Dana Brooke a Cautionary Tale as WWE Draft Selects 6 NXT Stars

The WWE women got one short match during a three-hour Raw episode the day before the WWE Draft.

There was neither a single backstage segment nor a single promo to make fans care about the stakes for the women, because there are no stakes. The women’s title isn't up for grabs at Battleground, and Natalya Neidhart, who faces Becky Lynch on Sunday, wasn't competing in a match to promote her feud.

But those are bigger, macro problems that the draft will hopefully fix by appropriating more time to individual Superstars. A more specific problem in the women's division is embodied by Dana Brooke, who is noticeably less experienced, less polished and more prone to mistakes than her peers.

She has been neglected and pushed into the background as a result. To be perfectly clear, none of this is Dana Brooke's fault. She’s been set up for failure by the WWE brass, and she's been placed in what is sure to be an awkward, no-win situation.

Dana Brooke has never been given the chance to shine on her own since arriving on the main roster. When she debuted on Raw with Emma, it was in a backstage segment during a beatdown—hardly an introduction of great fanfare.

Still, on paper, the pairing was logical. Emma was an older veteran who was re-debuting, and Dana Brooke was a younger talent on the rise. They had a natural, “mean girl” chemistry in NXT, and replicating that on the main roster seemed like an easy, proven way to garner heat.

After Emma was sidelined by injury, however, the WWE should have done the smart thing and sent Dana Brooke back to NXT. There, she could shine on her own and continue to develop her skills as a title contender.

Instead, they paired her with Charlotte. Dana had to fight for camera time and attention with Ric Flair, who even on his worst day is an irrepressible camera hog. After Charlotte kicked Rick Flair to the curb, Dana Brooke hung on as an enforcer. And that’s been her role ever since: as a lackey for the Women’s Champion and nowhere close to being a contender.

She was such a dominant, muscular presence on the NXT roster, and this is a considerable, disappointing demotion.

A couple of weeks ago, Ringside News reported a rumor that Dana Brooke was paired with Charlotte so that she could learn from experience. If true, that seems poorly thought out. Charlotte is barely out of NXT herself. It also begs the question: If Dana Brooke has anything to learn from Charlotte, then why exactly is she on Raw or SmackDown?

Live television is not a proving ground, and it is not a place to learn on the job. Too much is at stake, least of all everyone's safety.

The way to treat an NXT Superstar on the main roster is with great fanfare and awe—as a ready-made Superstar who’s ready to gun for a title: “Wait 'til you see this guy/girl in action!” Ostensibly, the purpose of NXT is to develop talent—to prepare wrestlers for the main roster so that they can stand on their own.

Dana is hardly standing on her own. She takes the pins in tag matches, and unlike in NXT, she has no discernible personality outside of flexing. It defeats and demeans the mission of NXT. If after all their training and hard work, NXT wrestlers are thrust into the enhancement talent roles they would have occupied anyway, then what exactly is the point?

NXT Superstars cannot be brought up to the main roster to fetch water. It's demeaning to the talent, and it's disappointing to the dedicated fans who watch NXT religiously and grow jaded when their favorites are demolished on Raw. It happened to The Ascension. It happened to The Vaudevillains. And now, it’s happening to Dana Brooke.

She should serve as a cautionary tale for the WWE, which has announced six further NXT stars will be joining the main roster in the upcoming draft. Nurture talent rather than pushing them because “it’s time,” and err on the side of training them too much rather than just enough. Right now, Bayley is ready to be moved up. Alexa Bliss would be pushing it. But is Nia Jax? Is Carmella? Absolutely not.

If those two Superstars move up, they should be solo stars, ready to challenge for the belt rather than be placed in stables or tag partnerships that subsume their identities. NXT is the future, but the WWE needs to be wiser and more patient in their considerable investment.