15 New WWE Talk Show Concepts For 2021 (5 For Each Brand)

NXT has something here, but it might require an adjustment or two.

It seems mad to make this recommendation, given how casually and how often TNA/Impact Wrestling has borrowed from WWE's angles of the past, but perhaps Timothy Thatcher could take a page from the Impact Zone's playbook. Does anyone remember Gut Check? Vince McMahon's go-to guy Bruce Prichard does.

For those who don't, Gut Check was a program that recruited new talent and weighed their prospects based on in-ring ability and promo skills before ultimately putting them to the test in a match against a full-time superstar. Once the match concluded, they would go before a panel of judges in hopes of being rewarded with a contract.

Thatcher is tailor-made to be the hard-ass judge/opponent of this regular segment. The panel would be rounded out by Matt Bloom and Sarah Amato, the head trainers at the now-Capitol Wrestling Center, therefore opening the tryouts to everyone. Every time a new "class" of recruits is announced, Thatcher and company line up opponents for what amounts to an open challenge. There are even a few former Gut Check graduates on the current NXT roster that could pay it forward as gateway opponents to the contestants. Each is provided a ten minute period to either hang with or defeat their opponent, be it someone on the roster or Thatcher himself, in which case Triple H is on standby with a full-time contract.

Basically, it's Tough Enough with weeks of nonsense chopped out.