Why WWE Is Making Its Biggest Long-Term Mistake Right Now

Charlotte Flair Io Shirai
WWE.com

This is an extension of the "separating the art from the artist" debate that most fandoms struggle with. WWE is an horrific company on a moral basis. NXT, once this lovely fan service outlier, is now just another mechanism of its ugliness. It is petty and spiteful and the lack of true storytelling substance bears that out. AEW was meant to sharpen NXT - competition is great because it makes everything better - but NXT has regressed by reacting.

Ratings discourse is making online wrestling fandom a miserable experience. But if this thing all began in a bid to determine the best WWE main roster alternative (it didn't), one side is totally annihilating the other.

That's the lede here.

NXT is longer the alternative if, in fact, it ever was. Charlotte Flair's cynical run in NXT yielded more or less nothing. Io Shirai did not vanquish this great threat from the NXT of old. She beat Rhea Ripley, something she could have done had Charlotte Flair never returned to Full Sail. There was no definitive transition to prove that the modern scene had left the old division in the dust, and it took a lot of anticlimactic, weightless, screwy booking to get there. Dexter Lumis is a cartoonish outsize character who lacks the proper working finesse to fit into the brand. He is a main roster act, if there ever was one. Remember that vignette they ran of KUSHIDA, in which he was framed as NXT's next great babyface hope?

Few others do. Even before the ongoing global situation, he was relegated to also-ran in the Cruiserweight division.

CONT'D...(5 of 6)

Advertisement
In this post: 
Keith Lee
 
Posted On: 
Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!