The NXT Five: Analysing and grading their WWE careers
In September 2014, WWE published an in-depth roundtable discussion on its website with five of the company’s most promising up-and-coming Superstars: Kevin Steen, Sami Zayn, Fergal Devitt, KENTA and Adrian Neville.
The article, which referred to the former independent talents as “The NXT Five” and “the leaders of the new school”, focused on their journeys to get to WWE and how they see their careers panning out over the next few years.
At the time, Zayn and Neville had been on television for several months and were feuding over the NXT Championship, while Steen, Devitt and KENTA were recent high-profile arrivals and hadn’t yet debuted on NXT.
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Three months later, all five men were featured at NXT TakeOver: R Evolution, with Steen, Devitt and KENTA receiving new names (Kevin Owens, Finn Balor and Hideo Itami), and Zayn defeated Neville to win the NXT Championship in one of the greatest matches in the brand’s history.
After that event, which is still considered to be one of the best TakeOvers ever, it was clear that the future of NXT and WWE was in very good hands – so what exactly happened to “The NXT Five” and why have their careers panned out so differently?
Four years on from the publication of the WWE.com article, let’s analyse what went right and wrong for all five men when they made it to the main roster.
Disclaimer: The grades are based on how the Superstars are perceived now compared to what was expected of them during their time in NXT.
#5 Kevin Owens
Key quote from WWE.com interview: “People think it will be hard for us to learn the WWE style but that’s the first style I knew how to do and then I had to adapt to the Ring of Honor style… The adaptation process isn’t going to be as strenuous as people think just because we’re from the indies.”
NXT career: Kevin Owens immediately made a statement in NXT, attacking Sami Zayn on the night of his debut at TakeOver: R Evolution. He was NXT champion within just two months, dismantling Zayn to win the title, and he had already been called up to the main roster by the time he lost the championship to Finn Balor in July 2015.
WWE career: Owens defeated John Cena on his WWE debut and he has since gone on to hold the Universal Championship (x1), Intercontinental Championship (x2) and United States Championship (x3). He has been involved in career-defining segments with Chris Jericho and Vince McMahon and he is one of WWE’s top bad guys.
WWE future: It was reported earlier in 2018 that KO has been rewarded for his impressive work with a new five-year deal, so we can expect to see him on WWE television until at least 2023, by which point he will be 39 years old.
Verdict: Owens gives every independent star hope that they can forge a successful career for themselves in WWE. The Canadian instantly took to the ‘WWE style’, as he mentioned he would in his 2014 interview, and it has obviously paid off. He is one of wrestling’s most believable performers, both in-ring and on the mic, and that's something that fans appreciate.
Grade: A