{"id":5917,"date":"2017-07-05T19:22:03","date_gmt":"2017-07-05T23:22:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lwosonprowrestling.ms.lastwordonsports.com\/?p=5917"},"modified":"2017-07-05T19:22:03","modified_gmt":"2017-07-05T23:22:03","slug":"velveteen-dream-main-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/2017\/07\/05\/velveteen-dream-main-roster\/","title":{"rendered":"Velveteen Dream Will Not Work on the Main Roster"},"content":{"rendered":"

For the uninitiated,\u00a0NXT<\/em><\/strong> is basically WWE’s third brand for more hardcore fans. Every Wednesday, WWE’s “developmental talent” struts their stuff, and usually,\u00a0that stuff is pretty great. For a while there, they were genuinely outwrestling the talent on SmackDown<\/strong><\/em> and\u00a0RAW<\/strong><\/em>. But one fact remains: NXT<\/em>, in comparison to WWE’s main roster, is a completely different animal. The style is more indie-like and accepting of odd gimmicks, the crowd are more hardcore and “smarky,” and so on and so forth. But still, NXT<\/em> is a totally different beast.\u00a0That is why, to be totally frank, not everything that works in\u00a0NXT<\/em> will work on the main roster (see here:\u00a0Bayley<\/strong>,\u00a0The Ascension<\/strong>). One of those superstars that will not work on the main roster is that of the\u00a0Velveteen Dream<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Velveteen Dream Will Not Work on the Main Roster<\/h2>\n

Let’s Talk About This Gimmick<\/h3>\n
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Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Alright, the elephant in the room here is the Dream’s gimmick. Sure, goofy gimmicks work all the time in WWE (see here:\u00a0Goldust<\/strong>), but there comes a point where it’s just too much. While, yes, Goldust’s literal gimmick was that he had Tourette’s, it worked in the climate of the early 2000s. With the Dream, though, it’s an interesting situation.<\/p>\n

Nowadays when he’s on\u00a0NXT<\/em>, Velveteen Dream comes out to a\u00a0massive<\/em> crowd reaction. According to some reports, he’s actually one of NXT<\/em>‘s most over stars.\u00a0In fact, there are videos out there of NXT<\/em> fans singing\u00a0Prince<\/strong>‘s\u00a0Purple Rain<\/em> to the Dream<\/a> during matches. But as I’ve said before,\u00a0the yellow brand is a completely different animal than the main roster.<\/p>\n

Truthfully, there is a very, very dark side to the Dream’s gimmick: the (sometimes) not-so-subtle homosexual undertones. On syndicated, non-WWE Network television, that is not<\/em> going to fly.\u00a0On SmackDown<\/strong><\/em> or\u00a0RAW<\/strong><\/em>, making fun of the LGBTQ+ community would be a\u00a0really rough look for WWE. Maybe they could put over a Prince knockoff, yes. But homosexuality…as a gimmick<\/em>? Probably not.<\/p>\n

Extreme Youth<\/h3>\n
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Photo: WWE<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Patrick Clark<\/strong>,\u00a0also known as the Velveteen Dream, is twenty-one years old. Now, this is great for WWE, right? Well, it’s really a double-edged sword. Although he has been in independent promotions before, Clark is still somewhat green. With time in CZW<\/strong> and MCW<\/strong> under his belt, Clark has had plenty of training already. But at only 21 years old, how truly seasoned can one be? It’s great that the Dream is starting to reach veteran status, but WWE is different from the indies. With the time he will inevitably put in on the yellow brand though, that issue could be fixed.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h3>\n
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Photo: WWE Network<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For no other reason than his sometimes insensitive gimmick, the Velveteen Dream could be held back from the main roster. In today’s world, that kind of persona is just not okay. Prince is fine; Prince is great! The fans seem to think so too. But a gimmick that subtly pokes fun at the LGBTQ+ community, is not great.<\/p>\n

In addition to his gimmick, the Dream’s youth is both a positive and negative thing for the yellow brand. Although the WWE needs youth injected into its roster, Clark is almost too young. What’s more is that NXT<\/em> needs new superstars. Thankfully, the Dream might be exactly who they’re looking for. Remove a few aspects of his gimmick, and get him some in-ring training, and voila, a superstar is born. But not yet. Give the Dream a year to train and remove aspects of his gimmick, and the WWE could have another home-grown star on their hands.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To be totally frank, not everything that works in\u00a0NXT will work on the main roster. One of the wrestlers that will not translate is the\u00a0Velveteen Dream.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1787,"featured_media":6139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5,3],"tags":[160,864,116,832,437,1063,344,868,47],"class_list":["post-5917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-wwe","category-nxt","category-wwe-universe","tag-bayley","tag-goldust","tag-nxt","tag-nxt-report-card","tag-patrick-clark","tag-the-ascension","tag-tough-enough","tag-velveteen-dream","tag-wwe"],"modified_by":"Jamie Greer","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1787"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/prowrestling\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}