15 Ups & 6 Downs For WWE NXT In 2019
2. The Price Of Excess
On the two final pre-TakeOver: WarGames editions of NXT, the combatants of both the male and female double cage spectacles went to war in ladder matches for the vaunted on-the-night advantage.
For male heel captain Adam Cole, this was another bruising night in the million or so he worked through as a way to prove himself bulletproof in WWE's archaic system. Mia Yim donated her head to the women's equivalent, but would have just as much damage to her body with the bumps regardless of what went wrong with the giant metal weapon.
This sort of escalation has become the unsettling norm of late, made worse by revelations that NXT stars aren't being nearly as well-compensated as they should be for their role in the ultra-competitive Wednesday Night War era for the brand. The ultra-talented and ultra-competitive performers are on an unsustainable path - they need to make it look like they're killing each other, not actually killing themselves.