8 Ups And 2 Downs From WWE NXT (Aug 10)

How do you even start to unpack this week's show without first discussing the abrupt drama which began to unfold on Friday night.

In the wake of a staggering 13 NXT stars being given their marching orders mid-way through Friday Night SmackDown, news of Vince McMahon feeling that the black and gold show was in need of a revamp began to do the rounds. According to these reports, gone will be the days of "midgets" and folks being hired in their 30s, in their place will be the more old school approach of drafting in younger, bigger, and more "main event"-worthy talents of tomorrow. Nobody will argue against NXT needing an injection of youth right now, but taking away the sort of worker that Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa can attest to being completely in place of deeply green juggernauts? This could be trouble.

Thankfully, this revamp is also rumoured to extend to production too, with the brand set to change-up its logo and even experiment with new lighting and staging. Here's hoping that means the end of the painfully stale CWC.

When it came to last night's show, put on by a locker room apparently at a morale all time low, the action was about as thrilling as we've come to expect of the committed dudes and dudettes that call NXT home. Barbaric main events were complimented by beautifully explosive openers, and not even a painful first date could derail the fun.

So for now, we'll do our best to put aside the fact that WWE have once again cut loose a ridiculous amount of talented individuals and seemingly reverted to type, and assess what was otherwise another exciting edition of Tuesday night drama.