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NXT is The Wrestling Boom...

905 views 5 replies 5 participants last post by  RiC David 
#1 ·
Has anyone ever come to this conclusion? So many have given their opinions on the next wrestling boom. It's NXT people and it's clear as day to me. My personal opinion is that most fans just don't see it as the next "Wrestling Boom" because they attribute past wrestling boom periods with individuals combined with angles. The Attitude Era, The Ruthless Aggression Era etc.

NXT isn't a single wrestler, it's a developmental show. NXT tours and has it's own PPV's. Most of us can admit that it is indeed something fresh and to a certain extent different than the main roster brands of Raw, Main Event, and Smackdown. The show itself has a combination of old, new, and unknown. Very little is known about the stars that they have currently learning their new trades. The real "Developmental" talents. It's a part of wrestling we haven't had in quite some time. Secrecy. Remember how much of a secret things were before the internet.

You have a little bit of this secrecy going on right now with the true NXT Developmental talents. Yes, they have twitter accounts, pics, and so on. In this day and age the way that these NXT talents are kept "away" is rare. I like not knowing a whole lot about these talents. What did we know about Braun Stowman? He hardly wrestled on television. Yes, he tweets, but that is not in character. Very few right now know much about Chad Gable. Even with as popular as NXT is right now. Most casuals have little to no clue as to who he is.

Quietly with time talents are being groomed without us being able to see their progression every step of the way. NXT has revived divisions in ways that the main roster has yet to achieve. Let me take the NXT Women's Division as an example. That division alone has been better than the Diva's Division for quite some time now. What those reasons are can be disputed at another time, but I think it has a lot to do with NXT being the next "Wrestling Boom". You can't place this idea on just one division, person, or fan base. Yes, the fan base.

Will the majority of NXT fans in the future essentially be a large portion of those who watch the main roster shows? Yes, but here is where I think it goes. Part of being the Wrestling Boom is attracting "new" fans. Something fresh, or new in general should excite a new crowd. The potential that the current NXT has is nearly to the moon. Look at some of the Indy talents that have shown up on NXT. These rare contracts where these outside talents can come in and participate and even defeat a current NXT tag team. NXT has convinced people that it's under the WWE umbrella, but doesn't follow the same rules.
 
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#2 ·
I've only seen bits on and off, but I'm super impressed with the product.

The fact that WWE was able to sell out in Brooklyn for NXT the night before Summerslam speaks volumes, and the response for Sasha v Bailey was amazing. They got pops that half the WWE roster would love to have!

What really impresses me too is the fan passion for the brand itself. They actually chant for the brand 'NXT'. Could you ever in your wildest dreams imagine people chanting 'WWE'?


Calling it any kind of 'Boom' might be too far, but it's going really well.
 
#6 ·
Well the Hogan and Austin eras certainly weren't those then! Highly respected?

NXT is not mainstream yet, of course not. It's been nationally available for what, a year and a half now? They're starting international touring and you can believe my fellow Britons will pack out every arena they go to. Contrast that with how long it took TNA to tour internationally.

ECW (as well as the nWo angle) sparked the wrestling boom. ECW wasn't mainstream, it didn't have to be, it did wrestling a different way that struck a chord and reignited fans' passion. This then changed the way the big companies' products which gave us the mainstread wrestling boom.

People can say "NXT just appeals to smarks" but as soon as someone watches NXT and likes it, they're automatically "a smark". Is Bayley girl a smark or is she a casual? There's nothing casual about her love of Bayley, NXT and wrestling is there? Same with Daniel Bryan - there is not always some divide between what so called "smarks/the IWC" likes and what new fans would enjoy. I could convince a former wrestling fan to go to an NXT show so much easier than I could a WWE show and if I could get them up to date with the characters/personalities, they'd love it and suddenly you'd have another 'smark' (or 'fan').
 
#5 ·
This is exactly what some people have been predicting, specifically Wade Keller who's said for years that (paraphrasing)

"The next wrestling boom period will come not from something revolutionary that's never been done before but from reverting to the basics of what made pro-wrestling work for over a century prior to the Monday Night Wars. Wins and losses mattering, relatable characters that give us a reason to be emotionally invested and a journey to go on fighting for championship titles that mean something.

The next hot product will be one that treats it like a competition and provides its entertainment in matches that tell engaging stories and promos that feel unscripted and unrehearsed. Instead of big name wrestler vs big name wrestler on weekly television, you'll have squash matches to give fans a taste and mid card acts main eventing the weekly TV. Big matches will be reserved for PPVs/special events and they'll mean more as a result without fans being burned out and talent being overexposed"

I'm so glad NXT is proving him and everybody else right. The more TNA and even WWE were moving towards "pulling back the curtain and showing fans the production/the wrestlers putting their match together" the further they moved away from just doing simple, great wrestling.

Some people think "great wrestling" is some sort of philosophical opposite to "great entertainment" or that "great wrestling" means "no talking and no fun". Wrestling isn't a variety show like Vince McMahon insists, it's a fighting and talking show - fortunately fighting and cutting promos provides plenty of variety and more entertainment than a thousand musical interludes and dance offs.



N....XT!.....N.....XT!.....
 
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