NXT has changed so much since the introduction of NXT 2.0 that the brand has become almost unrecognizable. That's by design, of course. Higher-ups from the main roster didn't swoop in last year with the intention of tweaking the black and gold brand and making a few minor changes. The idea was to give it a complete overhaul in the wake of it losing out to AEW Dynamite in the Wednesday Night War. That's why if you had been in a coma for the past six months and tuned in to NXT for the first time this week, you would wonder what the hell is going on.
A lot of the changes have been so drastic that some of them haven't worked. The brand has gone from dark and gritty to lighthearted and campy, like Raw and SmackDown Lite. Again, that is very much by design, but what WWE perhaps hasn't realized is many fans tuning into NXT do so for an escape from everything else it has to offer.
Not everything has fallen flat, though. A whole new cast of Superstars was introduced via the revamp and some of them are clearly going to be around for a very long time. Bron Breakker is already NXT Champion and clearly a huge future star. Grayson Waller has been typing up with AJ Styles and is someone else WWE will be keen to keep around. Cora Jade can also be thrown into that mix, and at just 21 years old, she may be winning titles across all of WWE's brands for a very long time.
The Evolution Of Mandy Rose
The biggest and most welcome surprise, however, has been the rebirth of Mandy Rose. Rose returned to NXT right before the rebrand took place, clearly with plans already in motion to have her lead Toxic Attraction. No offense to Rose, but despite having risen through NXT to kick off her career, she was very much the antithesis of what the brand used to be about. NXT 2.0, on the other hand, suits her down to the ground, and she has been a key cog in its development since launch.
Rose tweaked her character upon making the move back to NXT, and it's pretty evident that she has pulled inspiration from Charlotte Flair. That makes a lot of sense since it could be argued Flair is the biggest female star in the industry today. However, it could also be argued that Rose is doing Flair's schtick better than The Queen herself in NXT right now.
What can't be argued, at least I hope it can't, is that Flair is a better heel than she is a babyface. So much so that I hope she remains a heel for the rest of her career. However, she often struggles with the type of heat she generates from WWE fans. The idea is that we are supposed to dislike Flair because she thinks she is better than everybody, whether that be her peers or the fans. The trouble is, most of the dislike stems from how Flair is treated, and in turn how some fans believe she has reached the lofty station she currently holds on SmackDown.
The Queen Of NXT
From being shoehorned into the first-ever women's WrestleMania main event to WWE adding title reigns to her total before she has even won them, Flair feels very much like she has been pushed to the moon. Not because she deserves it necessarily, which she does, but because WWE feels the need to make her the center of attention all the time. It's also a little too obvious that she is being rushed towards that 16 title threshold as quickly as possible so she can tie and potentially break her old man's record.
Rose is doing effectively the same thing. When she has a mic in her hand, the NXT Women's Champion can't help but claim she is better than everyone else, something that is easy to do when you're the champion. That also goes for the fans she's addressing. The key difference is Rose doesn't have any stigmas attached. She wasn't born into the business, she hasn't been incessantly pushed, and her current title reign is her first across all of WWE's brands.
The only potential issue is what happens when Rose returns to the main roster. Despite the changes to NXT, its purpose is presumably still to get stars ready for a call-up. In fact, the brand might live for that purpose more than ever now. Rose can tangle with Flair upon arrival, but unless she can evolve after that, there's really no place for her in WWE outside of NXT. That she has already been to the main roster also doesn't help. Despite how much she has changed, those who don't watch NXT, including some who work within WWE, might not appreciate that she is a very different Rose to the one who previously wrestled on Raw and SmackDown.