10 Times WWE Turned Trash Into Treasure
1. NXT
The original game show version of NXT wasn't a mere affront to pro wrestling; it was a caricature of sports entertainment.
Several rookies - some perceived as genuine prospects - were ritually embarrassed by WWE in what felt like the onscreen destruction of Vince McMahon's patience. If they can survive this bullsh*t, they can survive anything! was, maybe, who the f*ck knows, the rationale here. It took the most raucous RAW angle of the decade just to salvage those eight men from the scrapheap, and then SummerSlam 2010 happened.
The preposterousness continued unabated. Microphones were thrust into the faces of the damned; no bullet points, only bullet holes. The competitions became even goofier. Michael Cole suffered several misogynistic conniption fits before abandoning the show altogether at the season three mark. The show designed to highlight the future instead stigmatised the future as utterly hopeless. It was an insane proposition.
And then NXT became even more insane. It became the critically-acclaimed pro wrestling component of WWE's sports entertainment empire.
Triple H assumed the reins from John Laurinaitis, and reinvented developmental as a brand in which talent ideally developed, instead of wrestling in front of posters in gyms. Trips pushed the talent the fans wished to see (Neville), pushed talent we didn't know we wanted (Bayley), and reimagined NXT as an Independent-styled league with glamorous, corporate backing. It was the best of both worlds, only nowhere near lame enough to warrant that. F*cking. Network advert.
Moral of the story: unless Mitsuharu Misawa and Kenta Kobashi are involved, don't let Johnny Ace near anything.