History YMMV / WWENXT

** {{Wrestling/Emma}} was one of ''the'' top Divas on NXT - rivalling Paige in popularity. However her main roster pairing with Santino caused a lot of fans to lose interest in her. What was once a fun crowd participation gimmick soon became tiresome and unfunny.
** {{Wrestling/Paige}} was the first Diva to get insanely over on NXT - resulting in a quick HeelFaceTurn. After a lacklustre reign as Divas' Champion, her popularity waned with fans - resulting in a FaceHeelTurn into an AmbiguouslyGay {{Yandere}}. While Paige herself may get RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap, she's not longer the anti diva. Wrestling/{{Ivelisse| Velez}} has remained over with the anti diva, [[DracoInLeatherPants surprisingly over]], so it seems the problem either different tastes in the main roster's fan base or, more cynically, in [[ExecutiveMeddling the main roster's booking team]].

** Adam Rose's gimmick was quite over and fans were responding well to it. He was abruptly called up pretty soon afterwards and it was met with apathy by the main roster crowd. Rose was DemotedToExtra within a month and the bunny in his posse became more over than he was.

* DeaderThanDisco: Some gimmicks that are popular on NXT fail utterly on the main roster. Things that work in the smaller, intimate setting of the NXT arena often don't translate well to the big stage.

** {{Wrestling/Paige}} was the first Diva to get insanely over on NXT - resulting in a quick HeelFaceTurn. After a lacklustre reign as Divas' Champion, her popularity waned with fans - resulting in a FaceHeelTurn into an AmbiguouslyGay {{Yandere}}. While Paige herself may get RescuedFromTheScrappyHeap, it's safe to say the Anti Diva character is this trope.

* DeaderThanDisco: Some gimmicks that are popular on NXT fail utterly on the main roster.

** When the show dropped the competition aspect and became more storyline based, a few wrestling fans started seeing it as an undiscovered gem that sadly wasn't seen by enough people and, more specifically, they credited a lot of its cult success to the storyline of Maxine, [[Wrestling/{{Fandango}} Johnny Curtis]], and Derrick Bateman, and expressed genuine frustration and regret when Maxine announced she asked to leave the company.

** Carmella is starting to become this for those who feel that her "fabulous princess" character and the associated RunningGag involving [[PoliticallyIncorrectHero Enzo Amore being sexist towards her and]] [[DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale constantly getting hit for it]] is nowhere near as funny as intended to be and actually throws a wrench into Enzo and Big Cass's dynamic. Even the NXT crowd at Full Sail is cold to her, showing more appreciation towards her {{jobber}} opponent, [[CosplayOtakuGirl "Blue Pants" Leva Bates]].

** In fact, season 2 actually has the ''lowest'' percentage of rookies still on WWE's active roster. Out of the seven, only Husky Harris (later Bray Wyatt of the WyattFamily), Michael [=McGillicutty=] (later CurtisAxel), and Titus O'Neil are still wrestling with WWE. You know the season could've gone better when out of all the contestants, the season's ''winner'', Wrestling/LowKi, ends up being released first.

* EarWorm: Just try to get Emma or Adam Rose's themes out of your head.

** Carmella is starting to become this for those who feel that her "fabulous princess" character and the associated RunningGag involving [[PoliticallyIncorrectHero Enzo Amore being sexist towards her and]] [[DoubleStandardAbuseFemaleOnMale constantly getting hit for it]] is nowhere near as funny as intended to be and actually throws a wrench into Enzo and Big Cass's dynamic. Even the NXT crowd at Full Sail is cold to her, openly showing more appreciation for her {{jobber}} opponent, [[CosplayOtakuGirl "Blue Pants" Leva Bates]].

** Baron Corbin got this treatment as of late when he squashed [[TheScrappy CJ Parker]] at NXT Takeover 2. It also helps that his [[FinishingMove finisher]] looks [[RuleOfCool awe]][[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhPHa2ZINhQ some]].

** In fact, season 2 actually has the ''lowest'' percentage of rookies still on WWE's active roster. Out of the seven, only Husky Harris (later Bray Wyatt of the WyattFamily), Michael [=McGillicutty=] (later CurtisAxel), and Titus O'Neil are still wrestling with WWE. You know the season could've gone better when out of all the contestants, the season's ''winner'', LowKi, ends up being released first.

* ToughActToFollow: Season 1 was by far the most successful set of Rookies, with the end result (Wrestling/TheNexus & [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]], and eventually the singles careers of [[Wrestling/WadeBarrett Bad News Barrett]] & Wrestling/{{Ryback}}), meaning that whoever were the next Rookies had their work cut out for them. As evidenced by the end results of Season 2 being a failed attempt to replicate the formation of the Nexus, it did not pan out well.

