One of the hottest brands in all of wrestling has gone through a lot of changes, good and bad, over it's 11 years in existence, and I intend on looking at what made it successful, where it all went wrong, and how this new rebrand might just be the best thing the brand has ever done.
Nowadays, the NXT brand has become one of the most popular brands in all of wrestling, known for their consistently high quality programming that felt so different than the usual WWE product, and was often outshining everything happening on the main roster. While recently it had felt like NXT strayed from their path and lost what was making them so special, it seems like this most recent repackaging of the brand might help them recapture that lightning in a bottle and make NXT must see TV again. But to truly understand what made NXT great and take a look into the future, I want to take a look at it's humble beginnings and track the growth of NXT to see what made it so successful, what changed along the way and what NXT 2.0 has to offer in pushing NXT back into the spotlight it once held.
It's no secret that NXT started out as a VERY different show than what we have today. Originating as a reality game show airing on SYFY, the entire goal of the series was to find out who would be the next breakout star in the WWE. Game show NXT began as a seasonal show running a total of 5 seasons between 2010 and 2012, with each season bringing on a new cast of wrestlers vying for that position on the main roster. Each rookie would be given a pro from the main roster who would coach them and shape them into a WWE superstar. While game show NXT understandably is something that everyone would like to forget, it actually started out in a quite promising way, with Daniel Bryan putting on a good match and getting a surprising amount of offense in with the World Heavyweight Champion Chris Jericho. Daniel Bryan's pairing with The Miz at the time was thought to be insane, since Bryan was known entirely for his technical wrestling ability, while Miz was only known as the reality show start turned sports entertainer. Their pairing turned out to be a highlight of the season, it was a stroke of genius putting them together. Miz's focus on turning Bryan into a character and making him show a personality was a really cool dynamic that was really interesting to watch! The focus seemed to be on wrestling over reality at the beginning, but as time went on the show started getting out of control. With each new season, they heavily leaned into the game show aspect more and more. NXT had almost became a parody of itself to the point where Michael Cole would be actively trying to sabotage the show. One of the most notable things to come out of the original NXT was The Nexus which would make quite the splash on the main roster, but we all know how that turned out and I don't have nearly enough time to dive into all of that. After a widely criticized fifth season, it became clear that NXT needed to change and in May of 2012 NXT was reshaped and rebooted into what would become a cultural phenomenon.
NXT made some very drastic changes, completely dropping the pros and the game show and solely focusing on wrestling itself. WWE also made the decision to merge NXT with it's developmental brand Florida Championship Wrestling. With a new roster full of tons of young stars and homegrown talent, NXT would be WWE's developmental brand where they would send all of their new signees, so that they could learn how to work in the WWE style. This new rebooted NXT would air on WWE's website YouTube channel. It also wasn't going to be taped before Smackdown, as WWE entered a partnership with Full Sail University down in Florida to be the home of the NXT weekly shows. Soon announced was the brand new NXT championship which would be crowd in an eight man "Gold Rush" tournament, consisting of Richie Steamboat, Leo Kruger, Bo Dallas, Jinder Mahal, Justin Gabriel, Michael McGillicutty, Drew McIntyre and Seth Rollins who would go on to win it and become the first ever NXT champion, ushering in a new era for the brand. Over the next 2 years, NXT would transform into a brand full of new signees like Sami Zayn, Adrian Neville, and Kassius Ohno with some main roster talent like Cesaro, Tyson Kidd and AJ Lee mixed in there. They would also have a women's division that they would soon become famous for, with Paige defeating Emma in the finals of a tournament in order to claim the first ever women's championship. WWE would also develop their Performance Center, where talent could workout and train. They would teach them to wrestle, cut promos, and all of the other little details it takes to succeed. The talent would work tirelessly in the PC to sharpen their skills in and out of the ring so that they would be fit for TV. NXT would fully come into their own and officially arrive when WWE introduced the WWE Network, with the first ever live special being NXT ArRIVAL, a show that would put NXT on the map and establish it as something to be taken seriously.
