Male members of WWE’s lockerroom offered their criticisms of the season three NXT rookies to F4WOnline.com’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter following Tuesday night’s season premiere, and there seems to be a universally favorable opinion about the Diva hopefuls’ appearances.
The general reaction was that the six NXT rookies, on the whole, have “so much better bodies” than the Divas on the main roster. Kaitlyn, in particular, was praised for her appearance, with the consensus being that she is both the best-looking and in possession of the best body of the six contestants. From an overness standpoint, she stumbled at the onset, but the feeling is that by pairing her with a strong heel in Vickie Guerrero, there is a chance she will garner support as a babyface.
None of the girls received negative remarks for their looks, although the feeling was that Aksana is essentially a less attractive version of Maryse and thus not a clear asset to the roster. AJ’s energy and charm had appeal, and she is absolutely being pegged as a suitable Mickie James replacement. No one was particularly negative on Jamie Keyes, but there is definite uncertainty about whether her desire to transition from ring announcing to wrestling will produce positive results.
Even though Maxine’s initial promo fell flat, the feeling was that she could still emerge as the Alex Riley of this season, as her personality is the best suited for getting over as a heel.
Naomi made for the biggest surprise of the group. Going into Tuesday’s premiere, no one gave her a real shot of winning, but by the time the broadcast came to a close, she had “won the key people over” backstage and became the internal favorite to win the competition.
Because there are far fewer openings for female talent than male talent on the WWE roster, if several of the NXT rookies get over enough to warrant permanent spots on the main brands, the Wrestling Observer Newsletter speculates that some of the current Divas could be cut by spring time.