Why AEW Is Beating WWE At Its Own Game
NXT 2.0 is a disaster.
The show isn't all-time bad - the complexion of the modern pro wrestler makes that impossible - but also, it's quite staggeringly bad and woefully unfit for purpose. Unless you're a blinkered bad faith AEW fan, you can't possibly resist the aggressive pumped-up energy and crunching power game of Bron Breakker, but that's about as promising as WWE's outlook gets, realistically. Carmelo Hayes is amazing, so assured and cool. He has no right to be as cool as he is in that context. It is remarkable. But Vince is going to say "Where's the rest of ya, pal?" when he's brought up for a SmackDown dark match, and that will be all. Already, NXT 2.0 has failed dismally in the ratings. It is low-quality programming that is so obviously performed by green prospects on a desperate, small-time stage that someone like AJ Styles can't pop a rating when he's parachuted in. The brand regularly posts record lows, is often defeated in the Nielsen ratings by re-runs of procedural dramas, and its top heel social media influencer character, while good in the role, has a four-figure follower count on Twitter. Demonstrably, nobody gives a sh*t about WWE's future, and the acts tasked with forging it aren't bringing the numbers.
In what is the biggest indictment of NXT 2.0 - the very future of WWE, and one that Vince McMahon or at least his closest lieutenant actually endorses this time - has a worse developmental programme than AEW.
AEW does not have a formal developmental programme.
CONT'D...(3 of 6)