10 Architects Behind WWE's Demise
2. Shawn Michaels
The greatest trick WWE NXT pulled was convincing the fans it wasn't a WWE product.
It was as if Triple H was forging a different, exhilarating future in openly defiant response to how sh*tty the main roster had become, and we admired the audacity as much as the superb, life-affirming action and the soulful storytelling that often led us there. It was a revolution, and often it was plain nice - shockingly so, given the company that brought us it. The arcs of Bayley, Sami Zayn and American Alpha were euphoric and fully deserving of that hyperbole.
Much of this changed when Shawn Michaels entered the production meeting. In parallel, the recruitment strategy had intensified to cover the hottest Independent scene talent, as NXT felt less like a DIY operation and more like a major label. Acclaimed more so than beloved, the version of NXT from 2018 onwards lost both its soul and its cool. Shawn's preferred and imposed melodrama infected the product, and the unsubtle quality - the hammy, conflicted facials, the expositional trash talk, the clumsily-welded, scenery-chewing acting - opened NXT to scorn. It threatened to become a parody if itself with the "sinister structure" unveiled at TakeOver: Toronto, and Tommy and Johnny jumped over that cliff, literally hand in hand, with One Final Beat.
WWE is failing dismally to reach the younger audience. The old cool of NXT might have held the key.
The new NXT is far, far too earnest to capture them.