8 Biggest Problems Facing NXT Right Now

by John Bills

1. The Pressure Of Following Perfection

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WWE.com

Okay, so perfection may be a strong word, but TakeOver: Dallas was one hell of a show. American Alpha picked up the tag titles in as good a tag match as you'll find all year, Asuka put Bayley's dream to sleep, Shinsuke Nakamura and Sami Zayn had a true MOTYC and Finn Balor continued his dominance at the top. From the opening bell to the last, it was a hell of a show.

Maintaining such a high level of quality is difficult, nigh on impossible even. Somehow, NXT has managed to keep improving their TakeOver specials every time, helped no little by much-anticipated debuts. Dallas had Nakamura, Respect had Asuka, Brooklyn had Apollo Crews and Jushin Liger etc etc.

The specials were also helped by a truly inspiring generational roster, with the first wave of top outside stars coming in to face a generation of performance centre graduates who had received plenty of TV time before the likes of Balor, Nakamura and Aries turned up.

If NXT is unable to continue this incredible run with the next special, the cracks may indeed begin to appear in the brand. Questions about its longevity will arise. As mentioned in earlier points, NXT is a developmental brand, but if you give your audience Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Sami Zayn one week they won't accept Bronson Matthews vs. King Constantine the next.

There are a number of potential bumps in the road ahead for NXT. How it deals with them may give a good idea into how WWE will deal with its own future. Either way, it'll be a fascinating watch.

Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.