17 Ways WWE Has Changed Since It Was The WWF
12. The Developmental Overhaul
Perhaps the most positive change on this list, WWE’s multi-year malaise was partially plugged by Triple H’s first major move as a company executive.
Seeing first hand how few talents were emerging through an evidently broken system, ‘The Game’ carefully castrated the goose-sh*t green goobers on television until his argument for enforced changed looked solid behind the scenes. Permanently wrestling the keys to the kingdom from John Laurinaitis in 2011, Hunter reimagined the failing Florida Championship Wrestling procedural as a scaled-back version of the equally catastrophic NXT and began transforming that into what was briefly considered the hottest ticket in the wrestling universe.
Part-training school, part-super indie, the black-and-gold brand rapidly became beloved by Orlando natives attending tapings at Full Sail University and viewers thirsty for the sort of Sports Entertainment they weren’t served on the main roster.
A near-perfect product at times, NXT’s only true failing some seven years after inception remains in just how well it nurtures the characters held within. Carefully plotted and planned, the gimmicks and matches delight by design before the main roster monster either sends them into the stratosphere or spits them into the abyss.
It has at least been fuelled by another significant philosophical shift...