10 Things You Learn Binge Watching Every WWE NXT TakeOver

8. NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn Was The Most Important Event In NXT History

Sami Zayn
WWE.com

During the latter days of his in-ring career, NXT felt as much a proving ground for Triple H as anything else.

After a slow and steady 2012-13 reboot to wash away the stain of the gameshow era for the brand, it quietly morphed into the one thing wary and weathered WWE fans could still rely on. A weekly product offering logical progression and great matches that all fed into increasingly electrifying TakeOvers with their amazing payoffs and incredible matches. On its best day - and there were suddenly lots of those - NXT was quite simply an exceptional wrestling product and something Raws and SmackDowns from the era could only really harness in microcosmic moments.

Funded and augmented by WWE money and production respectively, it grew hand-in-hand with 'The Game's obscenely expensive Performance Center that, for better and worse, has determined a far more securer future than the wretched one promised by a mid-2000s developmental malaise overseen by John Laurinaitis.

TakeOver: Brooklyn was a celebration of all of this.

Back in the big building (and trumping fan interest in SummerSlam in that building the very next night), the show was a celebration of all 'The Game' had built (with WWE backing), presenting a near-perfect mix of indie darlings and homegrown talents colliding in a rare case of wrestling serving every master.

Hunter also achieved something as a booker that he never did as a wrestler too - he crafted something earnestly and truthfully transcendent. Sasha Banks and Bayley might have had a little something to do with it too...

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett