One way to combat the lack of wrestling on TV during the off-season would be to make NXT exempt from it. Not only do the talents at the Performance Center need the additional time to continue honing their craft, but it would draw eyes to the future superstars that WWE hopes to promote to the main roster eventually. Only a fraction of the current Raw audience watches NXT something youd never know by the reactions to guys like Neville and Kevin Owens but if you take away the weekly wrestling fix then perhaps more fans will be included to seek out NXT, which in turn obviously benefits Network subscriptions. Think about how popular HBOs Hard Knocks series is. The follow one NFL team through the entirety of their training camp, documenting their ups and downs and giving the audience a glimpse into the players who will or wont be making the team once the season rolls around. The NFL has mastered the art of creating anticipation by keeping their seasons short and involving their fans in every step of the off-season process, such as turning the draft into an event unto itself that draws nearly as much attention as the actual games. Thats a model that WWE should pay attention to. In addition to that, you also make The Network a much more appealing option for fans who are still jonesing for the wrestling during the time off, by continuing to produce original material such as the excellent WWE/24, highlighting the archives and making them seem important and putting out content that stirs up excitement for when WWE returns. Now that weve laid out reasons why an off-season model would be a great idea for WWE to adopt, its time to float back down to Earth and reenter the airspace of reality and explain the three reasons why Vince McMahon will never allow it to happen.
Brad Hamilton is a writer, musician and marketer/social media manager from Atlanta, Georgia. He's an undefeated freestyle rap battle champion, spends too little time being productive and defines himself as the literary version of Brock Lesnar.
