Views From The Turnbuckle: How Top 5 NXT Wrestlers Will Fare On WWE Main Roster

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While NXT has supplied WWE with a decent amount of promising new talent so far, there is an extraordinary amount of hype surrounding a new age of talent currently located in NXT. The group is comprised of three indie stars and two expensive imports from Japan. Ring of Honor/Pro Wrestling Guerilla mainstays Kevin Steen and El Generico (Sami Zayn) could either continue their psychotically violent feud, or become best friends in WWE, and either one would be fine. They are joined by globetrotting British sensation PAC (Adrian Neville) who never really found a permanent home on the independent scene, but made a name for himself thanks to his jaw dropping aerial maneuvers.

Also joining the party is Japanese icon KENTA (Hideo Itami), arguably the world's best brawler over the last decade. KENTA was a pillar of Pro Wrestling NOAH, and chances are he didn't give up his comfortable position in Japan to sit on the sidelines in WWE. Lastly, Irish wrestler Prince Devitt (Finn Balor) surrendered a role as the leader of the wrestling world's best stable in New Japan Pro Wrestling in order to have a crack at it in WWE. All five men have a certain appeal and a boatload of potential, but which one of them has the best chance of making it to the main event of Wrestlemania? Here is a breakdown of how each talent stacks up in the cloudy atmosphere of WWE.

5. Adrian Neville

As the current NXT World Champion, Neville has established himself more than his contemporaries, but his skillset might not lend itself to that high of a ceiling on WWE's main roster. Neville is a dynamic athlete, who can get any crowd behind him within a matter of minutes thanks to his thrilling moveset. He isn't the biggest wrestler, but he looks pretty damn good and he is clearly in supreme physical shape. Watching him during his first tour of the United States in Pro Wrestling Guerrilla, he was much skinnier and considering some of the bumps he took, it didn't seem like the kid would make it to 25. Looking at him now, it seems like Neville has put those worries behind him.

The turd in the punchbowl that is Adrian Neville is his microphone skills. Although he is thrilling to watch in the ring, in today's era of "sports entertainment" if you cannot consistently produce solid promos, you are never going to make it into the upper stratosphere of the company. The obvious solution for that problem would be to pair him up with a manager, but manager's only really work as heels, and Neville is just such a natural face, it seems difficult to justify turning him heel. His future is most likely as being the new Evan Bourne, an athletic high-flyer that impresses the crowd in ladder matches and other high spots, but never really cracks the top level of WWE.

4. Hideo Itami

Itami might very well be the best in-ring performer out of anyone in WWE right now, but ring work can only get you so far, and frankly, it isn't that high up the ladder. Itami is still learning English, and while he possess a good deal of natural charisma that resonates through any language, his development from being a wrestler to becoming an entertainer is still a work in progress.

The good news for Itami is that WWE has brought him in with high expectations. The announcement of his signing was done during WWE's recent tour of Japan and was justifiably a big deal. WWE is expecting big things out of Itami, and he should be the recipient of a significant push as soon as he lands on the main roster. The bad news however, is that Itami is not the first international import to be brought into WWE with high expectations, and the recent track record isn't very strong. Alberto Del Rio and especially Sin Cara were both brought in with hopes of becoming major stars in the company, and both failed to live up to expectations. WWE has unfortunately fallen into the habit of bringing in new stars, especially foreign wrestlers, and giving them a good push to start with, but eventually they lose interest and go back to their old standbys. This ranking isn't that much of an indication of Itami's talents as it is WWE's recent history of pushing foreign stars.

3. Kevin Steen

Steen has yet to even get a ring name from WWE, so his performance is going to be completely graded on the potential he displayed on the independent scene. Steen has cut weight and gotten into his best ring shape in several years and seems 100% dedicated to making it work in WWE. Steen was immensely successful on the independents, but a lot of what made him so great there will never work within the delicate sphere of WWE. Steen got over by being ultra-violent in the ring and surly on the microphone, two things that will not fly in WWE. If Steen were to be a major player in WWE, he will have to drastically change his character.

As a wrestler, Steen isn't quite on the level of elite workers like Daniel Bryan and Seth Rollins, but he can more than hold his own, and his style should translate pretty well to WWE. His move set has relied heavily on moves that focus on the neck area, which will have to go in WWE, but he can brawl with the best of them and has some other entertaining moves that could get over in WWE. On the microphone, Steen is nothing short of awesome, and might very well be the best talker in the world. He will have to clean up his colorful language, but Steen's mic skills is his most impressive attribute, and he can hop right into a hot feud and take over on the microphone. Steen will have to adjust greatly to WWE, but if you can wrestle well and you can talk well, more often than not WWE can find a place for you.

2. Sami Zayn

Zayn was the most popular independent wrestler around before he was picked up by WWE, and he has picked up right where he left off. Zayn's natural charisma is an extremely rare gift, and the fact that he has been able to organically get over with the crowd down in Florida is extremely impressive. Zayn has an exciting move set that the fans enjoy, and really understands the fundamentals of selling his opponents offense and getting the crowd behind, two intangibles that are hard to teach.

Zayn never spoke when he was El Generico, which of course created a lot of question marks concerning his potential within the speech-driven world of WWE. So far the results haven't been spectacular, but he has presented himself in a decent enough light to warrant a fair shot at superstardom when he reaches the main roster. Zayn's ability to work a good match and get over with fans creates a striking figure, and since his arrival on Raw is coming sooner rather than later, fans can expect Zayn to become a major player within WWE over the next year.

1.Finn Balor

Balor is the number one wrestler on this ranking simply because he is the most complete performer right now. Balor combines very strong in-ring work with dynamic charisma and excellent mic skills into one impressive package. Balor comes over after leading his stable in NJPW, the Bullet Club, to impressive heights and has the natural charisma to be a forceful and aggressive leader.

The one thing that Balor doesn't have is size, he is under six feet tall and under 200 lbs. While Balor is rarely going to be the biggest dog in the fight, he is in excellent physical shape and his rangy offense of kicks and elbows actually plays kind of well into his slim figure. His greatest strength is his ability to get heat from the audience, and while the jump from the Japanese audience to the American audience is sizeable, Balor's skill set lends itself well to getting himself over.