or had done enough to earn. When WWE caught wind of fan hatred and decided to turn her heel, it was still not enough to rescue her, as her "heel who thinks she's a face" gimmick came off as a lame rehash of Wrestling/BoDallas's NXT gimmick without the talent or charisma he has. The commentators talked her up like there's no tomorrow, and even Wrestling/{{Bayley}} once praised her.

* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: Fan response to Wrestling/TheVelveteenDream's debut ranged from mixed responses to outright mockery of the mere idea of the gimmick. Mere months later and Velveteen Dream would be receiving genuine cheers and fan support against EnsembleDarkhorse supreme Wrestling/AleisterBlack, despite being a heel. When Black subsequently [[WorthyOpponent acknowledged]] Dream the fans almost cheered the building down.

** Subverted HARD with three of NXT's shining "stars" once the show was made available to everyone, including casual and lapsed fans. Adam Cole, Tommaso Ciampro, and Johnny Gargano went from the prized jewels of NXT to reviled Scrappies once they had to step outside the smark bubble. In particular, Adam Cole was so reviled fans were CHEERING former NFL punter Pat McAffee and Dexter Lumis' respective crusades against the Undisputed Era and openly opining that Cole should have been forced out of NXT and given the career destroying Slapjack/Tbar gimmick in Retribution, Johnny Gargano had to be repackaged as a egomaniacle heel rip-off of Chris Jericho and do wacky skits with his wife and Austin Theory in a desperate bid in order to make fans care for him, while Ciampro's been pushed to the undercard and reduced to jobbing to get over Timothy Thatcher.

** [[BashBrothers The Revival]]. There are quite a few fans who appreciate their old-school brawler tag team tactics, comparing them favorably to the Brainbusters. In contrast, another group of fans think their matches are dragging and boring and wish they would just get released already. ''[=TakeOver=]: London'' illustrated this perfectly. While they get a decent mixed reaction at Full Sail, [[AmericansHateTingle the British booed them out of the building]], although in all fairness it could have been because they were facing {{Ensemble Darkhorse}}s Wrestling/EnzoAndCass. [[spoiler:Didn't help that they won the match.]] Also, to be fair, they are heels. Later on, however, they shook off this status by establishing themselves as an incredibly good and incredibly over heel team.

** Johnny Gargano, Tommaso Ciampa, and Adam Cole have become this since NXT started airing on TV and opposite AEW. All three have seen a noticeable rise in criticism with a decent amount of fans over the fact that they've been consistently in the main event scene for much of the show's run on the USA Network (at least prior to the COVID-19 pandemic).

* CreatorsPet: Adam Cole. Pushed heavily and largely protected by the company to a degree that not even Eva Marie (another CreatorsPet) was. Adding to this, is longstanding rumors that Cole has explicitly refused to go to the main WWE roster out of fear that he will be "misused", which has a lot of newer NXT fans (who came in when the show started airing on TV and not just streaming only) to opine that not only should Cole have been forcibly removed from the NXT roster and made to join the NXT roster, that Cole and not Shane Thorne (another popular NXT roster member who was forced to the main roster) should have been given the career destroying Slapjack gimmick.

** The Undisputed Era during the feud with Pat McAfee's Revenge Society. Or Adam Cole in general, due to how disliked he is in general by casual and lapsed fans that have flooded NXT since it started airing on USA Network.

* EightDeadlyWords: In spite of it's status as a smark/hardcore wrestling fan centric brand, when the network went mainstream on USA, several major NXT wrestlers (and smark fan favorites) suddenly fell victim to this horrific fate from new fans and lapsed fans who stopped watching wrestling in the mid-10s but came back for NXT and AEW. In particular, Adam Cole, Johnny Gargano, and Tommaso Ciampa have been savaged by casual fans and produced some of the worst ratings for NXT on USA Network as far as fans tuning out whenever they are onscreen and critizing their lack of characteristics/personality (Cole and Ciampa in particular).

