It's Official: A New Era Has Begun In NXT
Empty Full Sail is a challenge to promote a heated two hour wrestling show in, but WWE are the market leaders of a market that has (for better and worse) found ways to adapt, so that excuse only stretches so far. March saw the world sent inside, but NXT's weekly show had been on a significant decline from December's peak before then.
TakeOver: 31 - from its branding through to the eclectic but excellent choice of main event - feels like a conscious effort from Triple H to reclaim a bit of control from the two-pronged pressures brought forth by Network television and his dotty old in-law.
That number, 31, is nothing and yet absolutely everything. It doesn't announce itself as an obvious theme, like a thirtieth anniversary or a mid-'90s Floridian house. It doesn't try to make good on bad times, be they in or out of the company's control. It does, however, continue a tradition the Chairman himself insisted get the axe on the main roster right around the time the golden era of NXT shone brightest.