10 Things NXT Did Specifically To Beat AEW

1. Having No Angles

Hands up, I have personally criticised the decision not to book any conventional storylines on NXT the past two weeks. I have said that "while it makes sense from a business standpoint, from the perspective of audience engagement it's a negative" or words to that effect. But since this article's a lot more about running NXT as a business, it's time to dish out the praise.

Heading into week three on the USA Network, we still don't have anything resembling an angle. Baszler/LeRae, Profits/Era, Cole/Riddle, all of these are simply Challenger vs Champion matches with no real hook to them - even Kushida and WALTER doesn't have a clear motivation behind it. But like Gargano himself, this is purely a case of keeping the powder dry.

Angles lead to talking points. They are what give you your shocking moments and Michael Cole shouting "now trending number 1 worldwide". We know roughly what sort of direction AEW will be going in, but NXT still haven't shown their hand here. If they're debuting a big acquisition from the main roster it'll be this week, and deliberately to divert attention from Cody and co.