One of the biggest surprises of the ‘Superstar Shake-Up’ was Sanity getting called up from NXT to Smackdown Live. An even bigger surprise is that it looks like Nikki Cross will not be joining her stablemates on the main roster.
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So why isn’t Nikki Cross coming up to the main roster alongside SANITY?
The popular speculation right now is that the reason has to do with NXT’s Women’s division. Dave Meltzer speculated on Wrestling Observer Radio that the reason is due to there being a lack of challengers for Shayna Baszler and her NXT Women’s Title. Here is a quote from Meltzer (via Ringside News):
“I’m surprised no Nikki Cross. I think maybe they’re going to do something with Nikki Cross and Shayna Baszler because Shayna is with the exception of Kairi Sane, Shayna Baszler is really weak on opponents in NXT but I think she would have been good for that act on the main roster.”
This is only speculation but it would make sense. The NXT Women’s division just lost Ember Moon and I don’t think they want to rush Kairi, Candice LeRae or Bianca Belair into the Title picture just yet. Cross would logically feud with Baszler for the time being.
READ: LIST OF ALL THE FIVE STAR MATCHES IN WWE HISTORY (ACCORDING TO MELTZER)
That also doesn’t mean Nikki can’t join SANITY down the road on the main roster. If I had to guess, she eventually will be brought up with the group in a few months. That is only speculation from me though.
Let us know what you think in the comment section.
I happen to agree. NXT is in an odd spot with its women’s division after the Ember Moon call-up and the Iconics, but Triple H has certainly shown in the past that he can reload a division when necessary. There certainly is talent in NXT’s women’s division, but outside of Nikki Cross, most of the women on the roster are not yet ready for a sustained rivalry with Shayna Baszler. I would expect some sort of feud between Shayna and Nikki Cross that will be sustained over the course of three months or so, allowing for greener talent to develop as well as new talent to come in, after which, Nikki Cross will join SAnitY on SD Live.
My only worry is that they will try to repackage her now that she is on her own. Can she sustain her identity as a member of Sanity or something that is a facsimile of the persona that she had whilst in the faction? Do they drop the SAnitY bit whilst still maintaining the edgy, freaky, aggro character that she portrayed in SAnitY? Or do they do something different with her, recognizing that she is no longer in a stable, and therefore needs a character identity that can exist as a solo superstar? She was so good in SAnitY that when she gets the call up, and if that call up brings her back into the fold of SAnitY, she will immediately imbue life into the stable, getting them over or even more so with crowd and creating a situation that is begging for a push (i.e., Rusev Day), which creative had better not screw up with terrible booking like they have with Rusev Day.
So, she will become one of the big three in NXT whilst they develop / sign more talent. This, I think, will take anywhere from 3-6 months; I hope it is on the shorter end so that they do not further distance her from the SAnitY brand. Before I get on another tangent, I think that they need to bring up Nikki within the next 2-3 months so as not to distance her from the Sanity stable and enable her to segue back into the stable without any issues; provided that creative does not screw up SAnitY by poor booking, there is a ton of potential here.
Another reason that Nikki Cross did not come up, and this is pure speculation on my part, is because the women’s roster on SD Live is stacked; adding one more face would be a disservice to both the women in the women’s division as well as Nikki. Hopefully creative will realize that they do not need to feature Asuka and Charlotte on television every week, going back to the pre-SD Live days, days when they had a stacked roster, and they did not need to feature the main event talent every week, save for maybe a short backstage vignette. This way they will enable Becky, Naomi, Carmella, and the Iconics, TV time instead of burying them. I am not sure if they need to create an inter-promotional belt for which women can compete at each PPV. It is an idea, perhaps one of the best (not to brag), of giving women more television time and avoid what has happened to Becky Lynch and utilize the full talent of the women who are on both brands.
While Nikki helps to prop up the NXT women’s division, SD Live will start the feud between Charlotte and Asuka; Carmella will drop the belt as early as Backlash, thus kicking off the storyline between Charlotte and Asuka, as they need to justify ending Asuka’s streak. And as I mentioned above, drafting Cross to the lineup would only add one more woman who needs to compete for TV time. But while Charlotte and Asuka have an extended feud (and hopefully do something to feature the women on both brands who are not in their brands respective title pictures), Raw will continue to develop Ronda under Natalya’s tutelage until the latter turns heel and a mini feud ensues, and they will also play out the Bayley / Sasha feud, maybe doing something, say, a best of seven that will conclude at one of the PPVs; and if they do introduce an inter-promotional Women’s belt (i.e., the Women’s IC title), they could introduce it there, with each brand selecting its superstar to represent the brand at the inaugural match, the winner of the Bayley / Sasha feud could become the favourite to be Raw’s representative (I have not thought this out, as I am typing whilst thinking). So what we would have is the development of Ronda, culminating with her becoming the Raw’s women’s champion, the feud of Charlotte and Asuka, which Charlotte will win, and the introduction of the new belt at SummerSlam. At some point during this PPV we will get an encounter between Charlotte and Ronda, sowing the seeds of what could be a champion v. champion main event at WrestleMainia (it could also be possible that we get Asuka as SD Live’s champion and Nia or Alexa as Raw’s champion with Ronda squaring off against Charlotte for the first time (with at least one rematch), and by the time WrestleMania comes around, both are their respective brand’s champion and have the ultimate rubber match final).
So those are some general musings from me. Again, I apologize, as my ideas, particularly those with how the booking will happen between Bayley and Sasha and, more importantly, Charlotte and Ronda, but it is what it is.
Thanks for reading.