WWE NXT: Updated Prospect Rankings, Analysis, Predictions for Week of April 28

Just when it looked like it was time to give up on the Eva Marie experiment, she delivered a career-best performance on Wednesday's WWE NXT.

One of the most rewarding parts of watching NXT is seeing the men and women start to pick up the art, to grow into the performers we thought they could be. Marie, who has long struggled on the mat, showed off that kind of growth on Wednesday night.

Her stock shot up after a battle with Asuka in Dallas. 

Scott Dawson hammered his way up the NXT rankings, too. The former tag team champ continually gives WWE officials reasons to raise his ceiling.

Wednesday's NXT also saw Aliyah debut and Mojo Rawley fizzle. How did those performances shake up the NXT rankings? Let's dive into that question, examining the NXT roster's mic skills, ring work, charisma, gimmick and look.

Male Wrestlers

Rank	Wrestler	Height/Weight	Notes
1.	Shinsuke Nakamura	6'2'', 229 lbs	Elite presence, great showmanship, excellent ring work, limited English-language skills.
2.	Samoa Joe	6'2'', 279 lbs	Elite intensity, powerful mic work, thriving as heel.
3.	Finn Balor	5'11'', 190 lbs	Excellent athlete, fine on the mic, marketable look/character, highly dependable in the ring.
4.	Chad Gable	5'8'', 187 lbs	Crisp offense, excellent mat skills, infectious energy, growing connection with crowd.
5.	Scott Dawson	5'10'', 224 lbs	Skilled bruiser, excellent striker, improving talker, several top-notch performances on his resume.
6.	Hideo Itami	5'9'', 182 lbs	Excellent ring work, highly athletic, mic skills are current weakness.
7.	Jason Jordan	6'8'', 285 lbs	High ceiling, explosive, marketable look.
8.	Austin Aries	5'9'', 202 lbs	Not coming off as larger than life, agile, smooth ring work, strong talker.
9.	Rich Swann	5'6'', 165 lbs	Out-of-this-world athlete, great energy, size could prove an issue.
10.	Johnny Gargano	5'10'', 190 lbs	Good athlete, fun offense, unproven on the mic.
11.	Christopher Girard	6'1'', 199 lbs	Good striker, aggressive, dependable ring work.
12.	Alex Riley	6'3'', 236 lbs	Strong on promos, very intense, not special in the ring.
13.	Tye Dillinger	6'3'', 223 lbs	May be limited to comedy role, good energy, works gimmick well.
14.	Dash Wilder	5'10'', 222 lbs	Best suited in tag team role, solid bruiser, underwhelming on the mic.
15.	Tommaso Ciampa	5'11'', 210 lbs	Good aggression, not a convincing heel, solid in the ring.
16.	Murphy	5'11'', 227 lbs	Growing more intense, good athlete, minimal presence.
17.	Alexander Wolfe	6'2'', 231 lbs	Solid bruiser, skilled striker, gimmick needs work.
18.	Sawyer Fulton	6'8'', 285 lbs	Impressive size, limited in the ring, will need right gimmick to succeed.
19.	Blake	6'1'', 240 lbs	Underwhelming charisma, serviceable in the ring, overshadowed by Alexa Bliss.
20.	Elias Samson	6'0'', 217 lbs	Good power, OK in the ring, character needs added layers.

Prospects just outside the top 20: Riddick Moss, Steve Cutler, Mojo Rawley

Flourishing With No Flips, Just Fists

In response to The Revival losing the tag team titles at TakeOver: Dallas, Dawson and Dash Wilder angrily devoured their opponents on Wednesday's NXT.

Despite it being such a one-sided affair, it was mighty entertaining. Former NXT creative assistant Rob Naylor, for one, wanted to see more like it:

Dawson managed to turn up the volume on his nastiness and fury even more than usual. He smashed his two no-name foes with bruising forearms.

He is among the best at NXT at just clobbering away like that. Maybe only his tag partner Wilder does it better.

But Dawson remains the star of that pair. He is the one who catches the eye. And he's the better talker of the two, as he showed after this match.

Passion permeated his promo. He talked about badly wanting to be tag champions again and promised pain to anyone who got in their way. It was simple and effective and felt genuine, making for Dawson's best verbal performance to date.