Going into 2014 more and more eyes started to tune into NXT and seeing what it had to offer. Back in these golden days of the brand, they focused a lot on creating compelling characters that the fans could get invested in and the roster was full of them. You had people like Tyler Breeze strutting around with his selfie stick in extravagant attires. Bayley would be there naïve as ever fangirling backstage and hugging everyone. The Vaudevillians were pulled right from a bygone era. There was the man that gravity forgot Adrian Neville known for his high flying moves and was the NXT champion at the time which would bring us to one of the best stories in all of wrestling history which I'll get to shortly. What I'm trying to say here is that NXT wasn't just about the fantastic wrestling, they would put an emphasis on creating compelling characters first and foremost so that they audience could get invested in them, and the must see matches were just a bonus. The crowd at Full Sail would fully embrace these characters and was so invested in what NXT had to offer. New stars were being created and would become more successful than ever down on the brand, and they were all so unique and special. It really felt like something you wouldn't see on the main roster and was a breath of fresh air from what fans usually expected from the WWE.
Perhaps the crowning achievement of this NXT was one of the best told stories and one that proved that NXT was worth watching to every wrestling fan: Sami Zayn's journey to winning the NXT championship. One of the best underdog stories in all of wrestling saw Sami Zayn trying and failing time and time again to win the big one. He had lost his #1 contender's match to Tyler Breeze at the inaugural Takeover, he had just narrowly lost the fatal four way at the aptly titled Takeover: Fatal 4-Way after Neville screwed him over. With tensions building, Zayn and Neville were set for their match at NXT Takeover: rEvolution where he finally managed to defeat his friend and win the title that had eluded him for so long. It's one of my favorite moments in all of wrestling history, and it goes to show the full extent of what NXT can do in building characters and telling long term stories that emotionally resonated and delivered in the ring. Zayn, Neville, Balor, Owens and the four horsewomen of NXT would go on to turn NXT into must see TV and bring it into the mainstream.
Over the next year, NXT would fully shift into a much more mainstream brand. This would all begin with NXT Takeover: Brooklyn in 2015 where NXT would put on it's biggest show to date and their first ever show outside of Full Sail, selling out the Barclay's Center on the night before SummerSlam. This might not be the biggest show in NXT history anymore, but I still think it's the most important show because it showed that NXT was ready for the spotlight and could go toe-to-toe with the main roster, and even outshine them on these weekends. Banks vs Bayley is still talked about as one of the best women's matches in the entire company's history and put the women's division on the map. Owens and Balor competed in the brand's first ever ladder match for the NXT championship, where Finn Balor proved that he had what it takes to lead NXT as it enters a new era. They even managed to get wrestling legend Jushin "Thunder" Liger for his only WWE match against Tyler Breeze. This show will always be important because it marks a big change for the brand. NXT began to branch out, going on tour and bringing NXT Takeover all around the world. Still focusing on developing talent and getting them ready for the main roster, NXT would have someone enter the brand, work their way up the ranks, win the championship and then swiftly move their way up to the main roster where they would live out their days. There was a system in place here and it was working. NXT had an ever changing roster which made it interesting to watch, because you never knew who would be going where and what would be happening. It was during this time though that NXT started to bring in a lot more well known talent from around the world, and over the next few years they would focus on developmental, but they'd put just as much energy into signing new popular people. The 2014 - 2016 era of NXT would be widely regarded as the best of the brand, and in the years to come NXT would prove to be one of the most important things that you can be as a brand in wrestling: consistent and reliable.
The next few years would be transformative for the black and gold brand as they started to gain a reputation and a cult following. More and more stars from around the world would sign with NXT and make a name for themselves before swiftly moving up to the main roster and continuing their career there. People like Samoa Joe, Shinsuke Nakamura, Drew McIntyre, Andrade "Cien" Almas, and Aleister Black were coming into NXT and making such a big impact on the brand as the champion. The women's division was shaping into one of the best divisions in the world with Asuka, Ember Moon, Shayna Baszler and Kairi Sane at the helm. It was thought that they could do no wrong with their well written stories, reliable booking and consistently good wrestling. Takeovers would become some of the most hyped shows of the year, with each show being better than the last as they delivered on brilliant stories and fantastic matches that continued to outshine the main roster PPVs that would follow. They had even began experimenting with new and fun stipulations, bringing back War Games as their big show in the fall every year. Heading into 2018, NXT was more popular than ever and was reaching what I would consider the peak of it's popularity and the last year of NXT where it was must see TV. The year was dominated by a man who would become synonymous with NXT in Johnny Gargano who I can and WILL spend a whole other blog post talking about, but 2018/early 2019 was his year and this era of NXT will always have a soft spot in my heart because of that. One of the best Takeovers of all time in NXT Takeover: New Orleans would take place and is a prime example of what made NXT special. The culmination of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic and the complete formation of the Undisputed Era who would go on to dominate NXT for the next 3 years. The beginning of Shayna's reign of dominance over the women's division. The crowning of the inaugural North American championship in a ladder match (which looking back now is a MESS of a match with 2 horrible people, everyone else who would be released or leave the company except for someone who is bald, but at the time that match was a genuinely perfect match). Aleister Black capturing the NXT championship from Andrade. The Gargano/Ciampa feud had just begun and was the most anticipated match in the brand's history at the time. Takeover: New Orleans would mark the peak of NXT's popularity and it would show just how reliable and consistent the brand would be. The next year and a half would start to see the popularity of the brand slowly start to decline as some people started to grow tired of the formulaic NXT style, but overall it was still extremely popular and well received. It wasn't until late 2019 when one big change would mark the beginning of the end of modern NXT as we knew it.
