What’s the story?
According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, WWE is looking to repackage several NXT talents. Some of the names include Blake and Murphy, Steve Cutler, Aliyah, Riddick Moss, Tino Sabbatelli, Dan Matha and TM61.
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TM-61, one of the emerging teams of NXT, will be out of action, and likely won’t get repackaged anytime soon with Shane Thorne obtaining an injury at the 5th January NXT tapings. He is set for surgery on January 12th.
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They started a feud with The Revival. However, with Shane Thorne injured, The Revival will likely start a feud with another team now.
The Performance Center is where talents come up with and develop their gimmicks. Terry Taylor now handles promo classes and works with the talents and their gimmicks. The below clip shows William Regal help some of the up-and-coming talents find their characters
Below on Breaking Ground is a clip of WWE Hall Of Famer Scott Hall giving Apollo Crews advice on character development
The heart of the matter
The Performance Center has a huge pool of talent, and one of the primary reasons that there will be a flurry of gimmick changes is that the top core of NXT talent that appear on-screen such as Shinsuke Nakamura, Bobby Roode, Austin Aries, Eric Young, Tye Dillinger, Andrade ‘Cien’ Almas, Chris Hero/Kassius Ohno, Alexandre Wolfe, TM-61 and Elias Samson are all said to be in-line for main roster spots.
The up and coming talent that will be set to start getting prominent spots once the above talent inevitably gets called up are the likes of the names mentioned in the beginning. Some other talents who will soon take up big spots include the likes of Roderick Strong, Tommy End, Big Damo and Oney Lorcan, among others.
As a result of the new names coming in, they need new gimmicks that will suit their personalities and television as well.
What’s next?
Despite some wrestlers like as Andrade, Kassius Ohno, TM-61 and Elias Samson being primed for main roster spots, it is still likely that they will spend a good deal of time in NXT before being called up.
While they can make an impact on the main roster, history has shown that the longer they stay in NXT, the better it is for them when they are on the main roster.
Sportskeeda’s take
A lot of the names mentioned in the beginning are very green talent with a long way to go. All of them have made their television debuts, but have not connected yet. Regardless, them spending more time in NXT will help them go a long way, as these talents have been created by WWE and have not made their names outside the promotion.
Tino Sabbatelli has a phenomenal look, and will undoubtedly be one of the names to watch out for in NXT over the next two years or more.
Changing their gimmicks would be the way to go for a lot of them. Terry Taylor, William Regal, Matt Bloom, Sara Amato and all the other trainers know what suits the talent and their personality. It should be an interesting 2017 for NXT and the Performance Center.
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