Rank the NXT Season 2 careers

[Cronant]

The 'Nexus' thread covers the season 1 cast, so lets see how the much less successful NXT casts rank up, since its not roughly 2 years since all the 'regular' seasons wrapped up.

Here's the list. First eliminated at the bottom, winner at the top.

Kaval
Michael McGillicutty
Alex Riley
Husky Harris
Percy Watson
Lucky Cannon
Eli Cottonwood
Titus O'Neil

As of now, you kinda have to go with Titus at the top. Riley had a moment when feuding with Miz where it looked like he'd be the guy, but those days seem long gone. The thing is, there's still plenty of time for upward movement with a few of these guys, especially with Husky's switch to Bray Wyatt, he's lurking around waiting to show back up.

All in all, this is the season with the most drastic turnaround between the winner and the first guy to go home. The other winners at least did alright in comparison to the rest of the cast.

I guess you can do 2 lists. How they rank now, and how you think they'll end up ranking when all is said and done.

Safe to say Lucky, Eli, and Kaval are at the bottom.

[Krimzon]

In regards to Husky Harris...SOON.

WWE really dropped the ball with nearly all of these guys. Kaval got worked over right out of the gate, Percy had his personality stripped from him, A-Ry became A-Jobber, and McGillicutty can't even buy time on RAW/SD. Titus is clearly doing the best ATM, but that's kinda by default.

[percymania]

I loved this season, but wow the roster doesn't compare to Season 1 AT ALL. If I were to rank them based on their positions now, I would go with:

1. Titus O'Neil
2. Alex Riley
3. Michael McGillicutty
4. Husky Harris
5. Percy Watson
6. Kaval
7. Lucky Cannon
8. Eli Cottonwood

The only debate I had was between Watson and Harris.

[The Ichi]

I'd still put Riley at the top. Even if he's not doing much, for some reason the guy is over as hell.

[CATCH_US IS the Conversation]

Season 2

Titus O'Neil - Getting a good tag team push. I can't see him becoming a huge singles star, but he's already established a good midcard gimmick not unlike the midcard staples of the Attitude Era.

Alex Riley - Got a huge push, was in line to become a possible #2 face. Managed to remain over despite flopping. Built up a huge cult following among IWC and casuals alike. Despite losing a lot, he's often booked somewhat strongly and competitively against name talent like Dolph Ziggler, Cody Rhodes, The Miz, and Damien Sandow. He has potential to be the next Rey Mysterio, in terms of being a very over midcard face who can step up into the World Title scene when needed.

Husky Harris - As Husky Harris, I thought he could be the next Umaga. He never really "failed" with this gimmick, and was only taken off TV because they wanted him to lose weight, which actually wasn't even that much of a problem. He's found a new character in Bray Wyatt that has huge potential

Michael McGillicutty - Former tag champ, and a solid hand in the ring. SHAH! has a potential to become the new YES!

Eli Cottonwood - He would be on the bottom, but the Mustache promo got WWE mentioned on the Soup, and Vince loves DAT MAINSTREAM ATTENTION.


Kaval - Good look, good voice. Has built in indy following. WTF happened?


Percy Watson - Great character. Even SRS Percy is pretty charismatic with a good theme song. But horribly underutilized, and barely used even in an enhancement role.

Lucky Cannon

[Deleted]

Kaval could have made the E a lot of money as a midcard face, not sure why that one didn't work out.

[Cronant]

Gotta be a bit happy for Titus thus far. Even if PTP is the height of his career, he did way better than someone eliminated first from this group should do.

[Deleted]

Nov 23, 2012 16:04:50 GMT -5 CATCH_US IS the Conversation said:

Alex Riley - Got a huge push, was in line to become a possible #2 face. Managed to remain over despite flopping. Built up a huge cult following among IWC and casuals alike. Despite losing a lot, he's often booked somewhat strongly and competitively against name talent like Dolph Ziggler, Cody Rhodes, The Miz, and Damien Sandow. He has potential to be the next Rey Mysterio, in terms of being a very over midcard face who can step up into the World Title scene when needed.