On September 18th, 2019, NXT would enter a new format. Not only would the show now be 2 hours long, but it would air LIVE on the USA network. This was a big change for the brand, since for the majority of its existence NXT was a show that was taped in bulk. It would be quite an adjustment for everyone involved having to change to the live TV format. The 2 hour expansion of NXT was actually quite a good thing. NXT had quite the roster at the point since less people were moving up to the main roster, so that extra hour gave them the ability to showcase more of their talent and do a lot of things. Unfortunately, moving off of the WWE Network and onto live TV was the worst thing to ever happen to the brand. One of the best parts of NXT being taped is that they would have to write everything ahead of time, so all of the booking for the month was planned out and set in stone, and there wasn't any real way to change it since they had already shot everything. They had a lot more time to focus on writing good stories, planning it all out for the tapings and that gave us quality long term writing. With the new live TV format, they only had a week to put together their stories and it showed in the writing. Stories became inconsistent and characters suffered because of this. I don't want to talk much about this, but it's impossible to analyze NXT on TV without bringing up AEW. It was around this time that AEW Dynamite was announced and would be airing at the same time as NXT, so some people looked at this as WWE trying to go head to head with the brand. The entire "Wednesday Night War" mindset is very toxic and dumb and I really don't like talking about it, but NXT and AEW were airing at the same time and this did seemingly lead WWE to shift it's focus even further away from quality writing towards doing whatever they could for good ratings.
Now that they were on TV they had a much bigger audience, but they were looking at the numbers solely and their primary goal was to get as high of ratings as they could. The way they did this was that they would hold constant TV title matches, which was not only a disservice to the prestige of the title having it defended each and every week instead of important defenses at takeovers, but the writing in the feuds also greatly suffered. All of the title feuds were rushed from one challenger to another as champions found themselves defending more and more. NXT would be putting on title matches of all sorts in order to pop the ratings and it wasn't helping the brand in the slightest. Another big change was the amount of big shows that NXT was putting on. Prior to going onto TV, NXT would have around 5 takeovers per year on the weekend of some big main roster PPVs. Once they moved to TV, takeovers not only weren't held on the same weekend of main roster PPVs (for the most part), but NXT started doing other big shows besides takeovers. These shows would replace the episode of TV that week and were used to, you guessed it, boost the ratings. While these shows weren't inherently bad and had some genuinely great matches at times, the constant surplus of big shows devalued the importance of takeover and made it seem like just a regular show. Takeovers were a big deal because of how infrequently they happened, and the stories leading up to them were always these big matches. With the surplus of big shows that NXT was running alongside the constant TV title matches, the quality of stories, shows, and characters fell DRASTICALLY.
One of the biggest changes to NXT around this time was the identity of the brand. And I don't mean in a physical sense, even though they had to change to the CWC which didn't help their presentation whatsoever. From its inception, NXT was always designed to be a developmental brand for WWE. After NXT went on TV, they completely did away with all of that. NXT was less about developing their new signees and more so about showcasing the amount of talent that they had signed and accumulated from around the world. While they would still showcase some of the people that very few people had heard of prior to their signing, it would still be hard for these people to get a position on the card that wasn't just enhancement talent. They wanted to use more established names that were already stars and build the brand around them, rather than creating new ones. They even went out of their way to go and call it WWE's third brand and explicitly said that they were no longer developmental. NXT would go on to take part in the 2019 Survivor Series going head to head to head with RAW and Smackdown, which was a huge deal and truly cemented NXT as WWE's third brand. Now, I'm not saying any of this is necessarily a bad thing and I think NXT interacting more with the main roster is really cool! But, I do think that NXT losing sight of what made NXT special and trying to turn into something it wasn't was a change that the brand wasn't ready for, especially with all of the other writing problems that I touched on earlier.
