My NXT Year End Award Picks
Breakout Star Of The Year
Bianca Belair
Lacey Evans
Rhea Ripley
Dakota Kai
Lars Sullivan
Ricochet
War Raiders
EC3
When I posted the NXT review on another site, I received the following comment:
“Here are the nominees for Breakout Star of the Year:
Ricochet
Shortened to reflect the real list.”
He was right. The others are all good to great, but Ricochet debuted in April and became one of the top stars in the promotion in his first match. He’s the North American Champion, could win the NXT Title in the new year (tell me him winning the title in New York wouldn’t be incredible) and has apparently been moving tickets at house shows. There were some great newcomers in 2018, but Ricochet is on another planet.
Future Star Of NXT
Matt Riddle
Keith Lee
Mia Yim
Fortunate Sons
Dominik Dijakovic
Io Shirai
Candice LeRae
Marina Shafir/Jessamyn Duke
Kona Reeves
Let it go with Reeves as it’s just not going to happen. I don’t know what they see in that guy but it’s not working. The Fortunate Sons are a great idea but it’s not working at the moment. Unless they fix something, that’s just not happening. It’s a bit too early to tell with Shirai but they could strap a rocket on her back at the drop of a hat. I don’t think LeRae/Yim are going to be top stars, but they can be solid midcard/upper midcard acts for a long time to come. It’s WAY too early to tell with Shafir/Duke/Dijakovic, though you know the plans are there for all of them.
That leaves you with the two best options of Lee and Riddle and I’m going to need a minute here. Riddle is clearly a big deal already and someone that WWE wants to push to the moon and back, though every time I see Lee I don’t know what to think. The guy does things that just shouldn’t be possible and makes them look easy. That’s not normal and he’s one of the most impressive things I’ve ever seen, but I have to go with Riddle. He’s the kind of prodigy you never see and it would be insane to not make him a star. This one goes to Riddle, and while Lee is close, it’s not close enough.
Sweet free toasters from a bank it was a heck of a year for NXT. They somehow got better and better over the course of the year. I know we keep saying that they can’t keep it going and then they blow that away. If they come close to that in 2019, I have no idea how good it could actually get. It’s awesome to watch every single week and these awards show you just how good things really were and still are in NXT.
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