History YMMV / WWENXT

* BadassDecay: Big E Langston[[note]]Upper card champion on NXT, forgettable jobber on the main roster[[/note]], Bray Wyatt[[note]]Had a good run during early 2014, has now become glorified Enhancement Talent[[/note]], Seth Rollins[[note]]Despite being World Champion, he has devolved into an incompetent coward who is INCAPABLE of winning without interference [[AssPull unless the writers suddenly decide he CAN for the next half hour]][[/note]], Bo Dallas[[note]]Same as Big E[[/note]], Paige[[note]]Once a buzzworthy placeholder for Wrestling/AJLee was no longer needed as champion she was turned into another generic total diva / AJ clone as well as worfed into the divas' Jericho in about a year and a half[[/note]], Emma[[note]]Paired with Santino until he retired, was subsequently treated as a complete loser[[/note]], Adam Rose[[note]]Went through Billy & Chuck syndrome to the point his character has been derisively called Adam Estrogen[[/note]], The Ascension[[note]]From cool Underworld-esque dark scavengers to wannabe Illuminati Road Warriors with weaknesses exposed and no momentum to speak of[[/note]], Adrian Neville [[note]]Stuck in limbo, beating jobbers but never winning a single match of importance[[/note]]. Even Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens to a lesser extent[[note]]Kevin Owens lost his title ever since his main roster feud with John Cena and Sami Zayn injured his shoulder getting hyped in his main roster debut, though that's hardly anyone's actual fault[[/note]]. It's no wonder people are now begging the NXT stars to stay as far away from the main roster as possible.

* BadassDecay: Big E Langston[[note]]Upper card champion on NXT, forgettable jobber on the main roster[[/note]], Bray Wyatt[[note]]Had a good run during early 2014, has now become glorified Enhancement Talent[[/note]], Seth Rollins[[note]]Despite being World Champion, he has devolved into an incompetent coward who is INCAPABLE of winning without interference [[AssPull unless the writers suddenly decide he CAN for the next half hour]][[/note]], Bo Dallas[[note]]Same as Big E[[/note]], Paige[[note]]Once a buzzworthy placeholder for Wrestling/AJLee was no longer needed as champion she was turned into another generic total diva / AJ clone as well as worfed into the divas' Jericho in about a year and a half[[/note]], Emma[[note]]Paired with Santino until he retired, was subsequently treated as a complete loser[[/note]], Adam Rose[[note]]Went through Billy & Chuck syndrome to the point his character has been derisively called Adam Estrogen[[/note]], The Ascension[[note]]From cool Underworld-esque dark scavengers to wannabe Illuminati Road Warrior[[/note]], Adrian Neville [[note]]Stuck in limbo, beating jobbers but never winning a single match of importance[[/note]]. Even Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens to a lesser extent[[note]]Kevin Owens lost his title ever since his main roster feud with John Cena and Sami Zayn injured his shoulder getting hyped in his main roster debut, though that's hardly anyone's actual fault[[/note]]. It's no wonder people are now begging the NXT stars to stay as far away from the main roster as possible.

* BadassDecay: Big E Langston[[note]]Upper card champion on NXT, forgettable jobber on the main roster[[/note]], Bray Wyatt[[note]]Had a good run during early 2014, has now become glorified Enhancement Talent[[/note]], Seth Rollins[[note]]Despite being World Champion, he has devolved into an incompetant coward who is INCAPABLE of winning without interference ([[AssPull Unless the writers sudennly decide he CAN for the next half an hour]][[/note]], Bo Dallas[[note]]Same as Big E[[/note]], Paige[[note]]Turned into another generic diva/ AJLee clone[[/note]], Emma, Adam Rose, The Ascension, [[note]]All three were turned into complete jokes[[/note]], Adrian Neville [[note]]Hasn't won a single match of importance since debuting[[/note]]. Even Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens too a lesser extent.[[note]]Kevin Owens lost his title ever since his main roster feud with John Cena and Sami Zayn's main roster debut match lead to his injury, though that's hardly the main roster's fault[[/note]]. It's no wonder people are now begging the NXT stars to stay as far away from the main roster as possible.

** Six words: [[Wrestling/KentaKobayashi Hideo Itami]], [[Wrestling/PrinceDevitt Finn Balor]], [[Wrestling/KevinSteen Kevin Owens]].