I have been VERY harsh on NXT in this section so I just want to close it out with one of my favorite things from NXT's TV era: their women's division. Io's time as champion is my favorite of all the women's champion's reigns. She was one of the few consistently bright spots on NXT and was putting on countless classics with the likes of Candice LeRae, Dakota Kai, and Shotzi Blackheart. A lot of people were calling NXT's women's division the greatest on the planet and for good reason, the talent pool in that division was incredible. Unfortunately in 2021 NXT would throw all of that away in one of the most frustrating booking decisions on the brand's history when Io lost the championship, bringing us to one of the lowest points in NXT history.
This section of the analysis is going to be a lot more opinionated than all of the rest, but I often look at Takeover: Stand & Deliver as the final nail in the coffin for NXT. Everything mentioned previously that was happening in NXT still had a presence. There were some bright spots, but things were not looking good for the black and gold brand. People were growing tired of what NXT had to offer, and all of the aforementioned problems were only getting worse. It doesn't help that they made the mind boggling decisions to have Finn Balor and Io Shirai lose their titles to two wrestlers who were just straight up awful people. Starting with Finn, he only won the title because Kross had been injured mid last year and had to vacate the title 3 days later, and NXT's doomsday was delayed. Now that Kross was healed, NXT booked him for his rematch at Takeover: Stand & Deliver where he unfortunately went on to reclaim the title. The thing about Kross is that he is just not a good person. He subscribes to a lot of right wing Q-anon beliefs. Numerous times he's been seen liking anti-vax and anti-mask tweets, posting about it on his Instagram and attending q-anon rallies. He is just not a good person in the slightest, and on top of that he isn't an interesting wrestler whatsoever. AND he's bald. His confusing spooky judo gimmick is all style (mostly done entirely by Scarlett), and then when he enters the ring he puts on lackluster and forgettable matches. It also doesn't help that every week he was made to look like a geek on the mic as he was constantly upstaged by people who were better promos than he was. On a show that was already suffering from bad writing and relied on good wrestling, having someone like that as the face of the brand was not a good look and dragged down the entire show. In the case of Raquel Gonzales, she ALSO wasn't the best person in that she was a Trump supporter which instantly made her unlikable. It also doesn't help that there is nothing special about her. She didn't have a personality besides being tall, she wasn't very charismatic, and she wasn't very good in the ring. She was as bland as bland can be, so it was extremely frustrating when she beat Io for the women's championship, especially after Io had one of the greatest title reigns ever, having her drop it to Raquel was shocking in the worst ways. Having these two at the forefront of the brand made a show that was already hard to watch nearly unwatchable. Viewers had no interest in seeing these two, and something needed to change.
In August of 2021, rumors started circulating that NXT would be going through a change soon as they wanted to shift the focus once again. It was being reported that NXT would put a much heavier focus on the developmental aspect of the brand once again, using more up and coming stars and homegrown talent. It was also talked about that they would lean more into creating eccentric larger than life characters that audiences could resonate with. These would only be confirmed as ads started airing advertising "NXT 2.0", which was promised to bring big changes the the brand. The first and most notable change was the doing away with the black and gold color scheme that had been synonymous with the brand in favor of a new bright and colorful aesthetic featuring multicolor splashes. As the weeks went on, the ads started to show more and more of the arena before finally teasing that a brand new NXT would arrive on September 14, 2021. NXT 2.0 would be noticeably different from the start, as everything had been overhauled with a new bright and fun color scheme. From the graphics to the music, everything was changed to fit the new tone that NXT was going for. The CWC had been completely redesigned with new lighting, a more intimate crowd setup, plexiglass barricades, and most notably an all new stage. The entire atmosphere presented was all new and it was genuinely exciting! The show immediately opened with a match between LA Knight and a debuting Bron Breakker, who would go on to defeated Knight in a huge upset. Throughout the night, new faces and characters were brought onto TV who had never been seen before but seemed so promising. The entire night was capped off by one of the most entertaining segments in NXT history, the Index Wedding. Over the next few weeks, we'd see a lot more change too. Factions like Diamond Mine were given fresh faces that livened the group and actually made it interesting. Tony D'Angelo promised to continue the family tradition down in NXT. Von Wagner was there pushing tires and that's good for him! There were new fun segments like Andre Chase University and the Lashing Out talk show with the debuting Lash Legend. This new NXT had become almost unrecognizable to the previous iteration - and that was a good thing. NXT had finally embraced its roots as a developmental brand and things had immediately started to improve. These new characters were standouts that breathed new life into the show and made it something that you could get invested in. The best way to describe NXT 2.0 is that there's something for everyone. For people who like goofy and silly wrestling, they had their comedy characters. For people who wanted serious wrestling, they still had their NXT mainstays putting on reliably good matches. There was something on this new NXT for any wrestling fan to enjoy which was a necessary addition. The big question now that NXT has changed courses is where does everything go from here?