* CrowningMomentOfFunny: Since it was announced that the PPV after ''Takeover'' would be called 'Takeover 2', the fans decided that [[http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_WWE_NXT_special_episodes&action=history this was not good enough, and got creative.]]
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sagGAKuuSBM This promo]] with Tyler Breeze and Adrian Neville, full stop.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd97LapDpvw Colin Cassady telling Aiden English]], "I'm gonna drop you like an unnecessary theatre elective".

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd97LapDpvw Colin Cassidy telling Aiden English]], "I'm gonna drop you like an unnecessary theatre elective".

** While NXT has its fair share of Scrappys, there is nobody more hated on the roster than Wrestling/BoDallas. The reason the IWC hated him so much was because he was pushed to WWE despite being very green in the ring, and eliminated Wade Barrett in the Royal Rumble of 2013. The hatred was so bad that WWE eventually turned his character into a Heel who believes he's a popular Face and pretends to be a nice person. This spared him further XPacHeat.

* DracoInLeatherPants: The Ascension are straight up heels in the vein of the Ministry of Darkness, but the NXT crowds love watching Viktor & Konnor destroy anyone placed infront of them.

** The first season had some guy named DanielBryan.
** Kaval, during the second season. He won the competition because WWE fans kept voting for him over the company's preferred picks, and subsequently the competition rules were rewritten to remove any input from the fans on the outcome.

** Since the NXT/FCW merge, one person has managed to completely overshadow everyone on the roster in terms of popularity: Bray Wyatt, formerly Husky Harris. He was almost universally considered to be one of the best things on it, before he was called up the main WWE roster & did it again.
** Sami Zayn and Paige are considered this as well. '''Especially''' Paige. It was commented at least once that there were more signs for Paige in the crowd than anyone else, male or female. Kassius Ohno also had this before he was released.
** Enzo Amore. Good god, Enzo Amore.

* GrowingTheBeard: The latter half of Season 5, and with the shift to being a show for their developmental talent.

** Any wrestler who has a really noticeable and repeated yell when performing moves; the crowd ''will'' pick up on this and begin chanting it when the wrestler is out. Examples include Michael McGillicutty/Curtis Axel ("SHAH!") and Konnor/The Ascension ("YAH!").

** While NXT has its fair share of Scrappys, there is nobody more hated on the roster than Wrestling/BoDallas. The reason the IWC hated him so much was because he was pushed to WWE despite being very green in the ring, and eliminated Wade Barrett in the Royal Rumble of 2013. The hatred was so bad that WWE eventually turned his character into a Heel who believes he's a popular Face & acts like a like nice guy whilst really being condescending.
** Wound up happening again with CJ Parker. A peace-loving hippie gimmick in the 2010s did ''not'' go over at all with the crowd and much like the the Wrestling/BoDallas example this eventually led to him turning heel becoming more of a smug, whiny environmentalist.
* SoBadItsGood: While the whole show was this prior to becoming the Developmental brand, NXT Season 3 in particular. The show was [[StylisticSuck so ridiculously bad on purpose]], that it seemed like its target audience were those who read Website/{{WrestleCrap}} every week. It was almost as if WWE took everything that was {{narm}}y about the WWE Divas, [[AccentuateTheNegative highlighted it]], and placed a few other comedy acts on the show to act as foils, such as {{heel}} Wrestling/MichaelCole, Wrestling/{{Goldust}}, and [[TheScrappy Vickie]] [[LargeHam Guerrero]]. By Week 3, the show was so bad that you had Michael Cole banging a [[TheGongShow gong]] at ringside following the rookie challenges. The show's entire appeal is the ensuing NarmCharm, as well as Cole and Josh Mathews sarcastic remarks on everyone else involved.
* ToughActToFollow: Season 1 was by far the most successful set of Rookies, with the end result (Wrestling/TheNexus & [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]], and eventually the singles careers of [[Wrestling/WadeBarrett Bad News Barrett]] & Wrestling/{{Ryback}}) meaning that whoever were the next Rookies had their work cut out for them. As evidenced by the end results of Season 2 being a failed attempt to replicate the formation of the Nexus, it did not pan out well.

** The first season had some guy named Daniel Bryan.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: When the show dropped the competition aspect and became more storyline based, a few wrestling fans started seeing it as an undiscovered gem that sadly wasn't seen by enough people and, more specifically, they credited a lot of its cult success to the storyline of Maxine, [[Wrestling/{{Fandango}} Johnny Curtis]], and Derrick Bateman, and expressed genuine frustration and regret when Maxine announced she asked to leave the company.
** Since the NXT/FCW merge, one person has managed to completely overshadow everyone on the roster in terms of popularity: Bray Wyatt, formerly Husky Harris. He is almost universally considered to be one of the best things on it.

* FunnyMoments: Whenever Emma enters, there will usually be a shot of the commentary team with William Regal or Tensei[=/=]Jason Albert doing Emma's dance along with the crowd.

* FountainOfMemes: Every Enzo Amore/Colin Cassady promo seems to have at least one line that gets quoted all over the internet after the episode airs. It's at the point where the crowds at NXT have started doing the schtick along with the two of them, and they've only been around for a few months.