Keith Lee vs. Karrion Kross: What’s The Right Finish For NXT TakeOver XXX?

The Case To Beat Karrion Kross

Well… as I’ve been saying, Lee is the established new top face. There’s actually few things more normal than a top WWE babyface beating a monster. That’s not really the issue on it’s own of course, the issue is that this is happening very soon before Kross could really reach his peak as a killer heel. But on some level, I could believe that they don’t actually see this as a problem at all. 

There’s one thing that has to be understood here. WWE… hates undefeated streaks. All the creative heads in charge tend to agree on this, on Raw and SmackDown they’re rarely made use of. They want more than anything in the world to be able to beat anybody on any given night, and so they hate booking around undefeated gimmicks with a passion. In shoot interviews, creative heads in WWE have called these streaks limiting, and argue that anyone who has one will circle the drain as soon as they end.

Now I would argue that’s a self-fulfilling prophecy, that because they think this, they always BOOK people to circle the drain after their first loss. And I think it’s fair to say this opinion wasn’t shared by Triple H and his NXT team a few years ago, since they booked Asuka to perhaps the most famous unbeaten streak in decades. A streak that noticeably lasted her entire NXT run only to swiftly peter out into nothingness when she got moved to the main roster, as a direct highlight of the philosophical contrast. 

However… it can’t be disputed that since the move to USA and the pressure of losing nearly every week to Dynamite in the Wednesday Night Wars, the creative direction in NXT has been affected. It’s still a much better product than Raw and SmackDown, but it’s definitely not the same show it was a year ago and you can feel some Vince McMahon-esque sentiment dripping in with characters like the Robert Stone Brand (who I actually do enjoy mind you, but he still feels very WWE in many ways… discussion for another day) and the decision to make Pat McAfee vs. Adam Cole a thing. 

It’s not impossible that the anti-undefeated mindset is another thing that’s subtly bled into NXT’s core. And if so, that’s not great news for Karrion Kross, the kind of guy you’d expect to go unbeaten for atleast a good few months. The thought process of those who believe undefeated streaks are a bad thing is that these guys should get their first loss out of the way early so they just don’t have to worry about it. And they may feel that, with Keith Lee being on such a superface run, losing here won’t hurt Kross at all. 

In this scenario, the way they’re looking at it, this is likely the best opportunity they’ll have to beat him without taking away too much of his aura.