WWE NXT: 5 Women Who Could Join The Undisputed Era

In a little over a year, The Undisputed Era have taken NXT by storm. Accruing championships and accolades up the wazoo, Adam Cole’s collective of certified bastards have become a regular staple of NXT programming and are firmly beloved for their bad boy personas. What works so well with TUE is that they have almost every base covered: Adam Cole is the main event talent, Roderick Strong is the midcarder, and Kyle O’Reilly and Bobby Fish are the tag team specialists. This dynamic is missing one crucial component through, and that is a female member.

With this in mind, we’ve compiled a list of five candidates who could represent the group in the women’s division, ensuring that their reach is as far spreading as possible.

 

5. Taynara Conti

Let’s start with something that was actually teased way back when. Not long into the Era’s run, Conti interfered in a women’s triple threat match on behalf of the stable. This was to screw over Nikki Cross, who was affiliated with Sanity (whom TUE were feuding with at the time). It was interesting to see that there were plans in place early on to incorporate women into the group, but it sadly never went anywhere. Conti simply turned them down and nothing ever came of it.

Not to say that Taynara is a bust right now, but she’s hardly a roaring success, either. Her latest shtick sees her coming out to a pretty jarring grime track (because the London grime scene is exactly what we think of when we see a Brazilian martial artist), who has some sort of emotional instability when she gets hit. She has talent in the ring, but her character work is murky. Putting her with a group of charismatic a-holes who could bring out her inner charm and personality would serve her well.

 

4. Dakota Kai

Dakota Kai is one of the more loveable faces on the NXT roster. She’s a talented performer with firm fan support, but she’s been presented in a questionable way recently. I have no issue with getting Shayna Baszler over as a killer, but it seems to have been at the expense of Dakota. She’s been portrayed as terrified of Shayna and has routinely got her ass whooped. Since that micro-feud, she’s not had a whole lot going on.

NXT has plenty of women babyfaces with organic crowd support, Dakota Kai is at risk of being lost in the shuffle. I can see her turning being in the same vein as Roderick Strong. Roddy’s been on fire since he joined the team and has regularly wore gold around his waist. Dakota Kai making a deal with the Devil and turning her frustrations into a badass heel run with The Undisputed Era might be exactly what her career needs. Plus, she’s going to a part of the oncoming NXT UK, and you just know that TUE would love to have an international reach.

 

3. Shayna Baszler

Speaking of Shayna, the Era are yet to have a true monster heel in their ranks. Someone who takes names and chokes them out. Shayna doesn’t necessarily need to join the gang. Hell, she’s developed so well as her own performer that I could even argue against it. But it does make sense in many ways. The team’s goal is to dominate the competition and be at the top of the bread pile, why wouldn’t they recruit one of the most dangerous women in the entire company?

Imagine the ego boost that Adam Cole would get with Shayna under his wing. It would make the group feel like even more of a threat and would give Shayna something different to do now that she’s no longer the champ. In the long run, you could even get a Shayna Baszler face turn out of this. Maybe introduce an intergender aspect to proceedings and have her physically square up to Cole? There’s real storyline potential there.

 

2. Aliyah

Aliyah has been bouncing around NXT for what feels like forever and she just isn’t getting to where she needs to be. It feels like every time she shows up on the weekly show, she’s been repackaged again with new attire and music. Maybe it’s just the long gaps between her appearances that make it feel this way, but it’s not a good look on someone to have been in the system for so long and still not be wholly memorable.

I can see potential in Aliyah. She carries herself with a certain swagger and bravado that exudes confidence, and she’s not too shabby between the ropes. She just hasn’t had the platform to express herself as a character yet. Folding her into Undisputed Era remedies this. She’d be appearing regularly in segments and would be a thorn in the side of the women’s division. It’d just be nice for someone to have a career boost from becoming a member.

 

1. Maria Kanellis

This is one for after the main roster call up, but it’s the entry that inspired this entire article. Maria has been back in WWE for over a year now and hasn’t been up to much. Obviously, her pregnancy and subsequent maternity leave is the reason for this, but it’s put her in danger of being forgotten. There would be no better way to re-establish her in the eyes of fans than as an associate of a heavyweight faction.

Even if we look at history, this makes sense. The Undisputed Era are a group comprised of ROH veterans, who better to join their ranks than the self-proclaimed first lady of ROH? Hell, Maria’s even been associated with Adam Cole before as a part of The Kingdom back in their independent days. Mike Kanellis could tag along too, but let’s be honest, his ceiling is a lot lower than Maria’s. I don’t mean to be harsh, but it does seem like the only reason WWE signed Mike is because they wanted Maria. The point is that Maria has history with the group’s roots and some of its members, so it’s an incredibly natural fit. The power of love is strong, but it isn’t undisputed.