9 Ups & 4 Downs From Last Night's WWE NXT (Oct 9)
Downs...
4. Unlimited Commercial Interruption
A price of NXT's move to television, commercial breaks didn't hamper all of last week's blockbusters because of WWE's agreement with USA Network. This week, the company paid the penalty for elevating the developmental brand to a much larger stage.
Most notable in the opener belter between Lio Rush and Drew Gulak, the commercials chopped or reduced the drama of matches in ways that couldn't be recaptured by picture-in-picture. This will leave fans of the black-and-gold brand with two choices, neither of them particularly favourable for the company. Given the choice, viewers can either invest less in the clash, or simply wait to watch the cleaner WWE Network version.
In both cases, the show won't keep people glued. As the product on the losing side of a ratings war, that's a worst case scenario.