* CreatorsPet: WWE management was determined to push Wrestling/EvaMarie to the moon in NXT, despite [[TheScrappy the opposition of nearly every fan at Full Sail and beyond]]. Even though she has shown very little wrestling improvement in the ''year'' or so she has been in developmental, she's been booked to win most of her matches and even earned a Women's Title shot in late 2015 that many fans thought she neither deserved or had done enough to earn. When WWE caught wind of fan hatred and decided to turn her heel, it was still not enough to rescue her, as her "heel who thinks she's a face" gimmick came off as a lame rehash of Wrestling/BoDallas's NXT gimmick without the talent or charisma he has. The commentators talked her up like there's no tomorrow, and even Wrestling/{{Bayley}} once praised her.

* EightDeadlyWords: In spite of it's status as a smark/hardcore wrestling fan centric brand, when the network went mainstream on USA, several major NXT wrestlers (and smark fan favorites) suddenly fell victim to this horrific fate from new fans and lapsed fans who stopped watching wrestling in the mid-10s but came back for NXT and AEW. In particular, Adam Cole, Johnny Gargano, and Tommaso Ciampra have been savaged by casual fans and produced some of the worst ratings for NXT on USA Network as far as fans tuning out whenever they are onscreen and critizing their lack of characteristics/personality (Cole and Ciampra in particular).

*** Johnny Gargano, Tommasso Ciampra, and Adam Cole have become this since NXT started airing on TV and opposite AEW. In particular, all three have been slapped with the dreaded "Vanilla Midget" label by new fans to the show and many consider Cole and Ciampra in particular to be generic, boring cardboard cutouts who hog the spotlight and Gargano a personality-less drone. The hate intensified when it became leaking out that Cole, Ciampra, and Gargano had used their pull and influence with Triple H, to prevent them from being sent to the main roster; a factor made worse as fans began voicing opinions that Cole and Gargano should have been the ones forced to the main roster and saddled with the kiss of death T-Bar/Slapjack gimmicks and kept Shane Thorn and Dominik Dijakovic on the main roster instead.
*** Cole in particular is a huge broken base, especially since he's the most boring/generic of the Undisputed Era.
*** Dexter Lumis, as new fans to NXT that started watching when the show started airing on USA Network can't get enough of him and his more traditional wrestling style and magic realism stalker/vigilante character, while older NXT fans consider him patient zero of HHH panicking and betraying the original mission statement of NXT in a mad dash to compete with AEW, with regards to a character driven wrestler instead of a workrate driven wrestler.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: The Breakout Tournament, which NXT held in late 2019 to show off some of their new talent, with the winner earning an NXT title match of their choice; ultimately it was won by Jordan Myles (formerly [[Wrestling/RingOfHonor Ring of Honor's]] ACH). Myles vanished from TV shortly after his title match which was unfortunate but unavoidable due to his burning bridges with WWE for, ahem, [[Administrivia/RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment controversial reasons]]; less forgivable is that almost no one else from the tournament (save Angel Garza, who won the Cruiserweight title and later made it to the main roster) has done anything of significance either. Notably, finalist Cameron Grimes actually started to get somewhat of a push, but has since become a glorified jobber.

* WereStillRelevantDammit: Bronson Reed's current wrestling outfit references the "thicc" meme. ''In 2020.''

** [[BashBrothers Dash and Dawson]]. There are quite a few fans who appreciate their old-school brawler tag team tactics, comparing them favorably to the Brainbusters. In contrast, another group of fans think their matches are dragging and boring and wish they would just get released already. ''[=TakeOver=]: London'' illustrated this perfectly. While they get a decent mixed reaction at Full Sail, [[AmericansHateTingle the British booed them out of the building]], although in all fairness it could have been because they were facing {{Ensemble Darkhorse}}s Wrestling/EnzoAndCass. [[spoiler:Didn't help that they won the match.]] Also, to be fair, they are heels. Later on, however, they shook off this status by establishing themselves as an incredibly good and incredibly over heel team.

* CreatorWorship: Wrestling/TripleH, ironically enough. The level of praising he gets for his work on NXT and especially the quality of the Takeover events is such that even (most of the) people who hated him while he was an active wrestler such as '''Wrestling/JimCornette''' had to suck [[Wrestling/DGenerationX it]] and recognize his work there. Hell, the job he did in NXT was so good that when the news of him being handled ''205 Live'' arrived, the IWC exploded with happiness. It says a lot that despite (usually) being booked as a heel on the main shows, he's ostensibly a face whenever he appears on NXT shows.