** The NXT Women's division is one for the show as a whole, as it is often considered to produce the match of the night and portrays female wrestling in a way that hasn't been seen in WWE since...ever.

** Carmella became this for those who feel that her "Princess of Staten Island" 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]].

** Dana Brooke has very few fans due to being seen as simply far too green to deserve a regular spot on the roster yet. The fact she was almost instantly added to the opening title sequence following her debut (while some big names such as Enzo Amore still are not present and others like Finn Balor took weeks or months to be added to it) put her dangerously close to being a CreatorsPet. Thankfully her role has recently diminished greatly and seemingly is playing the role of TheDragon to Emmna. Time will tell if this redeems her in the fans eyes.

* BadassDecay: Big E Langston[[note]]Upper card champion on NXT, forgettable jobber on the main roster[[/note]], Bray Wyatt[[note]]Had a good run during early 2014, has now become glorified Enhancement Talent[[/note]], Seth Rollins[[note]]Despite being World Champion, he has devolved into an incompetant coward who is INCAPABLE of winning without interference ([[AssPull Unless the writers sudennly decide he CAN for the next half an hour]][[/note]], Bo Dallas[[note]]Same as Big E[[/note]], Paige[[note]]Turned into another generic diva/ AJLee clone[[/note]], Emma, Adam Rose, The Ascension, [[note]]All three were turned into complete jokes[[/note]], Adrian Neville [[note]]Hasn't won a single match of importance since debuting[[/note]]. Even Sami Zayn and Kevin OWens too a lesser extent.[[note]]Kevin Owens lost his title ever since his main roster feud with John Cena and Sami Zayn's main roster debut match lead to his injury, though that's hardly the main rosters fault[[/note]]. It's no wonder people are now begging the NXT stars to stay as far away from the main roster as possible.

** NXT R-Evolution is considered by many fans to be the point where NXT went from "Really fucking good" to: "Goddamn ''[[UpToEleven AMAZING]]''.

* 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 in front of them.
** With their exodus to the main roster comes [[Wrestling/KevinSteen Kevin Owens]] to take their place. The man capped off day one with a violent FaceHeelTurn against his best friend, ultra-popular Wrestling/SamiZayn, and despite his talk about doing this for his family has shown that he is a {{manipulative|Bastard}} [[TheSociopath sociopathic]] BloodKnight at heart, perhaps the most sadistic wrestler in the history of NXT. Yet people continue to chant "Fight, Owens, Fight!" unless he's committing legalized assault—and when that happens, ''they chant "Kill, Owens, Kill!".''

** NXT R-Evolution is considered by many fans to be the point were NXT went from: "Really F**king Good." to: "Goddamn ''[[UpToEleven AMAZING]]''
* HeartwarmingMoments: After a hard fought loss in her challenge for the NXT Women's Championship at ''Unstoppabe'', Becky Lynch is stood in the ring, reduced to tears. The crowd responds by giving her a standing ovation, and singing her theme song ''before'' it was cued up again to play Becky out of the ring.

* MemeticMutation: Since Solomon Crowe debuted as a hacker, blaming any incident in real life where someone (particularly wrestlers) get hacked on him has become a running gag.

* MyRealDaddy: When Vince [=McMahon=] was still involved with dictating the direction of NXT, it was filled with silly competition segments, and was largely ignored by wrestling fans. When Triple H took over, it basically became his own personal project & he essentially turned it into basically an indy show with the financial backing of the WWE. It's meat and potatoes wrestling style has made it very popular among fans who are tired of having "sports entertainment" crammed down their throats.

* NightmareFuel / NauseaFuel: One spot during the Sasha Banks vs Becky Lynch match at NXT ''Unstoppable'' that also counts as an AwesomeMoment for Sasha: During the match, Sasha Banks locks in a modified Armbar and then, to add more pressure, ''stands on Becky Lynch's arm as it's being wrenched past her shoulder blade!'' It legitimately looked like Becky's arm [[BodyHorror was about to be snapped in half or ripped out of it's socket]], [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer the move was THAT brutal.]]
** Marcus Louis' VillainousBreakdown after his partner lost a Hair vs Hair match and [[DirtyCoward left him to suffer the consequences]]. Normally when the vain heel loses this type of match, it's PlayedForLaughs, but in this case there's something truly horrifying about Marcus's change afterwards. The man seems [[DespairEventHorizon completely destroyed]] and after his return he seems more like a rabid animal. It's honestly disturbing to think about [[AdultFear something like that happening to you]].

