10 Booking Steps For WWE NXT (25 Sept)

1. An Ending To Talk About

Ok so, next week is the biggest week in pro wrestling for a generation.

Monday: WWE Raw "Season Premiere"

Wednesday: WWE NXT AND AEW Dynamite

Friday: WWE SmackDown moves to Fox in a billion-dollar deal

Of all of those, it's very easy for NXT to fall to 4th in people's minds and the wrestling coverage landscape. It'll vary week on week of course, but this is their last shot to grab headlines and attention before the playing field becomes bloated beyond recognition. Right now, they're only competing with WWE's own underwhelming main roster, and if they want that to carry the momentum of their launch into next week they need to make themselves the story.

How do you do that? Well, either a shock debut of a new star that'll set pulses racing, the return of a massive crowd favourite to inspire people on the scope of the show or, simply, just a critically acclaimed series of matches to lay down the gauntlet to the opposition. I mean, there's nothing stopping them from doing all three, but one is categorically the bare-minimum.

A thrown-out brawl that ends with half the roster lying on their backs simply won't cut it this week...