9 Ups & 5 Downs From Last Night's WWE NXT (Sept 18)
Downs...
5. The More Things Change...
The discussion on the future of WWE has always been underpinned by the belief that Triple H will miraculously be the change fans have wanted from Vince McMahon for years whenever The Chairman finally shuffles off this mortal coil or somehow elects to give him the reins.
As NXT kicked off a brave new era for the brand, there was an old familiar stink of how this company insists on launching shows - from the top down. When McMahon bought WCW, his one and only Nitro opened with his face. When the daft b*stard launched a football league the first time, he had The Rock start things off with a promo. Even within NXT, 'The Game' has been guilty of this before, but with the black-and-gold brand it's a bigger crime.
The message, subtle as it might be, is that this world only works because big rich tw*ts at the top allow it to be so. This brand, more than any under the umbrella, should feel like a ground-up movement full of revolutionary forces changing the world. It won't happen again, but an egotistical slap in the face wasn't all that welcome.