How important is the NXT Championship?

[UN PLOMBIER NIGHTMARE #blm]

i was thinking about making this thread a while ago but this feud between Ilja/Tony D at NXT’s equivalent of Wrestlemania pushed it, why is the NXT Championship almost always the weakest part of the show?

everything around Ilja is cool, so is Tony D and the gang but damn if this shit is lacking some sauce ironically.

it isn’t unlikable or boring but it feels like it would be insane to have it main event over Trick/Melo. same with previous title reigns where having them go on last instead of Asuka with her title or other people seemed ridiculous. it really feels like the NXT title is the 4th or 5th most important thing most of the time, at least for me!

finn is my favorite holder of the belt but even then… it seems like the title takes a backseat to everything else most of the time.

[Doo Doo is Worse Than WCW 2000]

I love Ilja, but yeah, it's consistently been one of the least interesting parts of the show no matter who's had it or who's been booking and it's no different with him. I thought they should've put the belt on Trick at Vengeance Day, but I can guarantee we'd start saying the same thing about his reign after the Melo feud wrapped up.

[Carefree Beach Life Gritizen]

Trick should be winning the title @ Stand & Deliver, whether that meant doing Trick vs Melo earlier or Melo should've won the title at Roadblock. I know if you gave me the choice between Trick vs Melo or Trick vs Ilja 3 for the title, I would choose Trick vs Ilja for the title. I really don't care about seeing Trick get his revenge of Melo, you know he's going to win. I want to see Trick become champion.

IMO, Tony/Ilja feels off for a variety of reasons. The first being Tony has spent the last year+ being exclusively in a tag team. His really only big singles victory in that time came from beating Melo to win the title shot. A match that didn't even win clean. Melo had him beat until they played Trick's music. So he doesn't feel like a real threat to Ilja. Also, Tony D's presentation right now screams heel, like he's got a f***ing lawyer now, but he's still a face.

[Lizuka #BLM]

The NXT title's kind of rarely ever been especially interesting. There've been some highlights over the years for sure but also I feel pretty comfortable in calling Melo / Ilja II the best NXT title match there's ever been just because it's not like it has a lot of worthwhile competition.

[UN PLOMBIER NIGHTMARE #blm]

both really good points and I agree, we’d be saying the same thing about trick if he had the title from the last ppv because I doubt they’d just go directly to melo/trick for the title even if they should.

as for tony d, that’s the thing with him because all of it DOES scream heel but he’s not gonna be booed. its cheesy so of course all of us love it but the way he got the title opportunity is super face? but he has a lawyer now and that’s as heel as it gets? his awesome music was changed for evil heel jingle jangle?

its stuff like this that makes the nxt title seem so strange, it always has the “cathuh?.gif” out of any feuds on the shows usually. even with bron as great as he has been with corbin it felt like people were excited for everything else but the main events would be side piece stuff. coleslaw to everything else’s rack of ribs and chocolate cake

[Carefree Beach Life Gritizen]

Mar 28, 2024 2:46:39 GMT -5 UN PLOMBIER NIGHTMARE #blm said:

both really good points and I agree, we’d be saying the same thing about trick if he had the title from the last ppv because I doubt they’d just go directly to melo/trick for the title even if they should.

as for tony d, that’s the thing with him because all of it DOES scream heel but he’s not gonna be booed. its cheesy so of course all of us love it but the way he got the title opportunity is super face? but he has a lawyer now and that’s as heel as it gets? his awesome music was changed for evil heel jingle jangle?

its stuff like this that makes the nxt title seem so strange, it always has the “cathuh?.gif” out of any feuds on the shows usually. even with bron as great as he has been with corbin it felt like people were excited for everything else but the main events would be side piece stuff. coleslaw to everything else’s rack of ribs and chocolate cake

I think they book so many NXT title matches where the winner is a foregone conclusion. Like Bron had feuds with JD, Gacy, Grimes & Apollo. Both Melo & Ilja had feuds with Corbin. I'm sure Trick will get a feud with Corbin too when he wins the title if Corbin stays in NXT. 

[Doo Doo is Worse Than WCW 2000]

To be fair I should've said it's been the weakest part of the show since the USA era, which is when I started watching NXT regularly. I can't really speak about the Network era champs since I watched the Takeovers and skipped the weekly show most weeks. Since they moved to USA the champs have been:

Adam Cole - I did like it at the time, but I have a hard time remembering anything about it now. I guess that says more about me. I think he had that awful Velveteen Dream match while champ? I could be wrong.

Keith Lee - Deserved to win it, but didn't get the time to really do anything with it. Lost it to Kross a month later and got called up.

Kross - Vacated due to injury. Probably should've never been the one to beat Lee in the first place.

Finn Balor - Unintentionally funny promos aside, he's easily been my favorite. It's the last time it truly felt like a main event title to me.

Kross (2) - Massive flop, poor guy couldn't get over to save his life.

Joe - Did nothing with it.

Ciampa - I don't remember anything about this either.

Bron - As advanced as he was in the ring for his experience level, painfully boring.

Dolph - A waste of time IMO. I bet you forgot about this.

Bron (2) - See his first reign. Fans were getting tired of him and the feuds with JD and Gacy were some of the most boring shit NXT's ever done, minus Gacy's liberal druids eating Bron. That ruled.

Carmelo - Having him win was the right decision, but dude lost all personality after this. The first match with Ilja was amazing, though.

