One look at NXT wrestler Apollo Crews and the first word that comes to mind is superstar. He is built like a Greek God carved out of marble, at 240 pounds he moves around the ring like a man half his size, and he oozes charisma from his pores. His background includes a weight training career and many tours in Japan with Dragon Gate, giving him credibility with fans who love legitimate athletes, and die hard independent fans who have followed him since his debut.
News of his signing with World Wrestling Entertainment was met with great anticipation. Fans eagerly awaited to see what persona the former Uhaa Nation would take on. During an NXT Takeover special, a number of new signees were shown sitting in the front row. While the other trainees received polite applause, the soon to be Crews received an ovation that sent a message: The NXT Universe wouldn’t wait for Uhaa to arrive.
Vignettes began airing that showed Apollo arriving at the WWE Performance Center and working out against outmatched sparring partners. For anyone unfamiliar with Crews’ previous work, it was a beautiful tease of the great things to come. Apollo flashed a million dollar smile and told the fans to get ready.
At NXT Takeover: Brooklyn, Crews made his NXT television debut in impressive fashion with a decisive victory over veteran workhorse Tye Dillinger. Apollo dazzled the crowd and showed off his pearly whites again, charming the crowd and winning the heart of Brooklyn. Backstage his post-match interview showed a man who was elated. Fans waited on bated breath to hear what kind of warning this new sensation would give to future opponents. Instead, Crews was humble in his words, saying he was just happy to be there. Uh-oh.
Die Crews Die
For lots of fans, those words are meaningless. Especially fans who weren’t around during the late 1990’s. At Survivor Series 1996, the World Wrestling Federation debuted a new superstar that was very much like Crews. He had movie star good looks, was a natural athlete, and had an incredible family pedigree with unlimited, untapped potential. His name was Rocky Maivia, and before he became the most electrifying man in sports entertainment, he was a kid who was just happy to be in the WWF.
Week after week, we were told how good Rocky was, and truth be told, the fans weren’t being lied to. Rocky was good (albeit green). Bell to bell, Maivia could deliver the goods. The problem was that fans were being told to love Rocky instead of letting fans fall in love with him organically. For weeks, Jim Ross would use two words that may still haunt the Rock to this day. Blue Chipper. Every time JR would run down the reasons the fans should love Maivia, the fans took it as an insult to their intelligence, especially because despite having unknown reserves of charisma, whenever a camera was on Rocky, all he could do was smile and talk about how happy he was to be there. Sound familiar?
Eventually, the fans began to unfairly resent Maivia for the bland character he was handed, and they went from chanting “Rocky! Rocky! Rocky!” to “Die Rocky Die!” Rocky quickly lost the power of the WWF marketing machine, and soon enough, he was all but forgotten. Thankfully for Maivia, he took those chants and channeled them into the fuel he needed to light the fire inside of himself and transform into The Rock. While I am a big fan of Apollo Crews, it’s not known if he could turn himself and the fans around if he were to end up in the same situation as his fellow blue chipper. Let’s hope Crews has the WWE Network and has seen the same similarities, because those who fail to learn from the mistakes of history are doomed to repeat them, which could be a deadly career move for Crews.
View From The Crow’s Nest
Sadly, Apollo doesn’t need to go very far back in the WWE archives to see an example of the fate that could await him if he continues down the path he is on. In fact, there was a huge warning waiting for him on the first day he arrived in NXT, from the first man that greeted him at the WWE Performance Center in his vignettes, Solomon Crowe.
When Crowe first arrived in NXT, fans who had known him previously as Sami Callahan were quite excited about what he would accomplish with the largest wrestling company on the planet. Solomon had a unique look, some innovative offense, and a hacker gimmick that made him stand out from the rest of the wrestlers in NXT.
The problem with Crowe was that he was significantly toned down from the intense madman that terrorized the independent scene and captured the imagination of fans worldwide. Instead, he was a guy that looked like he was wrestling while heavily medicated. He barely showed any emotion, and was just a guy who came out, wrestled and went to the back.
The only time that this seemed to change was when he recently faced Apollo Crews. There was something distinctly different about Solomon on this night. Crowe was one of the first guys to welcome Crews into the locker room, it was expected that these two would have a clean contest against one another. Instead, Crowe became vicious, lashing out at Apollo and using tactics that the crowd hadn’t seen before from him in NXT. Was it Solomon’s frustration at being left behind finally coming out? Was he trying to finally make an impact by rejecting what he had become in Vince McMahon’s world? Or was he maybe sending a message to his friend? A warning not to end up like him.
Losing His Smile
Am I suggesting that Apollo Crews change everything about himself in order to avoid losing his popularity? Of course not. I happen to be a really big fan of Crews. I think he truly does have the potential to be great one day. What I am suggesting is that Apollo, and WWE, be careful and listen to their crowd. While Crews had a hero’s welcome in Brooklyn, in the following weeks as he demolished jobber after jobber, the fans at Full Sail University became quieter. The only thing that would be worse for Apollo than hearing “Die Crews Die” would be hearing nothing at all.
In general, wrestling fans hate a phony. Perhaps this comes from a conditioned disgust of the word fake. Ironically, we can accept over the top characters like the Undertaker because there is something very authentic about the way he is presented. There is a believability to him. Apollo Crews is the real deal, but he can only be happy to be in NXT for so long before fans will start to see through his smile.
Fans want to see their favorites succeed. They live vicariously through these characters, so while they want NXT superstars to be larger than life, they also need to relate to them in some way too. They need to be vulnerable. They need to struggle just like the guy in the front row has struggled. Crews is not your average person in stature or ability, but he is a man with genuine feelings and desires that any fan watching can empathize with. Once Apollo begins to face those challenges, how he reacts will determine if he has what it takes to be real with the fans. If he can’t, I have a feeling it won’t take long before he’s no longer just happy to be there.
