In June of 2016, so now nearly two and a half years ago, Lukewarm Jonah and I got together to do an NXT Fantasy Draft. We are going to focus on the NXT roster as the transition from NXT to the main roster or just the progression within NXT provides some fascinating talking points. Although we did a fairly good job, there were definitely some big time misses and some amazing steals. We've already broken down the first 61, so we will finally close it out by going over the last twelve selections.
62-63. Joe selects Mada and Steve Cutler
Jonah: Mada looked cool as hell and apparently trained Jason Mamoa, sadly he was released. Steve Cutler is in the Forgotten Sons. He was an NXT jobber forever, and is recently seeing some success as a member of the new group. He’s a veteran, and as I mentioned I’m a huge mark for vets. He’s on NXT TV and actually winning matches since he’s a Forgotten Son, so he does have some potential going forward.
Joe: Jay got all of the attention, and nobody paid any mind to Lil’ Stevie. He truly was the Forgotten Son.
64-65. Jonah selects Babatunde Aiyegbusi and Carolyn Dunning
Joe: I’m going to go out on a limb and say Carolyn Dunning is no longer with the WWE since she hasn’t had a match in nearly three years since being signed. That is bad, but Babatunde Aiyegbusi is good. He is 6’10” and he can move fairly well. He doesn’t have a wide array of an offensive moveset, but he’s gigantic and competent. They have really slow played his development as he has been hitting up the house show scene for over two years without making his NXT debut, and I would guess that he will make a huge impact in 2019. I haven’t seen a ton of charisma, but he shows flashes, and at that size, he’s pretty much guaranteed to make the main roster.
Jonah: Carolyn Dunning is just patiently waiting for a track to explode on, but yeah she’s probably no longer employed. I had actually heard of Babatunde since he was signed to the Minnesota Vikings the year before he went into wrestling. I knew he was a physical freak, which is a good thing in the WWE. He has already made his main roster debut as the highlight of The Greatest Royal Rumble. Lio Rush also used to ride around on his shoulders, and that’s a gimmick that would get over anywhere.
66-67. Joe selects Terrance Jean-Jacques and Danielle Kamella
Jonah: So Terrance Jean-Jacques is a former Iowa wrestler and he beat his pregnant girlfriend and was released. As I learn that the WWE takes domestic violence more seriously than many other sports, he’s a MMA fighter these days. Danielle Kamella is Vanessa Borne who is an NXT wrestler with a character who is on TV. She mostly loses, but nice pick here to get a wrestler who is still developing.
Joe: This was my worst round of the draft. Vanessa Borne might be interesting, not even touching TJJ.
68-69. Jonah selects Jerome Turner and Bianca Blair
Joe: Jerome Turner has never had a match, so I’ll assume he’s done wrestling. Bianca Belair might be the second best pick in this entire draft, as she is UN-DUH-FEA-TED and totally awesome. She’s also married to Montez Ford which makes them the couple that the WWE wished John Cena and Nikki Bella were. She’s fantastic in the ring; she’s fantastic on the mic; she’s just fantastic, and the WWE will have to really try to mess up her career.
Jonah: Jerome Turner is just putting in the work at the Performance Center, waiting to be unleashed. Bianca Belair is un duh fea ted, and that is a fact. She’s a physical marvel in the ring and she has great charisma. She should be a future star especially if she’s whipping fools with her braid.
70-71. Joe selects Adrian Jaoude and Nikola Bogojevic
Jonah: Adrian Jaoude is Caesar Bononi’s tag team partner, so you’ve reunited this team. He’s a BJJ practitioner, and gets on TV. He was also 8-3 in MMA, with his last fight being a loss to Roy Nelson which seems like a size mismatch. He’s also 41, so he needs to get called up on the quick. Nikola Bogojevic is the other half of Heavy Machinery so way to reunite them as well. Big dude, can do the worm, good enough in the ring, and the charismatic one of the tag team. Heavy Machinery would have a nice jump in the redraft, while Jaoude is picked before all the people who retired.
Joe: HOW DARE YOU CONFUSE ADRIAN JAOUDE AND ANTOINE JAOUDE. Antoine is over the hill, but Adrian is a spry 37 so has plenty of time to reach his full potential. There is some hope for Jaoude as he and Bononi have occasionally been hanging around Taynara Conti, so they could create a formidable stable. I still definitely could have done better. Through the main roster and NXT draft, I loaded up on talented ladies and thought I was full of them which caused me to miss out on Bianca Belair and Jonah’s last pick.
But at least I didn’t let Otis Dozovic slip through my fingers. I still don’t think Dozer has a high ceiling, as even with his charisma, it’s more goofy than important. Basically, I think he’s George “The Animal” Steele. That’s a hell of a career, but I don’t really see the guy challenging for world titles.
Jonah: What is A. Jaoude the John Anderson of Brazil? Sorry to mix up your guys Joe, clearly he’s very important.
72-73. Jonah selects Macey Estrella and ZZ Loupe
Joe: I think what this shows is that WWE is super fucking good at finding and signing talent. Macey Estrella is now Lacey Evans and may have debuted by the time this is published. She was nearly the last pick in the draft, because all I knew was that she was a tall blonde lady. I’m not the biggest Evans fan, but she definitely has enough talent to last on the main roster for quite a while, so good for her.
At least I knew that ZZ had no future in wrestling as he sucked on Tough Enough and apparently sucked after Tough Enough as he got released before he could shit the bed in front of an audience.
Jonah: Lacey Evans is a good female wrestler who is main roster bound. She’s pretty, jacked, and has an original character. It should work. It’s kind of hard to not end up with the worst wrestler when you have the last pick in the draft, but ZZ had some show on the WWE Network for awhile, so at least he was on TV.
Previous Installments:
Picks 1-10
Picks 11-20
Picks 21-30
Picks 31-40
Picks 41-51
Picks 52-61
