Tyson Kidd is an interesting story for me. One of those guys I liked, but didn't really know much about. I remember trying to turn him into a World Champion on Smackdown vs Raw 2011. First things first. Tyson Kidd is the last graduate of the Legendary Hart Dungeon. Tyson stepped on the scene on WWE television in 2009 as a singles competitor. Fast forward a few months later and David Hart Smith helped Kidd attack Evan Bourne after a tag team match. Kidd and Smith then formed the Hart Trilogy (Later renamed the Hart Dynasty) with Natalya as their manager. After a few matches they were traded to Smackdown. Not much went on from there at the end of 2009. They were featured in the Hart/McMahon match at Wrestlemania 26 where they were turned face. They then picked up wins over WWE Tag Team Champions ShowMiz and went on a push that led to a Championship reign. After losing the titles at Night of Champions in a Tag Team Turmoil match, Kidd and Smith begin to show cracks in their team which led to Kidd attacking Smith and breaking up the team.
After that there was no real direction for Tyson. He lost matches and fell lower down the card. He had a short tag team with Justin Gabriel and even participated in the World Heavyweight Championship Money in the Bank Ladder match at the Money in the Bank PPV. In early 2013, Kidd suffered a torn meniscus in his knee which took him out of action almost a year. Following his return, he began losing matches again and after Wrestlemania 30, he began appearing on NXT regularly. Kidd became revitalized in NXT. It became a fresh start for him. He was winning matches consistently for the first time since he was a Tag Team Champion. He got into a 3 way tie with Sami Zayn and Tyler Breeze in a Battle Royal for a shot at the NXT Championship which led to a triple threat match for the #1 Contendership. Kidd went on to win and received a shot at the very first NXT Takeover event. One of my favorite matches in recent memory, Kidd and NXT Champion Adrian Neville put on an instant classic. One of the best matches in NXT brand history. Neville would pull out the victory, but it would not end there for Kidd. Kidd would again participate in another spectacular match, this time with Neville, Zayn and Breeze which Neville went on to win again. Tyson Kidd may have come up short in his battles for the NXT Championship, but he showed what he could do if given an opportunity and he killed it. He would later get called up and get pushed. A random pairing with Cesaro turned him and Cesaro from direction-less midcarders to a must see tag team. Both have a great style that meshes with the other and had instant chemistry working together. They would win the WWE Tag Team Championships and breathe new life into the tag team division by putting on great matches no matter who they stepped into the ring with.
What I like most about Kidd is he has shown that he is the workhorse that CM Punk said he was in one of the best promos I've ever seen. Since going to NXT, he has put on great match after great match, never participating in a match ranked less than 2.25 stars in any singles or standard tag team matches. He also had a character. Before he was either a generic good guy or bad guy who let his matches do the talking for him. In NXT, he became a selfish, narcissistic jerk who was all about himself and using those who he beat as stepping stones to a better opportunity. It's funny because that's exactly what he did. He used those stepping stones as a means of getting back to the main roster and becoming one half of one of the hottest tag teams in the company. He learned how to become a better talker when I barely heard him talk at all. He's become one of those guys I can just look at the TV and say "Tyson Kidd? This should be a good match." Kidd has put in the time and effort to get better and also help turn NXT into what it is today. Guys like Kidd and Bray Wyatt made it so that guys could come back to NXT, tweak their styles and reinvent themselves. Now you have guys from all over the world, both young and old, coming to NXT to re-establish themselves as guys to watch and its made for incredible TV. I can't wait until Kidd comes back to WWE TV and reclaims his spot. It's his time.
-Ameen
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