10 Wrestling Moments That Exploited Nostalgia (And Failed)
7. The DXT Tank
This moment - it's always a goddamn moment with these f*ckin' guys - was pitched as epic nostalgia, but it invited widespread scorn online.
It visualised the shifting narrative surrounding NXT from cool alternative to the one WWE show with good wrestling on it. NXT hasn't felt cool in a while, and this invasion angle solidified everything. Triple H led his NXT troops into battle against the evil forces of the main roster...
...whom Triple H also oversaw in his role as Head of Talent Relations...
...by entering SmackDown on a tank.
Roman Reigns opened the door, and NXT answered, the lowly privates flanked by the Seargent Major, the Game, the Cerebral Assassin, the King of Kings, the God of f*cking War, Triple H, because the sh*t he did in 1998 was of far more importance than anything they themselves may have accomplished.
Their little legs tried to keep up with the tank, and what a not ideal metaphor that was; it looked like they were being hurried along, like obedient children, bent to the authority of Papa Haitch.
They "won" Survivor Series, but the irony of NXT formally becoming the main roster was unshakeable.