I know youre a fan of the guy and I think he's got some talent/upside, but that description of Alex Riley reads like it's from an alternate universe. Outside of beating Miz, which really set Miz's depush into motion, he's never been booked strongly at all, and 2012 has been a really bad year for him. I'm not saying he's terrible or anything, but I feel like you're really overstating his overness and his career outlook.

[CATCH_US IS the Conversation]

Nov 23, 2012 16:53:39 GMT -5 @lovehater said:

Nov 23, 2012 16:04:50 GMT -5 CATCH_US IS the Conversation said:

Alex Riley - Got a huge push, was in line to become a possible #2 face. Managed to remain over despite flopping. Built up a huge cult following among IWC and casuals alike. Despite losing a lot, he's often booked somewhat strongly and competitively against name talent like Dolph Ziggler, Cody Rhodes, The Miz, and Damien Sandow. He has potential to be the next Rey Mysterio, in terms of being a very over midcard face who can step up into the World Title scene when needed.

I know youre a fan of the guy and I think he's got some talent/upside, but that description of Alex Riley reads like it's from an alternate universe. Outside of beating Miz, which really set Miz's depush into motion, he's never been booked strongly at all, and 2012 has been a really bad year for him. I'm not saying he's terrible or anything, but I feel like you're really overstating his overness and his career outlook.

After being taken off of TV, he was steadily racking up wins on Superstars until 2012. I don't think putting Riley over hurt Miz. Miz was kept rather strong, and didn't really fall until the Awesome Truth breakup. Most of the time that Riley has lost, he's been booked against upper tier guys, guys who were heavily pushed or guys who were heavily protected or needed some semblance of momentum. The guy got a pop on a jobber entrance after being introduced to no music....twice.

[Andrew is Good]

It's weird. In Season 1, they had pretty talented up and comers, and in season 2, legit rookies for the most part.

Anyway, let's go.

1. Kaval - I'm going with his career after WWE. Lots of great indy bookings, big bookings in New Japan. He was f***ed over in WWE, but they didn't know what they had. New Japan basically seems to be the definition of "one man's trash is another man's treasure", though I don't watch it, just hear about it.

2. Titus O'Neil - Man, what a difference a few years makes. He was a bumbling fool, now he's part of a great tag team. Biggest surprise to come out of the group.

3. Michael McGillicutty - He was a tag team Champion at one point, remember that. Plus, there's still a lot of potential with him in the future.

4. Alex Riley - The man who is always over, Riley got a decent push as the sidekick of the Miz, he even beat the Miz before Miz was beaten by everybody. But then, it all went downhill.

5. Husky Harris - Part of the New Nexus and has a bad ass current gimmick.

6. Percy Watson - The guy is incredibly athletic, but they don't seem to want to pull the trigger on him getting called up. To be fair though, he was really green at the time he was called up, despite the charisma.

7. Lucky Cannon - Da lish got over a bit more in Season 5, but here, he was a generic babyface and got over like a turd in the punch bowl.

8. Eli Cottonwood - AKA, Shitty Brodie Lee. He's basically like Brodie Lee/Luke Harper, similar builds, big menacing guy, bodyguard for Bray Wyatt. But, since they were bringing in Brodie Lee, and he was shitty Brodie Lee, they got rid of him. Because he was shitty.

[Jeremy]

McGillicuty is the only one of these guys to hold a belt thus far, so he should be #1.
#2 is Riley
#3 is Titus
#4 is Kaval
#5 is Harris
#6 is Watson
#7 is Cannon
#8 is Cottonwood

[Allie Kitsune]

I never hated anybody half as much as I hated "Da Lish". Not even CM Punk at his most "I hate anybody who doesn't live my way of life and I want them to die" obnoxious. I swear to god, "Da Lish" was the worst thing I've ever had to deal with on WWE TV aside from The Sad Saga of Jacob Novak.