** Wrestling/BoDallas was turned heel after a colossal failure of a face run, with Dallas becoming conceited & self-absorbed to the point he was oblivious to the fans' hatred of him & seemed to genuinely think he was beloved by the NXT fans.

** When Carmella was added to Enzo & Cass's act, fans immediately rejected the idea of someone joining the duo due to fears of the third wheel messing up the dynamic of the team. This hatedom increased, and started to turn fans on Enzo, due to the RunningGag|s of Enzo being sexist & being hit for it, and Enzo's frequent hitting on Carmella despite her stated lack of interest in him. The hate subsided after the unpopular RunningGag|s were dropped, and Carmella began actively supporting the guys in their chase for the NXT tag team titles.

** Very, very few fans like Dana Brooke, seeing her as overhyped, overrated and with a really bad gimmick. It doesn't help that the rest of the female wrestlers in NXT are working at a much higher level than her, which only makes her look even worse.

** In a sense this has occurred to the women's division; Dana Brooke mentioned above is a scrappy for good reason but given the "Four Horsewomen of NXT" as they have been called (Becky Lynch, SashaBanks, Bayley and Charlotte) are at the top of the division, it's fair to say expectations are *very* high for the next wave of women's talent when the above four are promoted to the main roster gradually.

** The developmental version often inspires this reaction with regards to the main roster. For example the final live special of 2014 was regarded as one of the best shows of the year. The TLC PPV followed a few days later and was considered a dud by most fans. It has been rumoured that main roster talent are resentful of the time and attention NXT gets.

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

** Since Becky Lynch's FaceHeelTurn, she has attempted to preserve her rocker chick character. However while it worked as a face gimmick, it looks awkward and unnatural as a heel. It doesn't help since turning heel, she's swapped her old theme, [[AwesomeMusic "Anything You Wanna Do"]], for the not-so-awesome "Celtic Invasion".

** 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]]. Although since Carmella has wrestled as a heel on live events (and played the heel in her match against Emma), this is possibly intentional (setting her up for a FaceHeelTurn).

*** Fortunately, that gag is being pulled back on with Enzo and Cass making a push for the tag titles and Carmella proudly supporting them.

** The number of fans who like Alex Riley is growing smaller with each turn at the commentary desk. It doesn't help that his fellow commentators are [[EnsembleDarkhorse Corey Graves and Renee Young]]. This being said, Riley has a stated desire to be a wrestler again & not an announcer, [[spoiler:and as of the February 2015 tapings, seems to be moving back into that role]].

** Very, very few fans like Dana Brooke, seeing her as overhyped, overrated and with a really bad gimmick (i.e. the exact same reasons Mojo gets hate on the male side).

** And after that, Mojo Rawley began to get flack for what the fans saw as a generic face character gimmick.

** Very, very few fans like Dana Brooke, seeing her as overhyped, overrated and with a really bad gimmick.

* MyRealDaddy: When Vince [=McMahon=] was still involved with dictating the direction of NXT, it was filled with silly competition segments. When Triple H took over, it basically became his own personal project & he essentially turned it into an indie show with a WWE budget to much acclaim.

** Sami Zayn versus Adrian Neville also had a few heartwarming moments. First, there was a moment where Sami Zayn considered using the NXT Championship as a weapon to win the match, and the notoriously smarky crowd were all so invested in Sami Zayn as a character that they chanted, "NO! NO! NO!" showing how much they wanted him to remain true to himself. The loud ovation when Sami Zayn then won has to be heard to be believed. Every fan in Full Sail was absolutely elated. After that, almost every single person on the NXT roster (bar a couple of heels) came out to congratulate Sami Zayn, lifting him up on their shoulders and parading him around. Then, the defeated Adrian Neville stood up, rejecting Sami Zayn's offer of a handshake only to hug him and congratulate him on becoming champion.

