The Importance of Presentation, or LOOK EVERYONE, IT'S TYLER

One match back in NXT, and Breeze is a star again
Photo Credit: WWE.com

I know Butch usually covers NXT; he will have a Best Coast Bias for Takeover XXV on the site sometime this week, as he spent his weekend battling all the bees at Petco Park. However, I was able to watch it, and my personal pick for Match of the Night was Velveteen Dream vs. Tyler Breeze. It was an incredible spectacle for several reasons. Of course, each wrestler exudes sexual charisma, and they're both better-than-competent workers of an aesthetically pleasing style of brawling and appealing to crowds. It also was notable because after years of wither and rot on the main roster, only gaining any kind of notoriety for his excellent Fashion Police segments with Fandango, Breeze returned to NXT, reseized his star mantle, and proved to everyone that presentation is perhaps the most important ingredient to fan connection.

I'm not going to pretend that NXT booking is perfect like some people. Paul Levesque has his flaws, seen time and time again with him allowing heel title reigns to fester until an inevitable injury or call-up situation truncates the end of a feud. Pretending he'd be a panacea for the main roster is foolish since he already has input there, and unlike some idiot writer who cycles in and out within a period of three months, he probably has the power to influence Vince McMahon. That being said, it would be unfair to call NXT booking "only" better than the main roster, which would be damning with faint praise in the worst way. NXT can stand on its own, which is probably why out of 26 Network specials (ArRIVAL through Takeover XXV), the worst one could probably be described as merely average. A large part of that is presentation.

NXT has a wide roster of bodies to cycle in and out, but the ones that make it to Takeover are protected, given interesting stories, and get to strut their stuff in ways that make them look important, not as gristle in the great wheel that serves only the McMahon family. It's why Tyler Breeze could be a Championship-level star in NXT and be stuffed in the proverbial school locker that is Main Event on the main roster, and it's why he could walk into a NXT TV taping, get on the microphone, and challenge Dream for the North American Championship to the adoration of fans rather than bafflement. NXT did him so well, right from the opening lines of his entrance music that call DIRECT attention to him.

Main roster WWE shows the importance of presentation as well, but it is reserved for a select few people who aren't in the McMahon-Levesque Family. If you go by crowd reactions to guys like Roman Reigns or John Cena, you're missing the bigger picture in that a handful of the hoarily-vocal minority doesn't represent how they're generally received. Reigns, Cena, Charlotte Flair, Alexa Bliss, Ronda Rousey, Randy Orton, and to an extent, Daniel Bryan, Becky Lynch, AJ Styles, and Seth Rollins are all treated as big deals who get to be important players. While that seems generally like the accepted amount (even discounting that Orton is on a lessened schedule and Cena is EXTREME part-time anymore) and similar to NXT, it bears repeating that main roster WWE has over five times the total minutes to fill with first-run content compared to NXT, and that's not even counting the Saudi Fuck Money shows. It also bears repeating that in NXT, guys who are nominally in the midcard are protected relatively to their position on the card, sometimes even better. For example, Dream won his North American Championship by beating the biggest babyface in NXT clean as a whistle. Granted, NXT's midcard SHOULD be a lot more threadbare than main roster's, but at the same time, it's not. WWE hasn't had an over midcard since the fucking Attitude Era.

Concentrating a spotlight shouldn't be hard to do. With five hours of time a week, main roster has no excuse not to have prominent talent that is over in each aspect of the show. It even has something in house that it can look to as an example. The people in charge of main, not even Levesque, will look at NXT's raucous sold-out arena crowds reacting to everything and see it as something to imitate. The proof is all in Breeze's build and the crowd's reaction to him. It was perfect. He was the perfect opponent for Dream, who, in a company that wasn't run by major Trump donors, would be a slam-dunk promotional ace. It shouldn't be this hard to have a group of people that your core audience at least cares about beyond the tippy-top of the main event and the fucking owners of the company.