Ilja - Probably the best champ since Finn, even if it's not saying much. Great matches and beautifully homoerotic promos, but still kinda boring because he's mostly had challengers that you know aren't going to win. Has been overshadowed this entire time by Trick vs. Melo drama.

[Bo Rida]

Bo > Neville > Zayn > Owens was one of my favourite periods for any title.

It's been slowly downhill ever since, even if the next few holders were still good.
Well actually it's gone quickly downhill a few times, Kross in particular.

[J is Justice]

Mar 28, 2024 3:18:36 GMT -5 Doo Doo is Worse Than WCW 2000 said:

To be fair I should've said it's been the weakest part of the show since the USA era, which is when I started watching NXT regularly. I can't really speak about the Network era champs since I watched the Takeovers and skipped the weekly show most weeks. Since they moved to USA the champs have been:

Adam Cole - I did like it at the time, but I have a hard time remembering anything about it now. I guess that says more about me. I think he had that awful Velveteen Dream match while champ? I could be wrong.

Keith Lee - Deserved to win it, but didn't get the time to really do anything with it. Lost it to Kross a month later and got called up.

Kross - Vacated due to injury. Probably should've never been the one to beat Lee in the first place.

Finn Balor - Unintentionally funny promos aside, he's easily been my favorite. It's the last time it truly felt like a main event title to me.

Kross (2) - Massive flop, poor guy couldn't get over to save his life.

Joe - Did nothing with it.

Ciampa - I don't remember anything about this either.

Bron - As advanced as he was in the ring for his experience level, painfully boring.

Dolph - A waste of time IMO. I bet you forgot about this.

Bron (2) - See his first reign. Fans were getting tired of him and the feuds with JD and Gacy were some of the most boring shit NXT's ever done, minus Gacy's liberal druids eating Bron. That ruled.

Carmelo - Having him win was the right decision, but dude lost all personality after this. The first match with Ilja was amazing, though.

Ilja - Probably the best champ since Finn, even if it's not saying much. Great matches and beautifully homoerotic promos, but still kinda boring because he's mostly had challengers that you know aren't going to win. Has been overshadowed this entire time by Trick vs. Melo drama.

TIL that Kross is a two time champ.

[government mule]

I f***ing loved evil Ciampa's 1st run, and Andrade's matches were mostly stellar. Gargano's win should have felt important but the booking was bollocks.

Also, Joe/Naka/Balor made it feel important before Roode showed up.

[Deleted]

That bald f*** era Ciampa IMO has been the best era for that title and then would be Balor as a close second and then Cole.

Everyone else was a quick win and drop it to really be memorable.

[Muskrat]

Since NXT 2.0 the belts haven’t felt terribly important. Once they declared “this is not a 3rd brand, this is developmental” the belts lost all of their shine.

I mean, the belts serve their purpose but it used to be a much bigger deal to be a NXT champ

[Allie Kitsune]

NXT's current "Bizarre Horny Show" energy kind of makes the title feel less important, yeah. Because then everything about you revolves around the title, rather than weird interactions and weird character moments and being part of Shawn's Horniverse.

[A Platypus Rave]

Mar 28, 2024 8:50:10 GMT -5 Muskrat said:

Since NXT 2.0 the belts haven’t felt terribly important. Once they declared “this is not a 3rd brand, this is developmental” the belts lost all of their shine.

I mean, the belts serve their purpose but it used to be a much bigger deal to be a NXT champ

Original NXT made the Title feel important because it felt like anyone was in contention for it, like anyone could get a big win and would have a claim to go for it...

That changed later in NXT's life... but it's especially been obvious in NXT 2.0

[The Rick Jericho]

The title would feel so much more special if Stand and Deliver was Melo as champion dropping it to Trick and crown him the new champion at the Wrestlemania weekend.

Ilja's reign is just gone on a little too long and he should've made his way to the main roster by now to chase GUNTHER.

[Cyno]

NXT's title situation reminds me a lot of early-mid 00's TNA where the NWA World Heavyweight Championship almost felt like a midcard scene while the real star attraction was the X Division. In NXT's case, I think the non-title feuds are a hell of a lot more interesting than the title feuds. Especially Trick vs Melo.

[BRV]

Bobby Roode held the NXT Championship for 203 days and I couldn’t tell you one match he had while champion.

[Push R Truth]

It's about as important at the European Title.

It's got flashes of "good" from time to time but it's mostly "who's the champ again?"

[Chiral]

They usually play it VERY safe with the NXT title which can lead to some really dull reigns because 90% of the time you know when a title is changing hands (that isn't necessarily a bad thing, but like 8 years of that makes it hard to care about. Especially when it's a champ you don't care about and you know they have 8+ months before they're maybe gonna lose.

I also feel like the tendency to have the traditional friends to enemies blood feud around WM season get away from the belt (maybe to have two marquee matches at the WM adjacent show) leads to the belt feeling less important than the blood feuds, which kinda devalues the belt.

[Lizuka #BLM]

Mar 28, 2024 20:15:15 GMT -5 BRV said:

Bobby Roode held the NXT Championship for 203 days and I couldn’t tell you one match he had while champion.

I mostly remember that awful borefest he had with KENTA that dragged on for forever and had a weird-ass ending where Roode did his DDT from the middle rope, it got a two, then he did it from the middle rope again and won this time.