For starters, there's still a few problems that NXT needs to work out. The TV title matches still seem to be a thing they are sticking with which is a shame and hopefully they will phase those out over time. They announced Halloween Havoc 2021 on the most recent episode so it will be interesting to see how that plays out. There are some obvious issues in the women's division which is a mess right now. Other issues that I went into earlier with Raquel, there aren't any clear credible challengers set up for her and she's just been floating around from feud to feud without any real motivation. They don't know what to do with her because she's beaten nearly everyone on the roster. The Raquel experiment failed from the conception of the idea, but the fact that it's still playing out even though nobody cares about her and she is consistently the worst part of everything she's in is just bad business at this point. Even the women's tag titles are free from problematic people and booking. Poor Io has had to deal with another MAGA in Zoey Stark. Since they've been around, the women's tag titles have always been an afterthought and not given the treatment the champions deserve. Going into the future, I'd really like to see things in the women's division cleaned up and made more of a priority. My biggest complaint so far is that they're holding too much onto the past. The most dominant faction that has been all over the brand so far is one lead by Mandy Rose who most recently returned to the brand and set up her new group 'Toxic Attraction'. It seems like they might be heading in the direction of Mandy challenging for the women's title which goes against all they've said about fresh faces. On the debut episode of NXT 2.0, they had a huge fatal four way match to crown the new NXT champion after Samoa Joe unfortunately had to vacate it a few days prior due to not being medically cleared. Bizarrely, Tommaso Ciampa won that match, the only person in that match who already had held the NXT championship before. If you're going to talk a lot about how NXT is in a new era, then the best way to prove that is to have someone new as champion to usher the era in. Ciampa winning that match felt very random and unnecessary, there was no reason for him to win the title and he hadn't even been in the title picture prior to this. Pete Dunne had been at odds with Samoa Joe since his return to the brand and a title win for him is LONG overdue. LA Knight has been one of the best parts of NXT since he debuted, constantly being captivating and would have done wonders with the title. Hell, even my man VON WAGNER could have won the belt if they wanted to double down on idea of new faces in NXT. If NXT really wants to move on and start a new era, they have to let go of the past and embrace the future.
While NXT 2.0 isn't perfect, it's heading in the right direction. They've started addressing some of the major issues and hopefully over time they will continue to make changes to better the brand. As long as the writing stays consistent, the matches stay good and the characters are interesting, NXT 2.0 should be making improvements overall. I haven't been someone who has been too interested in NXT over the last 2 years besides watching it for my favorites, but I'm genuinely excited to see what happens and where everything goes. For the most part, I have been loving all of the new additions they have been making to the roster. It's been a breath of fresh air having new and interesting people with fun personalities to get invested in. The focus on developmental, interesting characters, and hopefully continuing with interesting stories seems very promising. What put NXT on the map all the way back in 2014 was the stories and characters they were building, and the amazing wrestling was a big bonus. So far, it seems like NXT is trying to recapture what made them successful and I think that's working out really well for them. Of course, we'll have to keep waiting to see what happens on the brand, as I'm writing this we're only a month into this new rebrand so anything can happen. Whatever it may be, I'm a very big fan of what NXT is trying to do nowadays, and I think you should be too. When wrestling is good and entertaining, we all win, and seeing NXT try to reinvent itself to become more entertaining in every way is a great thing that makes me feel good about the direction the brand is heading.
The future is now, and it looks bright.
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