It's Official: WWE NXT Has Jumped The Shark

Priest and Dijakovic at one point tumbled theatrically into an exhausted double pin. Whomever agented that spot clearly had no conception of how stupid it might have looked with no fans in attendance. It was a spot you'd never see in a shoot, and the more realistic or stiff matches have worked best in this environment. That the main roster agents have grasped this first is quite the indictment. This looked like an obvious performance for nobody. It was as if NXT - once the knowing antidote to the main roster - has now also encased itself in a weird bubble.

NXT clearly has no interesting or congruous ideas with which to adjust to the empty arena environment - and that is because this team has few new ideas at all.

The run on USA has lost steam. The hotshot booking was always going to lead to this dead end. NXT went big and went big early in a reactive fit. A sense of desperation permeated everything. The brand pit its most popular babyface, Matt Riddle, in an NXT Championship match against Adam Cole in the very first head-to-head segment against Dynamite. Where else was there to go?

Short of real imagination or a trust in itself to map gripping long-term stories, NXT continued its heavy artillery assault. Ladder matches, as an example, were booked to gain the WarGames advantage in what was genuine Vince Russo-adjacent overkill. And if the story beats were not wildly over-the-top, they were ritually dry. How many times have we seen a rival emerge on the entrance ramp to stare down their opponent?

CONT'D...(5 of 6)