The NXT Discussion Thread

[DavidB6937]

Mariah Mae Young

[Supremo]

I’d love to know the thought process behind debuting both Ricky Starks and Mariah May in NXT of all places. The two most genuinely shocking debuts, that could be seen as a real, “win,” in the war with AEW, and you throw them on the throwaway Developmental show. This is exactly the type of stuff that might inject a bit of much-needed life into Raw or Smackdown. Send Aleister Black to NXT instead. HBK would love all that spooky bollocks.

Side note; it’s only just occurred to me that AEW started building some serious momentum and WWE started crumbling almost exactly when Aleister Black fucked off back to WWE. I’m not saying the success or downfall of both companies is directly related to the Sulky Goth Riddler. You can make your own mind up. I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know.

Edited June 4, 2025 by Supremo

[DavidB6937]

They've already called up numerous female talent in recent times. Mariah will get far more of the spotlight on NXT at the moment.

Plus she's not on a show with Charlotte so let's take that as a win.

[LaGoosh]

25 minutes ago, Supremo said:

I’d love to know the thought process behind debuting both Ricky Starks and Mariah May in NXT of all places. The two most genuinely shocking debuts, that could be seen as a real, “win,” in the war with AEW, and you throw them on the throwaway Developmental show.

I assume it's one of two reasons.

1 - They don't actually have any good idea on how to debut them on the main shows so they just chuck them on NXT just to get them out there as quick as possible.

2 - that way when they come up to Raw or Smackdown they can pretend they are an NXT call up rather than an AEW one. NXt created the stars, not AEW. The performance centre is absolutely definitely working, honest.

[DavidB6937]

They'll probably show her originally training with WWE and push that she's always been a part of their system and they're definitely responsible for her success.

[air_raid]

2 hours ago, Supremo said:

I’d love to know the thought process behind debuting Mariah May in NXT

Vaquer's moved up to the main roster but Booker's still thirsty?

[tiger_rick]

The lass looking at her belt and then back at Mariah is fantastically shit high school acting. I do love NXT for this stuff.

Terrible debut. Absolutely small time. Rubbish promo material too. Agree with Supremo, why on earth wouldn't you do this, but better, in front of tens of thousands of people on Raw? 

[Cheeky Boy]

2 hours ago, LaGoosh said:

2 - that way when they come up to Raw or Smackdown they can pretend they are an NXT call up rather than an AEW one. NXt created the stars, not AEW. The performance centre is absolutely definitely working, honest.

I think this is accurate, but also having a Starks/May "shocking" debut on one of the main shows would kind of be legitimising AEW, in their eyes. By doing it on NXT is kind of saying this is the level of somebody who jumps from one to the other. Whereas Miro, Black, they're WWE returns.

Penta and Fenix kind of fall outside of that because they can go down the "international star" route.

[RedTwoster]

9 minutes ago, Cheeky Boy said:

I think this is accurate, but also having a Starks/May "shocking" debut on one of the main shows would kind of be legitimising AEW, in their eyes. By doing it on NXT is kind of saying this is the level of somebody who jumps from one to the other. Whereas Miro, Black, they're WWE returns.

Penta and Fenix kind of fall outside of that because they can go down the "international star" route.

What about Jade Cargill? I genuinely don’t think they care about that. I think they place more value on keeping NXT strong than it perhaps merits, and with the recent call-ups, they don’t see the need to debut Mariah on the main roster right away. It might create a short term buzz, but realistically, she’s not the same level of signing as an MJF, Toni Storm, Hangman Page or Will Ospreay so I can just about understand why she’s starting in NXT. Like Vaquer, Grace and Gillis before her, I don’t think she’ll be there for long.

But yeah, it was a shit debut.

[Cheeky Boy]

3 minutes ago, RedTwoster said:

What about Jade Cargill? I genuinely don’t think they care about that.

Fair point. Possible that it's a more recent directive with what seems a bit of a momentum swing between the companies, but I had in fact forgot about Jade Cargill. 

[Chili]

AEW don't exist in their world the fans know until they want them too so just go back to the hermetically sealed world again. Just me and the kids, Jim (AAA) and Bexley (TNA). WWE might as well debut them on the big show and do a big 'WHO IS THAT?' and play dumb about it. Chucking them on NXT means naff I always felt with people who already had a bit of clout elsewhere. I'd get it with Vaquer as she was a bit more unknown. 

Is there a reason (maybe they still do them because I'm not watching) they don't do vignettes? Because they do work still, but I feel the lack of them in wrestling is they take away from the viral social media moment engagement aspect. Probably that. 

[RedTwoster]

15 minutes ago, Chili said:

AEW don't exist in their world the fans know until they want them too so just go back to the hermetically sealed world again. Just me and the kids, Jim (AAA) and Bexley (TNA). WWE might as well debut them on the big show and do a big 'WHO IS THAT?' and play dumb about it. Chucking them on NXT means naff I always felt with people who already had a bit of clout elsewhere. I'd get it with Vaquer as she was a bit more unknown. 

Is there a reason (maybe they still do them because I'm not watching) they don't do vignettes? Because they do work still, but I feel the lack of them in wrestling is they take away from the viral social media moment engagement aspect. Probably that. 

They did some for Giovanni Vinci for some reason (I say ‘for some reason’ as they subsequently had him lose the handful of matches she had before getting shot of him) and I suppose they kind of did them for Penta and Fenix, although they were more cryptic teasers than the kind of vignettes I assume you mean.

I’m assuming it’s because most wrestlers come through NXT, and they reckon their audience will know who they are. I’m fairly sure vignettes have been used recently to intro new wrestlers on NXT, but if you held a gun to my head I wouldn’t be able to tell you who they were for.

[DavidB6937]

I definitely think it's an audience thing. It's not like the Monday Night Wars where there was so much recognition between WWF and WCW. There are so many only WWE fans that don't have a clue about AEW that it's actually a risk throwing someone like Ricky Starks or Mariah May out there in front of a Raw or Smackdown audience. At least you know they're getting a strong reaction in NXT which they can build on going forward before they get called up.

In the case of Mariah I do think it's just a case that NXT needs replenishing after losing most of their big female names which is understandable. 

[air_raid]

39 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

I definitely think it's an audience thing. It's not like the Monday Night Wars where there was so much recognition between WWF and WCW. There are so many only WWE fans that don't have a clue about AEW that it's actually a risk throwing someone like Ricky Starks or Mariah May out there in front of a Raw or Smackdown audience. At least you know they're getting a strong reaction in NXT which they can build on going forward before they get called up.

This is the answer. They know bringing in somewhere popular from another territory for a surprise debut is more likely to get a pop from NXT because their fans tend to know who that person is already, because they're too lazy to tell us/teach us who they are. Whereas main roster shows are more likely to react with "who's this then?" if they aren't introduced with vignettes or videos first.

[Gooner]

It's great to see Mariah May in NXT. I hope they would go this route and not let her get lost in the shuffle on Raw or Smackdown with a few of the other woman recently being fast tracked from NXT to the Raw/Smackdown brand. It's all theee for her to be the top female in NXT as a babyface.  The NXT female division over the past six months or so has been best thing I've seen from any wrestlng show,  she'll do fantastic there before she appears on the Raw or Smackdown brand.