WWE NXT Big Board: Updated Prospect Rankings and Analysis for August 20

On a night where jobbers fell to their opponents in a hurry, the WWE NXT prospects didn't get much of a chance to showcase their skills.

Wednesday's NXT acted as a warm-up for Saturday's TakeOver special, with the majority of matches being easy wins for those wrestlers headed to New York. Still, a few talents managed to make fans take notice.

Colin Cassady's energy, Sawyer Fulton's power and Bayley's acting range stood out.

The following is a look at how those prospects' performances shifted the NXT rankings and where the list of wrestlers ready to thrive on the WWE main roster now stands. A combination of look, ring work, mic skills, charisma and gimmick determine the order.

Note that wrestlers who also appear on Raw and SmackDown (i.e., Kevin Owens and Sasha Banks) are not considered for these rankings.

Male Wrestlers

Rank	Wrestler	Height/Weight	Notes
1.	Finn Balor	5'11'', 190 lbs	Top-tier ring worker, stellar athlete, marketable, serviceable on the mic.
2.	Sami Zayn	6'1'', 205 lbs	Excellent showman, fun move set, good crowd connection, inconsistent talker.
3.	Samoa Joe	6'2'', 279 lbs	Great presence, versatile in the ring, intimidating aura, good mic work.
4.	Tyler Breeze	6'0'', 190 lbs	Excelling as a heel, maximizes gimmick, good athlete, above-average ring work.
5.	Hideo Itami	5'9'', 182 lbs	Showing more charisma, making progress as mic worker, electric in the ring.
6.	Jason Jordan	6'3'', 245 lbs	Growing presence, good heel work in the ring, marketable look.
7.	Colin Cassady	6'10'', 276 lbs	Excels at working crowd, great size and look, solid charisma, in-ring work improving.
8.	Solomon Crowe	5'10'', 207 lbs	Unique move set, good energy, strong sense of character.
9.	Baron Corbin	6'8'', 275 lbs	Great in-ring presence, underwhelming talker, questions remain about being able to produce in longer matches.
10.	Simon Gotch	6'1'', 221 lbs	Continues to work gimmick into move set, fun ring work, good presence.
11.	Bull Dempsey	6'2'', 300 lbs	Gimmick getting slightly more serious, good brawler, top-notch talker when not playing comedy role.
12.	Tye Dillinger	6'3'', 223 lbs	"Perfect 10" gimmick boosting him, strong showman, strong technical ring work.
13.	Enzo Amore	5'11'', 200 lbs	Inconsistent in the ring, top-notch talker, excellent charisma, better suited as manager.
14.	Scott Dawson	5'10'', 224 lbs	Excellent in the ring, good intensity, doesn't have much "it" factor.
15.	Chad Gable	5'8'', 187 lbs	Making mat wrestling entertaining, showing more energy/personality.
16.	Aiden English	6'3'', 215 lbs	Solid charisma, underwhelming ring work, Gotch overshadowing him.
17.	Dash Wilder	5'10'', 222 lbs	Aggressive ring work, good build, below-average charisma.
18.	Blake	6'1'', 240 lbs	Struggling to stand out, solid ring work, inconsistent presence on mic.
19.	Mojo Rawley	6'4'', 290 lbs	One-dimensional character, high energy, excellent athleticism, raw in-ring performer.
20.	Sawyer Fulton	6'8'', 285 lbs	Good intensity, presence growing, skilled brawler.

Prospects just outside the top 20: Murphy, Elias Samson, Marcus Louis.

Big Cass, Big Energy

In an eight-man match, it was Cassady who most drew fans in.

Mojo Rawley did his usual single-gear shtick. Enzo Amore didn't do much to impress once the bell rang. The big man was the star of the action.

Big Cass has employed a more exciting offense as of late. He worked a notch faster here. His energy filled up the screen.

Although he's not as athletic as Roman Reigns, Cassady's offensive bursts were Reigns-like in terms of intensity. 

Officials need to give him more chances to show this off. His matches are usually short and often more comedic than dramatic. Aside from a brief singles run when Amore was injured, Cassady has been relegated to sidekick status.

Support Growing for Fulton

WWE officials may have thought they were hearing things on Wednesday's NXT. The Full Sail University fans started chanting Fulton's name.

That's a departure from him being part of an ignored tag team alongside Angelo Dawkins.

Fulton worked to earn those chants and improve his stock with a strong performance against the tag team champs. In control for just the briefest of moments, the powerhouse streamrolled through Blake and Murphy and looked impressive doing it.

He showed off plenty of intensity and some eye-catching power. At one point, he hit a spinning slam that shook the ring.

The flurry ended quickly, and he and Dawkins took another loss. WWE clearly views him as a low-rung star, as he played the stepping stone here once again.

Credit: WWE.com

This was his best effort to date, a glimpse of what he might do with a bigger share of the stage. 

Other Notes

Jason Jordan stood out in a four-man backstage interview. He didn't deliver any particularly memorable lines but felt like the biggest star in the group. He has the kind of presence that has him ahead of Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson in the race to the main roster.

The opposite is true for Dawkins.

He looked to be having fun out there in his match against the tag team champs but struggled to stand out. He hit an impressive dropkick that showed off his leaping ability, but the bigger takeaway is that Dawkins just doesn't grab the audience's attention.

Blake is starting to hear "Let's go, Barbie!" chants thanks to his blond hair. If he were making a bigger impact overall, it wouldn't matter what color his hair was; fans would be more behind him.

When Baron Corbin steps into the ring with Samoa Joe at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn, it's going to be the biggest test of his career, both in storyline and in real life.

Corbin has mostly been asked to dominate in blink-of-an-eye matches. He now faces a legit veteran who has a long list of great matches on his resume. If he can't produce something memorable against The Samoan Submission Machine, then it's time to start downgrading him as a prospect.

Female Wrestlers

Rank	Wrestler	Height	Notes
1.	Bayley	5'6''	Skilled actor, great connection with crowd, strong babyface work in the ring.
2.	Carmella	5'5''	Charismatic, good showmanship, ring work still raw but has improved.
3.	Alexa Bliss	5'1''	Improving as a heel, inconsistent in the ring, still raw in that department.
4.	Dana Brooke	5'3''	Has slightly toned down overacting, raw in the ring, good athlete.
5.	Peyton Royce	5'7''	Good striker, strong seller, no real character yet.
6.	Billie Kay	5'8''	Good intensity, given limited opportunities thus far.

Bayley Not Going to Be at NXT for Long

Even if she wins the NXT title from Banks in New York this Saturday, don't count on Bayley sticking around NXT much longer. Each week, she looks every bit ready to move to the main roster.

That felt especially true when the company had Bayley work two WWE house shows over the weekend.

Officials may want to keep her around to keep the NXT women's division stronger, but she's miles better than any of her peers. In a contract-signing segment with Banks, she emoted extremely well.

She was convincing whether she was tearful, enraged or proud. She has a wider acting range than many of the women already working Raw and SmackDown. That's a skill that will propel her, as she can be in stories outside of the ring a la AJ Lee early on in her career.

Bayley has no competition from NXT's women right now. She's a major league talent biding her time in Triple-A.