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

by Michael Sidgwick
Aliyah Robert Stone
WWE.com

Further disqualification finishes; main roster-style distractions; repetitive feuds that peter out with no definitive winner (Tegan Nox Vs. Dakota Kai): bad comedy segments (Robert Stone vomiting): NXT is no longer not your kind.

NXT represented the last connection the most ardent fans had to the WWE product. The aim, remember, was to make WWE the one-stop shop for all of professional wrestling. This unfocused, desperation hot-shot booking is slowly altering its perception. People still watch it, and love it, but a certain group of people have fallen out of love. This isn't good - it is far easier to lose fans than to win them back in wrestling - and those fans were once willing to suffer through Sundays to watch the Network on Saturdays. Without Network viewership data, there's a chance romance is being conflated here with true success, but without NXT, the NXT of 2014-2019, many loyalists will simply give up - if they haven't done so already. NXT was WWE's last great artistic achievement.

NXT represented the last chance WWE had of reaching the coveted younger audience. It used to be cool. NXT with its transparent attempts at oneupmanship is now the da with the bigger shed, and the da with the bigger shed, quite fittingly, watches NXT. NXT was once the soul of WWE, and in tiresome new world in which numbers are debated and spun and flung in all directions, the most important is 21.

That is the number of grams WWE is slowly losing.

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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!