10 Things We Learned From Attending NXT TakeOver: New York Live
3. Capitalism Moves Fast
The WWE merchandising machine is incredible. It's as excellent and effective as the rest of their marketing strategy, with the promotion shifting vast quantities of shirts, hoodies, and other tat at every event. It doesn't even matter that a lot of the designs are straight-up ugly and the shirts lose their softness after a couple of washes: they do numbers, and WWE are killing it.
So sharp are WWE's merchandising team that they were already selling Johnny Gargano's brand new "Johnny Champion" t-shirts within seconds of the former DIY man becoming NXT Champion. Your writer and his WhatCulture cohorts were shuffling through the Barclays Center concourse after the main event, cruising down the elevator, when, to our left, we spotted the merch sellers unpacking a dozen boxes of bright yellow t-shirts emblazoned with the champ's new nickname. Capitalism, baby: it moves fast.
This swiftness suggests that WWE had Gargano's victory planned a long time ago, and that makes sense. It was absolutely the right moment at the right time, regardless of whether he was going to face Adam Cole or Tommaso Ciampa, and we applaud the marketers.