12 Times WWE Buried Itself
1. NXT’s Golden Era
WWE NXT - the developmental brand designed to feed the main roster monster by the time Triple H up and moved the initials to Full Sail University in Orlando Florida - rarely made money, often struggled to crack the top 10 of most-viewed shows on the WWE Network, and, before an aggressive 2021 retooling, ultimately became little more than a sacrificial lamb to the slaughter when All Elite Wrestling launched in 2019.
And yet it remains a beloved chapter point in the hearts and minds of many a millennial fan. With the 2013-2019 (and particularly 2014-2016) run of the show, Paul Levesque very carefully and competently booked a one hour weekly wrestling show that kept continuity, booked heels and babyfaces in compelling programmes, protected the integrity of its titles and titleholders, and took countless names from a multitude of sources and made them beloved within a system that was fundamentally the sort of wrestling WWE was meant to be, rather than the patched-up zombified version being peddled by an increasingly megalomaniacal Vince McMahon on Raw and SmackDown.
The difference was stark enough for NXT to almost feel like a protest vote by certain fans, despite never shying away from the fact it was a WWE property. It spoke to how far the top shows had fallen that this super-indie operating out of a Floridian university filming space was able not just to run arenas on the weekends of major pay-per-views, but steal every conversation and bit of praise too.
By making a version of WWE so clearly better than the main show but also one that couldn't win a wrestling war, Triple H effectively signed his own corporate death warrant before unforeseen and unexpected circumstances propelled him back into the hot-seat.