Again, most of us grew up on the sports entertainment format of wrestling, and it can be tough to break away from the angle-heavy, backstage-cutaway-rich style that WWE and WCW have hammered into our heads. That's okay, too, because there is sports entertainment done right - and it's available on the WWE Network in the form of NXT. Since the WWE Network launched, the developmental brand's weekly show has broken out as the service's crown jewel. Independent and international stars such as Neville, Finn Balor, Hideo Itami, Apollo Crews, Samoa Joe, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, and recent addition Austin Aries have been allowed to compete against each other at the high levels they always have, and divas like Sasha Banks, Charlotte, Bayley, Asuka, and Becky Lynch have given mainstream women's wrestling a new face. It's embarrassing for WWE decision-makers that the company's developmental show is so much better constructed than its main programming, but those are the facts. Watch NXT, skip WWE.
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013
