Tyler Breeze, Adrian Neville and Latest WWE NXT Developmental News

Tyler Breeze and Adrian Neville continue to inch away from NXT and toward the WWE main roster. Their fanbases, though, have to be concerned with how they are going to be presented on that stage.

Breeze's partners at recent house shows point to him being a comedy act once he gets called up. What the company has planned for Neville upon promotion still sounds like a bad idea.

In other NXT news, Finn Balor talked up the WWE developmental system. Sami Zayn's matches received critical acclaim, and The Ascension stepped into the ring on Raw for the first time.

That's where fans expect to see Neville before long. Will his gimmick be altered as much as Viktor and Konnor's was?

Adrian Neville Updates

The fact that Adrian Neville is headed for WWE proper is not news; it's the inevitable coming to fruition. What has fans talking is the company's plans for him once he's there.

In an update of the reported plan to have him work a Mighty Mouse-esque gimmick, Bryan Alvarez of Wrestling Observer Live reports (h/t Wrestle Zone) that Neville would not dress like a mouse. Alvarez notes that the gimmick would be more like what Crash Holly did.

Holly carried around a scale to the ring to prove that he was a heavyweight despite being just over 200 pounds. While something like that is far and away better than anything involving a mouse costume, the focus on Neville's size is the problem.

Highlighting his height is a mistake. Focusing on his strengths is the much smarter move.

That's why he has gone as "The Man Who Gravity Forgot" rather than "The Guy Who is a Good Wrestler Despite Being Short."

Before he heads to the main roster, though, WWE has some opponents in mind for him. According to F4WOnline (h/t Wrestling Inc), WWE is looking at having Neville feud with Hideo Itami and Finn Balor at some point. A Triple Threat match for the NXT Championship with Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens is also reportedly on the table. 

Those all promise to be fantastic, but Neville has done more than enough to earn a call-up. He's done everything he can do at NXT.

The priority should be on finding a way to introduce him on the main roster rather than find good foes for him at the developmental level. 

Live Event Notes

Several NXT prospects earned shots at main roster house shows over the weekend.

Tyler Breeze was chief among them. On the Dec. 26 house show in Chicago, per ProWrestling.net, Breeze competed in a six-man tag alongside Hornswoggle and Titus O'Neil. Charlotte and Sasha Banks were in action as well, battling on opposite teams.

Breeze, Banks and Charlotte worked the Dec. 27 show in Cincinnati, as noted on ProFightDB.com.

Each time, Breeze had the same teammates and faced off against El Torito and Los Matadores. That won't inspire confidence in Breeze's fanbase. It sounds like WWE views Breeze as a joke.

While his act is rather gimmicky, he can be more than the low-card act that takes on the mini-bull and works with Hornswoggle. 

WWE also traveled to Long Island, New York, on Dec. 27. As reported by ProWrestling.net, Sami Zayn and Adrian Neville clashed for the NXT title that night. Per ProFightDB.com, Zayn and Neville also performed at the Boxing Day house show at Madison Square Garden against each other.

Those men keep getting serious opportunities. They have yet to have to mix it up with El Torito, a la Breeze.

The Ascension Make Their Raw Debut

The Ascension defeated The Miz and Damien Mizdow on Monday's Raw. The win marked the duo's first appearance on WWE's premier show.

While their performance and the reactions from fans were both underwhelming, Viktor and Konnor did get some love from their NXT peers, past and present.

Paige tweeted that she went into the arena to watch their match and wrote, "Proud of my @WWENXT family. #TheAscension #Goosebumps." Mojo Rawley wrote on Twitter that The Ascension would dominate Raw after dominating NXT.

WWE heavily altered the gimmick The Ascension worked at NXT. The fog from their entrance was gone, replaced by a cheesy entrance video on the big screen. Their gear was more outlandish, including red paint on their faces.

The Ascension are going to need to turn up the intensity on their next go-round on Raw. WWE is going to have scale back the gimmicky nature of their act. 

NXT Features Prominently on Best-Match List

The WWE.com staff is certainly paying attention to what happens each week at NXT.

WWE published a list of the best 25 matches of the year on its official website. NXT was well-represented:

• No. 9—Sami Zayn vs. Cesaro, NXT Arrival
• No. 6—Natalya vs. Charlotte, NXT Takeover
• No. 4—Sami Zayn vs. Adrian Neville vs. Tyler Breeze vs. Tyson Kidd, NXT Takeover: Fatal 4-Way
• No. 2—Sami Zayn vs. Adrian Neville, NXT Takeover: R Evolution

It's a flawed, subjective list, but the prospects who appeared on it have something else to add to their resumes. Zayn especially has plenty to boast about. He was in three of the top 10.

Charlotte competed in the highest-rated women's match on the list.

The more exposure she and her peers get, the better. A number of fans who don't watch NXT may be inspired to check out those four bouts and discover the magic the folks at NXT are creating.

Finn Balor Talks Performance Center, NXT, More

Finn Balor provided a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the WWE Performance Center and NXT. In an interview with The Score, he had high praise for the WWE developmental system.

Balor said, "It's been an incredible experience so far, and I'm just looking forward to seeing what happens in the future. WWE is the biggest wrestling company in the world, and it is that for a reason."

He listed off the trainers who have helped him thus far. He made it sound as if he's coming into the company with open ears and attempting to be a sponge.

He told The Score, "It's really been like the floodgates have opened for me. The amount I've learned in the last three or four months here has surpassed what I learned in the past three or four years before that."

Considering how good he already was, that's a hard-to-fathom thought. If WWE's trainers are finding ways for Balor to streamline his ring work, fans are set to experience some incredible action.

He could have skipped WWE developmental and thrived on the main roster. Instead, Balor is getting a chance to become a better all-around performer, which is going to benefit WWE in a major way when he gets his name called.