NXT preview (June 10, 2020): Crisis of faith

NXT returns tonight (June 10) from the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. It is the fallout show from Sunday’s TakeOver: In Your House.

Advertised for tonight:

• Adam Cole vs. Dexter Lumis
• Finn Bálor vs. Cameron Grimes

As per usual, here are our five questions about NXT tonight:

1) Is Tommaso Ciampa going to experience a crisis of faith?

Tommaso Ciampa triumphantly returned from his career threatening neck injury in September to much fanfare. Putting his evil ways behind him, this could have been a huge time in his career.

Instead he just loses.

He lost to Adam Cole, failing to win back the title he never lost. He lost to Johnny Gargano after Candice LeRae kicked him in the balls. And then last Sunday, he lost to Karrion Kross in very convincing fashion. He hasn’t won a major feud since his return.

That’s sure to rattle the Blackheart, who used to be the cream of the crop when he was the baddest dude around. Now he’s the guy everyone picks up their Ws against. That’s got to have him questioning things. Because when he changed his ways, his success came to a halt. Will he start to wonder if the old way was the right way?

NXT is rather heel heavy so any turn isn’t something that’s going to happen immediately if it does. But are other takeaways he learn from his current issues. Perhaps he opts to double down on playing the hero and but finds a way to find his aggression again.

Either way, he needs to do something. He can jaw with Randy Orton on Twitter all he wants, but the fact of the matter is, he needs to start winning some significant matches.

2) Who’s next for Adam Cole?

Adam Cole is running through the roster, most recently dispatching of Velveteen Dream in a backlot brawl. He holds the record for most days as champion. At this point, his next feud should probably be his last as champion.

So who can it be against?

Even though he’s facing the intriguing newcomer Dexter Lumis tonight, that’s not going to be his next title feud. Lumis couldn’t even beat Roddy Strong the other week. But there are two names that fit the bill to be the man who beats the Panama City Playboy.

Keith Lee is one of those choices. That man seems unbeatable as the North American champion. He’s exciting, talented, and immensely charismatic. And he’s a challenge that Cole may not be able to overcome.

The other name is Finn Bálor, who is the second longest reigning NXT champion. It almost seems like a crime to not have two of the top NXT champions ever go face to face.

3) Is Charlotte done with NXT?

Io Shirai defeated Charlotte Flair and Rhea Ripley to win the NXT Women’s championship. Does this mean the Queen is done with NXT?

Not quite yet.

On Raw, the former champ made sure to note that she wasn’t pinned nor submitted last Sunday. This likely means we’ll get to see Io defend her title against Flair one on one. And that’s good. Defeating Charlotte in a singles bout will help elevate Io further.

Rhea also needs to defeat Charlotte eventually, but having taken the pin a few days ago, that’s probably not going to happen right away.

4) What happens to Velveteen Dream?

Velveteen Dream’s loss on Sunday does not bode will for his NXT career.

For awhile, he seemed like a shoo-in to win the NXT title. Now he just lost another chance to do that. That will be very hard to overcome.

If he sticks around in NXT, his character needs to undergo some reflection (similar to what Tommaso Ciampa needs to do) to figure out what needs to be done to right the ship. But with Ciampa, that story is there to explore given who he was and who he is. Dream has always been the cocky, flamboyant type. He’d have to find something different to make that work. But they can’t deviate too far from who he is because he’s already quite the unique character.

The other option is that he’s done with NXT and moves to Raw or SmackDown. It’s an option, though he’s a character who may not work on those shows.

5) Is Robert Stone going to recover?

Robert Stone is not going OK.

Ever since Chelsea Green kicked him to the curb, he’s randomly been seen walking around disheveled. Even worse, people on Twitter are just piling on the poor guy. And the one person who actually wants to sign with him isn’t good enough to win a match to earn that right.

For some reason, I feel that things are going to worse for Robbie S before they get better. But that’s great for us because this man is a very fun wrestling character actor.

We’ll see if we get any answers to these questions tonight at 8 PM ET on USA.