Ol’ Blue Pants – The El Generico of NXT

Every now and then I’ll see posts on wrestling message boards asking for help to get back into WWE. Sometimes the questions are about current wrestlers or if past ones are still in the ring. Some ask about current storylines and often about how to get into NXT. But I’ve also seen the same specific question – who is Blue Pants and why does she seem to be so popular?

It’s not an easy question to answer. Blue Pants (independent wrestler Leva Bates) hasn’t wrestled very often in NXT, only won once, has very plain attire and has never cut a promo. Yet despite all that, has become a favorite among NXT fans, getting huge reactions at the NXT Arena in Full Sail University and even been interviewed by WWE.com.

Blue Pants – aka Leva Bates – has been wrestling since 2006 but only made her NXT debut in Sept. 2014, taking on Carmella in a losing effort. Since then, she’s wrestled five more times for NXT and actually won a match against Carmella in Dec. 2014. But in that first appearance, a star was born. Even though she’s just an enhancement talent (a nice way of saying she’s a jobber), fans quickly latched onto Blue Pants because of her upbeat attitude and enthusiasm, despite seemingly having no character beyond being happy to be there and being named after the color of her pants.

And as I thought about what made fans so enamored with Blue Pants, it made me recall another ultra-popular wrestler with an equally simplistic character – El Generico.

El Generico got his start in Quebec, Montreal, Canada for International Wrestling Syndicate in 2002. ProFightDB.com lists his first match as a four-way at CZW’s High Stakes 2 in 2004 (with Kevin Steen, Excess 69 and won by Sexxxy Eddy) though CageMatch.net has his first match listed as 2002 with IWS against TNT, a match which he won by count out.

The story I’ve always heard about El Generico’s origin is this – the Generico gimmick wasn’t meant to be permanent, rather he was just supposed to be another jobber. He had generic tights, a generic luchadore mask and even had the word “generic” right in his name. Nothing was supposed to stand out about El Generico – except, somehow, the fans absolutely loved him. They loved him so much he won his first 8 matches in IWS and his first loss was in an IWS Heavyweight Title match against Dru Onyx.

Blue Pants was even inducted into the bWo!

 

It’s hard to say why the fans took to Generico so much initially. But as time went on, he developed into a beloved, ultra-babyface character that just wanted to wrestle and put on great matches, which the fans really connected with. And the same could be said of Blue Pants.

Like Generico, she isn’t flashy and her name is based on the attire that she just happened to be wearing for her debut. She’s just happy to be able to work for NXT and I think it’s her earnest enthusiasm which the fans picked up on and took to right away. Just look at the June 10 edition of NXT TV in her match against (Evil) Emma – Blue Pants got arguably the biggest pop of the night. It’s hard to say if Ol’ Blue Pants will have as lengthy a career as El Generico or if she’ll ever be brought in full time by WWE, but one thing is for sure, just like El Generico, Blue Pants has definitely won the heart of the crowd.

(I actually wrote this several months ago and never posted it for some reason. I don’t think it will feel too dated and with Blue Pants showing up at NXT Takeover: Brooklyn, it feels like as good a time as any. I actually saw Leva wrestle in some tiny town in middle to northern New Jersey against Veda Scott in…I wanna say late 2013. It was for a Wrestling Is show and there were maybe 50-80 people there, it’s very cool to see someone who works incredibly hard at both costumes and cosplay as well as wrestling, like Leva does, get such a big reaction at a huge event like Takeover: Brooklyn.)