10 Ways The Brand Split Has Changed WWE (One Year On)
7. Premature NXT Call-Ups
NXT has been a reliable conveyor belt for supplying the Raw and SmackDown rosters with fresh talent for years. Seth Rollins, Samoa Joe, Kevin Owens: some of the company’s most important wrestlers have passed through their developmental system, and with the likes of Aleister Black and Drew McIntyre currently killing it on the ‘third brand,’ the future is in good hands.
The past year has seen more NXT wrestlers graduate to the main roster than ever before. Some, like Joe and Shinsuke Nakamura, have made seamless transitions. They were ready for the big stages as soon as they joined the company, and their success was inevitable.
At the other end of the spectrum are the Elias Samsons, Mojo Rawleys, and Carmellas of the world. Each has improved noticeably since joining the main roster, but they’re still several steps behind their peers between the ropes, and left the Performance Center before they’d finished their development.
Unfortunately, the brand split is making WWE increasingly impatient when it comes to NXT call-ups. Their pushes have varied, but each of these wrestlers has struggled to get over at times, as they’ve been forced to learn on the job rather than in developmental.