In a tragic turn of events, Karrion Kross has vacated the NXT Championship after only just capturing the title from Keith Lee at TakeOver: 30. Due to a shoulder injury Kross sustained during the main event, he will now be missing action for an undisclosed period of time, leaving the vacant championship up for grabs at the looming Super Tuesday special taking place this coming week. Four of NXT’s top superstars will vie for the championship, with Adam Cole, Tommaso Ciampa, Finn Balor and Johnny Gargano all stepping up to the plate for the black and gold brand.
We’re going to run down all four challengers and determine who would be the best to succeed Karrion Kross as the leader of the NXT locker room. All four competitors are huge draws for NXT, a brand currently in a raging ratings war against AEW: Dynamite, perhaps with one of their capturing the NXT Championship for the second time in their careers would do wonders for WWE’s Wednesday night production going forward.
Who would you like to see walk away with the NXT Championship at Super Tuesday? Make sure you let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Adam Cole
The most recent of the four challengers to hold the NXT Championship, for over a year might I add, Adam Cole would be a natural choice to pick up where he left off this coming Tuesday. After somehow managing to work a decent match with Pat McAfee at NXT: TakeOver 30, Cole deserves to be thrown right back into the main event mix in the fatal four way against Gargano, Ciampa and Balor.
Quite frankly, Adam Cole is NXT. There might be no better shoulders than his to rest the weight of the company on top of, his matches are almost impeccable and still has a lot left to achieve in terms of dream matches with the newbies of the NXT roster. Although I imagine he would be used in a more transitional role than his previous reign, it would still be great to see him enter the hall of 2 time NXT Championship winners. Without their handful of championships, Undisputed Era feels somewhat neutered, so getting the big gold belt back around their leaders waist might be a good way to restore some hype in the faction.
However, A few nay-sayers may believe Adam Cole to be ‘past NXT’, suggesting that he doesn’t need to win his second NXT Championship to be relevant in today’s wrestling. There may be truth to this, Adam Cole and the rest of the Undisputed Era are more than ready to move on from their home in Florida and try their luck on the main roster alongside Keith Lee.
Tommaso Ciampa
‘The Black Heart of NXT’ returned to action this past Wednesday, displaying a renewed aggression in his dismantling of Jake Atlas. Tommaso Ciampa never truly received a satisfying conclusion to his NXT Championship reign, and never had the chance to regain his Goldie after returning to feud with Adam Cole. Perhaps this will be the ending to his NXT arc? What a fitting way for a man who was also forced to relinquish the championship due to injury to finalise his run.
Ciampa still holds a certain edge on the NXT roster, whether that be as a babyface or heel, Ciampa can still command an audience and give off the impression that there’s a lot of untapped potential underneath his rough exterior. With a lot of untold stories and unexplored parts of his character, there’s certainly enough reason for ‘Psycho Killer’ to win back the NXT Championship. Seeing as NXT was leaning towards a more chaotic landscape with Karrion Kross as their flag bearer, maybe Tommaso Ciampa could carry on the charge towards the dark and macabre with a sinister title run of his own.
So long as this doesn’t return to the tenured Gargano/Ciampa feud that NXT always seems to fall back on, then Ciampa should have nothing but success in his future if he were to win the championship at Super Tuesday.
Finn Balor
Balor knows everything about vacating championships in WWE, him being the first Universal Champion and having it stripped from his waist due to a similar shoulder injury. Since returning to NXT, Finn has slowly continued to lose stock, despite having some well-rounded performances against the likes of Matt Riddle, Johnny Gargano and most recently, Timothy Thatcher. Finn Balor needs something big to finally capitalise on his comeback run, and that needs to be the NXT Championship.
Balor is of course a former NXT Champion in of himself and also the guy who chaperoned NXT into the big leagues back in 2015/16. You’d have thought that Balor would have been shoe-horned straight into the NXT title picture upon his arrival, but they bided their time and almost lost out on the hype surrounding him. Finn has been waiting incredibly patiently to finally find himself in the main event scene of NXT again.
A lot of NXT fans had been penned to be the next challenger, so maybe it was fate that he found an easy way to the title in the form of this fatal four way. Whether the ‘Demon’ slinks his way back into the halls of NXT champions or not, we’ll see on Tuesday.
Johnny Gargano
‘Johnny Wrestling’ has taken a turn towards the dark side in recent months, yet hasn’t managed to rekindle any of his championship success from when he was the leading babyface of NXT. Gargano has indeed found himself competing against champions but he just seems to be falling down the rungs of the NXT hierarchy. Gargano definitely needs a career revitalisation, making him a perfect option to win in the championship match this Tuesday.
There are still fans who haven’t been won over by Gargano’s heel character, myself included, seeing him wrestle as the chicken-shit NXT Champion may be the thing to win everyone over alongside his wife Candice LaRae. There’s definitely something there with his villainous side, but there needs to be something to take him from being just another bad guy to something unique.
‘The Wednesday Knight’ has a lot to prove going forward and a lot riding on his back. If he is to remain tied to NXT, then he needs to be taken seriously again, giving him his second NXT Championship run might be the only way to bring back the 5 star classics we were used to seeing from Gargano.
The man with all heart and no soul is my personal pick to win the match on Tuesday, with so much more than just another notch on his title wins on the line, instead the entire lifeblood of NXT seems to be hanging in balance here. Gargano is a name that means too much to the NXT crowd, best not screw it up with a shoddy heel run.
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