12 BRUTAL Wrestling Ribs That Made It To Live TV

4. An Eye For An Eye, A Shovel For A Shovel

There might be some conflation here, between the rib and punishment, but is it possible to interpret NXT 2.0 as anything other than a mean-spirited assault on every sacred ideal held by Paul Levesque?

His vision for NXT had been comprehensively squashed by Tony Khan’s AEW. The Wednesday Night War, after a few competitive early battles, soon became a massacre. The idea of NXT as the babyface alternative brand was embarrassed by 2020 - necessitating a complete philosophical reset.

Triple H presented the mewling death throes of ‘Black and Gold’ in the bleak, small-time confines of the ‘Capitol Wrestling Center’. There, a bunch of fading hardcore darlings, playing tweeners and dressed in black trunks, worked countless forgettable overlong hard-hitting matches. The entertainment value was nil; the purpose, in light of AEW’s invincible era, utterly lost. 2.0 was a reprimand masquerading as a deranged, sex-obsessed TV show.

Triple H’s heavy metal logo?

Gone, replaced by a garish splash of multicolour.

Triple H’s heavy metal theme?

Gone, replaced by a bright hip-hop show opener.

Triple H’s prized indie guys, who you could argue were signed and pushed to make him look hip?

Gone, replaced by occupational gimmicks and muscular greenhorns in the John Laurinaitis mold.

Hell: this punishment was so unsubtle that Bron Breakker broke a prop of the old NXT logo in half when making his entrance.

There’s no way this was what Levesque wanted. It’s more likely that he actually didn’t want to sign Will Ospreay, and wasn’t just pretending to save face.