Riley was a big shock for me. I couldn't stand him on NXT because he was like you took every arrogant jerk-jock heel in wrestling history, put them in a blender, then ran them through the Dusty Rhodes FCW Naming Machine, and out came Alex Riley. He won me over as The Miz's Personal Goon, though.

I liked the dynamic between "Teeny Tiny" Kaval and Lay-Cool. I loved the idea that both sides openly admitted they were using the other. Made Kaval look like a player, and Lay-Cool look like a version of PMS that didn't suck. He didn't have the patience or the attitude to deal with WWE's random dartboard approach to pushes, though, so I don't blame him for leaving.

Husky Harris, well, I never quite knew what to think of him. He seemed OK, but I just can't see him as anything buy a Dirty Curty-esque sleazebag, even though that was NEVER his gimmick. He just looks like the kind of guy who took the farm animals out for a "ride" behind the barn.

Eli Cottonwood gave us "What is a mustache?". For that, I'll always be grateful.

McGillicutty's a balding wildcard. I liked the promo he cut on Tyson Kidd, riding the 4-Wheeler. I like the whole idea of "I can never live up to Daddy's legacy, so I'm not even trying", but I'd like to see some actual character development on that front. Find a way to work his terrible "Genesis of McGillicutty" moment into it.

What can you say about Titus? He's the Man Full Of Words! If he can get just a little bit better in the ring, he'll indeed be making the Millions of Dollars, Millions of Dollars, Millions of Dollars. I have no idea how he turned it around from being the resident dog-barking mushmouth of NXT, but he did.

Percy's an interesting case. I'm glad he lost the "I do cocaine" grin, but I miss the Finger Rain and the "OH YEAH!". Would like to see him get back on TV and win some matches. Find him a tag team partner and start a feud with the PTPs.

Titus, Riley, and McGillicutty are the only ones I can really rank right now, and it's in that order.

[CATCH_US IS the Conversation]

Husky Harris was my personal favorite during Season 2 and could've been given the Umaga push if they had given him a true chance to sink or swim with the persona. While I like his current role as Bray Wyatt, I think if you took the Bray Wyatt mic ability and put it into the Husky Harris persona, he'd have much greater upside than he remarkably already has.

[YiHammer]

Some reports say Kaval left on his own

Didn't he confirm they fired him because creative had nothing?

[saintpat]

Kaval is a quitter.

Don't blame WWE.

[Some Guy]

I blame WWE for being spiteful that Kaval won, but Low Ki is also an asshole who stiffs people for no real reason so I don't feel terribly sorry for him.

[Andrew is Good]

Nov 23, 2012 17:49:37 GMT -5 YiHammer said:

Some reports say Kaval left on his own

Didn't he confirm they fired him because creative had nothing?

Kaval later went on after three months saying that he was actually released and was told to say he quit. But then again, that could be false, but there were differing reports on it.

[trollrogue]

Kaval had hands down the best booking in NXT and squandered it all since he wasn't WHC within a year. Seems like he didn't hang in there long enough to see success unlike CM Punk.

When watching this season the first time it aired I would've never thought I'd grow into such a huge fan of Titus! He took his own advice and made it into a win! The guy had me crying while he was on commentary RAW and Smackdown this past week.

[4real]

Alex Riley got to appear in the main event of a Wrestlemania. So he wins it for me.

WWE dropped the ball with Percy definitely. And Husky was badass in this season. I also dug Lucky Cannon's heel character.

[Cam]

Currently:

1. Titus O'Neil
2. Alex Riley
3. Michael McGillicutty
4. Percy Watson
5. Husky Harris
6. Kaval
7. Lucky Cannon
8. Eli Cottonwood

When all is said and done:

1. Husky Harris
2. Titus O'Neil
3. Michael McGillicutty
4. Alex Riley
5. Percy Watson
6. Kaval
7. Lucky Cannon
8. Eli Cottonwood