* MagnificentBastard: Kevin Owens. [[spoiler: Who successfully manipulated both current champion Sami Zayn and General Manager Wrestling/WilliamRegal into giving him a title shot, then proceeded to [[NoHoldsBarredBeatdown beat the living Hell out of Sami Zayn]] to become NXT Champion within a month of his debut]]

* NightmareFuel / NauseaFuel: One spot during the Sasha Banks vs Becky Lynch match at NXT ''Unstoppable" that also counts as an AwesomeMoment for Sasha: During the match, Sasha Banks locks in a modified Armbar and then, to add more pressure, ''stands on Becky Lynch's arm as it's being wrenched past her shoulder blade!'' It legitimately looked like Becky's arm [[BodyHorror was about to be snapped in half or ripped out of it's socket]], [[NotMakingThisUpDisclaimer the move was THAT brutal.]]

** Sami Zayn versus Adrian Neville also had a few heartwarming moments. First, there was a moment where Sami Zayn considered using the NXT Championship as a weapon to win the match, and the notoriously crowd were all so invested in Sami Zayn as a character that they chanted, "NO! NO! NO!" showing how much they wanted him to remain true to himself. The loud ovation when Sami Zayn then won has to be heard to be believed. Every fan in Full Sail was absolutely elated. After that, almost every single person on the NXT roster (bar a couple of heels) came out to congratulate Sami Zayn, lifting him up on their shoulders and parading him around. Then, the defeated Adrian Neville stood up, rejecting Sami Zayn's offer of a handshake only to hug him and congratulate him on becoming champion.

* SmallReferencePools: Calling Bryan Danielson and Low Ki "rookies" was almost insulting to the intelligence of anyone who even knew a little about their history. Both had been around as long as John Cena, Randy Orton or Primo Colon(who they saw fit to make a "pro") and had objectively more rounded resumes as pro wrestlers(making them just like say, Wrestling/LondonAndKendrick or Wrestling/CMPunk), not to mention longer than either MVP or Miz(who were also "pros"). The fact Michael Cole claimed their popularity was "only" due the internet actually did push it to intelligence insulting levels even if you knew absolutely nothing about either before NXT, given everyone on Monday Night Raw had a hard on for what was trending on twitter.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Not that rookies in need of more experience competing against a wrestler who wrestled since Wrestling/{{WCW}} was still around in drills that having little to nothing to do with wrestling while Michael Cole constantly derides the best wrestler for things that also apply to many of his less talented peers are building blocks of "good" plots but at least season one and two presented some ''different'' matches and few good ones by WWE's five-ten minute TV standards. Season three cut back on the number of "rookies" to six, neglected to find a "really good one", showcased a couple wrestlers hardly trained at all and had Michael Cole put down everyone and everything. It didn't even have as many ''different'' matches let a lone as many good ones since more guys already on the roster had to be brought on. Keeping [[WolverinePublicity the already advertised]] Isis The Amazon, holding onto developmental champion Savanna and bringing an Angel Orsini/[=LuFisto=]/Ayako Hamada type to keep Cole's bile limited to "the internet" while ensuring some of those ''different'' matches would be trending on twitter for positive reasons was really seen as the worse way to go? No one even thought it was a good idea to ''pretend'' these women mattered as much as their male predecessors? Wrestling/MercedesMartinez and Wrestling/CheerleaderMelissa had already been on [[BShow Heat]] the way previous "rookies" Daniel Bryan and Kaval had been on Jakked/Metal, it wasn't as if WWE was oblivious to such women existing.(especially since a younger peer of theirs in Paige ended up being one of the most talked about wrestlers on NXT later) Also, they kept Cole on commentary but not CM Punk.

** The women on NXT Season 3 fared a little better on the main roster than many of the other contestants (save Daniel Bryan or Wade Barrett). Wrestling/AJLee became the biggest star the Divas division had seen in years - she and {{Wrestling/Kaitlyn}} both became Divas' Champions, but AJ held the title for much longer and had a number of high-profile angles with male talent throughout 2012 and 2013. Naomi likewise became an EnsembleDarkhorse and made it onto the ''Series/TotalDivas'' cast. Maxine became an EnsembleDarkhorse on ''NXT Redemption'' and was considered one of the best things about the show. {{Wrestling/Aksana}} is a marginal case as she did get a regular spot in segments with Teddy Long, then a managerial spot with Cesaro - but never really became a star in the division. Jamie Keyes in contrast requested her release before NXT Season 3 had even ended (though came BackForTheFinale).