Dawson is making it clear that doubting him is futile. His size and look may not be prototypical, but his mastery of the art of intensity has to thrill WWE officials.

Nothing to Get Hyped About

The same issues continue to plague Rawley. He's too goofy, too one-dimensional in the ring and not memorable enough.

He and Zack Ryder went up against Blake and Murphy in a bout in which it was easy to forget what happened immediately afterward. Rawley didn't offer any highlights. Instead, he rolled around on the ground like some postmodern gymnast.

It's now been three years since WWE signed him. He hasn't shown any noticeable improvement anywhere.

The folks at Total Wrestling magazine may feel bad for criticizing him, but they shouldn't:

Being nice is good, but it's far from the biggest key to success. Charisma, presence and the ability to excite are, but Rawley hasn't shown enough of any of those. He looks doomed as a prospect.

Female Wrestlers

Rank	Wrestler	Height	Notes
1.	Asuka	5'3''	Strong connection with crowd, top-notch ring work, great presence.
2.	Bayley	5'6''	Excellent seller, strong storyteller, marketable babyface, not an elite in-ring worker.
3.	Alexa Bliss	5'1''	Excellent as a heel, compelling viciousness, charismatic.
4.	Nia Jax	6'0''	Steadily improving, growing fiercer, strong presence.
5.	Carmella	5'5''	Great energy, athletic, has refined her ring work.
6.	Aliyah	5'2''	Eye-catching intensity, highly athletic, comfortable as a heel.
7.	Eva Marie	5'8''	Marked improvement in the ring, star presence, still a work in progress.
8.	Dana Brooke	5'3''	Biggest issue remains overacting, heavy-handed showmanship, not natural-looking in the ring, very athletic.
9.	Liv Morgan	5'4''	Showing lots of potential, good energy, strong showmanship.
10.	Peyton Royce	5'7''	Improving presence, better sense of character, good aggression.

Introducing Aliyah

Hanging on to the top rungs of the NXT women's division just got a lot harder. In just one match, Aliyah showed that she will definitely make an impact.

Up against Carmella, she looked confident and intense. She hit strong punches. Her facial expressions were excellent.

Jason Solomon of PWMania commented on her impressive progress:

Expect that to continue. The ring looks to be her natural environment. She has "it" factor and a feel for the art as a whole.

She will just have to work on her gimmick. For now, her entrance music is ill-fitting. And her character is unclear.

The more she improves that part of her game, the quicker she will be in the women's title mix.

Progress for Eva Marie

No one expected Eva Marie to turn into the second coming of Dean Malenko, but her ring work had been so bad for so long, one had to wonder if she would just be better off sticking to the sidelines.

In the ring with Asuka, though, she offered a glimpse of her potential.

She showed ferocity we haven't seen from her before, whether wrenching Asuka's arm with a nasty wristlock or roaring in between collisions. At times, she nailed the champ with hard strikes, an area of her offense in which she often struggled.

Eva Marie exuded an indignant air. She toyed with the crowd like a good heel should.

It's no surprise then that there were some "Let's go, Eva!" chants mixed in there with the usual jeers.

Still, she showed signs that she is still a student learning the craft. She was inconsistent with her strikes, going from thunderous blows to flimsy ones in a hurry. She sold too fast, too. Sometimes she would flop to the canvas long before Asuka had sent her there.

Officials still have to be happy with what they saw. This is far and away the best Eva Marie has looked in a ring. It's the kind of performance that creates hope moving forward. 

Predictions

The Drifter won't ever match what he did on Wednesday night. Elias Samson took on Shinsuke Nakamura in the main event, and it resulted in a solid showing for the guitar-carrying heel.

But he's not going to be in the ring with someone on Nakamura's level again. If Samson only produced solid work when pitted against the best, going up against lesser foes won't lead to anything special.

The opposite is true for Asuka. 

Count on her delivering at least one Match of the Year candidate before 2016 is over. She looked excellent against Eva Marie, who has been among the worst performers on the entire roster. She thrived opposite Emma and Bayley before that.

As champion, she is sure to get the best the division has to offer. That will result in a classic.