#7 – Paige
Some people are going to disagree with me (especially since Paige is dominating the fan poll right now), but you have to consider that Paige was really only a dominant presence in NXT for the first month of the WWE Network era. She made her main roster debut the night after WrestleMania, vacated the NXT Women’s Championship, and put over the existing roster on her way out the door.
Still, Paige gets the push here because she was the first ever NXT Women’s Champion, and that’s got to count for something. She’s the perfect living proof that the developmental system is working.
#6 – The Ascension
This is a little hypocritical, if you’ve been paying attention to the numerous rants I’ve gone on about The Ascension not having real opponents, the titles meaning very little, and WWE not caring about tag team wrestling. BUT, they’ve also been NXT Tag Team Champions the entire length of the WWE Network era so far. Their opponents may not have been great most of the time – and rarely even have names for that matter – but they certainly haven’t lost. They haven’t even come close to losing. I think they’re match with Los Matadores on this week’s Main Event was the first time I’d see either really take any noticeable damage.
Look, I don’t love them, but The Ascension are over with the NXT fans. They get a great reaction, have a silly chant people like to do, and they’re killing it in our Ranker.com fan poll. So here you go – don’t say I never did anything nice for you.
