Beth Phoenix Names WWE NXT 2.0 Talent That Stands Out To Her

On the latest episode of Out of Character with Ryan Satin, Beth Phoenix joined the show to talk about the revamped NXT 2.0 and some of the new characters the brand has introduced. The Glamazon spoke about Tony D'Angelo and praised his character for resonating with the audience.

"He knows the character and it resonates with the audience," Phoenix said. "I don't want to say it's a simple character because it's not, there's a million layers to it, but it's a familiar character. Other characters in WWE have brought some of those flavors, and he's pulling from other inspirations and maybe TV and movie characters as well.

"We get it, when he hands a dead fish with Dexter Lumis' name pinned to it, we know what that means. He's speaking the language of the audience and when you do that, the audience instantly attaches because they're like 'Oh no, who's he going to whack next?' Their minds start spinning and they start building these possibilities. We want to engage people, we don't want to leave them confused, we want to ask them questions like cliffhangers like 'what's next?'"

The up-and-comer joined WWE After the Bell where he shared he'd like a match with Bron Breakker. The former Women's Champion continued to talk about NXT 2.0 and what the differences are between the brand previous fans came to know and love. Company officials are reportedly happy with the newly revamped NXT 2.0 after the first month and a half of the brand's existence.

"I think what we're selling has changed a lot," Phoenix said. "We were selling great wrestling for a very long time and it worked. We were building a women's evolution, revolution, whatever you want to call it. At that time, we needed to see the women wrestle for long periods of time and show that they could go. NXT was a huge part of that, showing that women can have these matches and giving them the time. I think NXT opened doors for a variety of body types, wrestlers with varied sizes. We were just seeing these different guys that they could do different things in the ring because they all weren't 7 feet tall.

"And the speed and just developing a new fast paced style that really resonated with our audience, it caught on. We're still producing superstars but the motivation is different now, the motivation is more character work and creating characters that get under your skin, and characters you're attached to. A lot of that, especially if you know yourself and a lot of our young talent are working on figuring that out, then that really resonates and then the door opens."

Phoenix also spoke about the differences in character development with NXT 2.0 and how certain characters, rather than just their in-ring work, has gotten over. The NXT Commentator named a few wrestlers and factions she's been very impressed with.

"They've all got that character inside and a lot of them are very young and also just getting reps too," Phoenix said. "In those reps, and experimenting, and trying new things, and taking the cuffs off, and throwing spaghetti at the wall and crossing your fingers sometimes you strike gold. The Creed Brothers, I love those guys. They put it all out there and I buy what they are selling, they know who they are, they're a tight package. Diamond Mine as a group, I think is fabulous. I wish you guys could see in the commercial breaks how [Malcolm] Bivens gets the audience so worked up, he's fantastic at what he does. It's such a great dynamic in there, and that's what we're trying to do in NXT is build these groups with these wonderful interactions."

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Out of Character with Ryan Satin with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.