** The all-heel Wrestling/UndisputedEra is pretty much universally loved, due to their staggering levels of talent and charisma. It helps that Adam Cole is probably one of the most over wrestlers in the industry.

** During the early days, Raquel Diaz was being given a lot of hype in vignettes and in fact was the only female talent getting them while the rest had random matches. People who had seen her work in FCW and been unimpressed felt she was being given an absurd amount of hype purely because [[Wrestling/EddieGuerrero of who her father was]]. And it all ended up being for nothing as left WWE over an eating disorder.

* CreatorWorship: Wrestling/TripleH, ironically enough. The level of praising he gets for his work on NXT and especially the quality of the Takeover events is such that even (most of the) people who hated him while he was an active wrestler such as '''Wrestling/JimCornette''' had to [[IncrediblyLamePun suck]] [[Wrestling/DGenerationX it]] and recognize his work there. Hell, the job he did in NXT was so good that when the news of him being handled ''205 Live'' arrived, the IWC exploded with happiness. It says a lot that despite (usually) being booked as a heel on the main shows, he's ostensibly a face whenever he appears on NXT shows.

** Bull Dempsey was hated for being a generic heel with low wrestling prowess who was fat and slow with terrible cardio. After taking some time off to get back into shape and expand his moveset, his "[[IncrediblyLamePun Bull-Fit]]" face gimmick has been much better received.

* FunnyAneurysmMoment: March 6th, 2020. [[RealLifeWritesThePlot Due to schedule conflicts with Full Sail]], the show did a special broadcast live from the Performance Center which was billed as a fan appreciation night to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the brand. Fast forward a couple weeks and [[UsefulNotes/CoronavirusDisease2019Pandemic every single WWE show including Wrestlemania 36 would be taping there for the foreseeable future]].

* HypeBacklash: While it's true that NXT has its strengths and is generally better booked than ''RAW'' and ''[=SmackDown=]'', the amount of praise that it gets from the IWC is bound to leave some viewers wanting more. Outside of its [=TakeOver=] specials, many fans consider NXT to be SoOkayItsAverage like the rest of the product.

*** One could make the argument that the same thing has happened to Shayna Baszler. She and her GirlPosse run roughshod over the rest of the Women's roster, which made some sense when Shayna was winning due to interference (which also got old once it happened a couple of times too many) - but when she ran across opponents who were GenreSavvy enough to either bring their own backup or take out hers in the lead-up to a title match and she won ''anyway'', it started sliding into BoringInvincibleVillain territory. It's not hurting ''her'' so much as she's still over with fans who recognize how good she is. Unfortunately, it also has the side effect of hurting the faces that line up to challenge her as it becomes hard to buy into the idea of any of them winning clean.

* [[EnsembleDarkhorse/{{WWE NXT}} the Ensemble Darkhorse page]]

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot:
** The "Breakout Tournament"; basically, NXT holds a tournament to show off some of their new talent, with the winner earning an NXT title match of their choice, which was won by Jordan Myles (formerly [[Wrestling/RingOfHonor Ring of Honor's]] ACH). While Myles not doing anything since is due to circumstances [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgment that won't be discussed here]], almost no one else from the tournament [[note]]save Angel Garza, who won the Cruiserweight title and later made it to the main roster [[/note]], has done anything of significance. [[note]] Cameron Grimes, who made it to the finals, actually started to get somewhat of a push, but has since become basically a glorified jobber. [[/note]]

** Alex Shelley appeared in the 2020 Wrestling/DustyRhodes Tag Team Classic, teaming with his old Wrestling/NewJapanProWrestling NJPW]] tag team partner KUSHIDA.

** The "Breakout Tournament"; basically, NXT holds a tournament to show off some of their new talent, with the winner earning an NXT title match of their choice, which was won by Jordan Myles (formerly [[Wrestling/RingOfHonor Ring of Honor's]] ACH). While Myles never going anywhere is due to circumstances [[RuleOfCautiousEditingJudgement that won't be discussed here]] almost no one else from the tournament (save Angel Garza, who won the Cruiserweight title and later made it to the main roster), has done anything of note [[note]] Cameron Grimes, who made it to the finals, actually started out pretty good, but has since become basically a glorified jobber. [[/note]]

* WereStillRelevantDammit: Bronson Reed's current outfit has him referencing the "thicc" meme. ''In 2020.''