NXT may be the big thing in WWE at the moment, but its not necessarily going to stay that way. Triple H talks a good game about having created a third brand, but its not the reason that NXT exists and if the reward for doing well on an increasingly popular NXT card is to be promoted to a show where creative has nothing (or nothing good) for you, then its a weird incentive package. Its like rewarding the most popular characters on more niche sitcoms like Community and Arrested Development by having them become semi-regulars on a monster hit like The Big Bang Theory. Doesnt make sense when you look at it like that, does it? NXTs status as a separate WWE brand may be a flash in the pan, or it may continue to thrive. One thing about it thats working like gangbusters, though, and looks to continue doing so, is the developmental aspect itself: the reason it was created in the first place. NXT is creating legitimate, well-defined WWE performers and characters out of fair-to-great pro wrestlers. So why not showcase a few on Smackdown before theyre called up? Have them continue to impress on their own show, in front of their small partisan audience... and then every week, take one or two on a field trip to wherever Smackdown is that week, and have them do their thing in front of a large, largely disinterested crowd who may never have heard of them. And dont have them necessarily lose every time youre not training a legion of jobbers! Enzo and Cass might deserve to do the job to a top notch WWE-created product like the Prime Time Players, but the Vaudevillains could and should beat Los Matadores in an exciting ten or twelve minute match. Its brilliant on-the-job training, and it prepares the main roster audience for the sight and sound of these brand new characters and performers. It also reinforces a Smackdown identity separate from RAW, as a place where people take risks and do new things.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
