10 NXT Predictions For 2017

2016 was another massive year for NXT. While it's still referred to as a developmental brand, the show down in Full Sail is resembling that less and less each day, becoming a bonafide touring entity in its own right.

With an influx of new talent this year, including major stars like Shinsuke Nakamura, Austin Aries, Bobby Roode, Eric Young, Roderick Strong, Ember Moon and Andrade 'Cien' Almas, as well as the feud between Finn Balor and Samoa Joe in the early part of 2016, NXT has once again been one of the best wrestling promotions around.

Often continuing to outshine the main roster's output, NXT nevertheless will need to keep hiring new faces and pushing improving existing talent in order to keep the brand going and compete with losing any of its big stars to the main roster.

We fully expect NXT to rise to the challenge. No matter what's thrown at them, NXT always seems to adapt and we expect there to be plenty of exciting new faces, big title matches and surprises to keep the brand fresh in 2017.

Here's 10 big things we expect to happen in Full Sail next year.

2016 was the year NXT made real strides as a touring promotion, moving the show all over the U.S and Canada, and visiting places as varied as the UK, Australia and Japan.

Triple H has made no secret of his ambitions with NXT and we fully expect the company to continue to progress and grow in 2017, touring around the world and entering new markets like China and the Middle East. We also hope to see them at Download Festival in the UK again this summer too; we had a bloody lovely time with that in 2016.

It will also be fascinating to see how the UK championship tournament plays into the future of NXT. Will that become its own touring brand as HHH suggested or will the main stars of the tournament be absorbed into NXT? Either way, it's a fascinating time to be a UK wrestling fan and the path to the WWE for British wrestlers just got a heck of a lot easier.