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Shouldn't NXT be considered a failure?

6K views 70 replies 50 participants last post by  -Sambo Italiano- 
#1 ·
As developmental in terms of producing talent and stars? Ok they might have good shows with good wrestling but what has it produced from scratch? OVW produced Lesnar, Cena, Batista and Orton from scratch that blows away anything NXT has done.
 
#2 · (Edited)
AA and TR are the only good overall products to come out of there.

Roman wasn't ready, KO, Zayn, Dean, Rollins and Becky were working the indys so were ready made talents going into NXT.

Enzo (wrestling), Cass (micwork), Sasha (did she work the indys?), Bayley, Charlotte, have all lacked in one department or another.
 
#5 ·
I think it's a little too early to write NXT off yet. A lot of the guys that come through already had big reputations anyway like Balor, Joe, Zayn and Owens. You have to see how they push on in the next 3-5 years to see if they have become stars.

Remember that Cena nearly got released at the end of 2002 because HHH and Vince didn't like him, he didn't leave OVW and become an instant star, it took time.
 
#6 ·
Exactly. At least at first when it was getting full of independent/non-homegrown talent (Neville, Sami Zayn, Owens, ect ect) they were YOUNG. Now the entire card of all their shows are littered with dudes the same age as John Cena.

People defend it saying "It's not developmental anymore!!!!". Well it SHOULD be developmental that was the whole point of it in the first place and they're still portraying it as such.
 
#9 ·
Ohio Valley wrestling was found in 1997 , Got some stars like cena , batista etc u just said , What About finn balor? ok why not, its been just 2 years after NXT launched . It needs time to find some talents. But usually , Is Cena a babyface? He is not.. Aj Didnt Came From Ohio Valley wrestling But how he beats "Your Legends" Like Cena? Played 2 matches beaten cena. Talking about Brock? Well, He is a UFC fighter , If u have muscle doesnt mean he has tactics. When You have tactics the muscle would work ut for ya , UFC does exactly the same i said , .. Yanno what i mean?
 
#12 ·
Cena was trained by rick bassman and lesnar was a worldclass amateur before signing who picked up the basics instantly

Batista and Orton learned far more working nightly with flair and hhh than they did working in ovw. It took them 3-4 years on the main roster to eventually come into their own. Batista, cena or Orton certainly didn't debut on main roster as stars in anybodys eyes took years of super strong booking by Vince to achieve that

Outside those four what did ovw produce.

Remove all the people who came through nxt and rebook this years summerslam and mania and see how you do
 
#14 ·
NXT is now a separate brand designed after Ring of Honor with some developmental aspects. So as a developmental it is in fact a failure. Take a look at the past few NXT champs. None of them needed to be in NXT in the first place except for Bo Dallas and Big E, and they are some of the less succesful NXT champs IMO.
 
#16 ·
NXT has split into two versions of itself. There is the faux indie NXT with all these big indie names on it which does create a really cool show to watch at times with spectacular Takeover events, but doesn't mean it translates to main roster stars, considering these guys were mostly already talented, save for people like Enzo/Cass and Bayley.

And then you have NXT's smaller touring group, who usually sticks to Florida and is really where superstars develop. Look at one of those cards http://www.cagematch.net/?id=1&nr=158985 . Outside of Hideo Itami, the majority there are all works in progress.
 
#18 ·
NXT is absolutely a failure as a D-league. But they're not really a D-league to begin with. They sign indie stars from all around the world, who are ring veterans to come work for them, yet keep them away from the main roster. That's not developmental, that's just making your own indie fed.

It's not really an OVW thing, it was JR. He was a much better talent scout than HHH.
 
#19 ·
One thing that concerns me with NXT is whether or not the Performance Center can create enough variation.

You've got all the talents in the same building doing the same wrestling classes and the same promo classes. If they're having their hand held through the whole process will there be room for someone to be different?

I think a lot of the personalities and characters that were so successful before were in part due to experiences learning the trade and going through tough times to get to the big stage. I'm just not sure you can ever reproduce that in this system.
 
#20 ·
I will never understand why people feel NXT should be about teaching untrained people how to wrestle from scratch. How is that better for the business? Shouldn't you be rewarding those who work hard to get to NXT and WWE. It baffles me how people feel that because someone worked the indies, particularly if they made a big name for themselves, they are somehow not a product of developmental. Developmental serves multiple purposes: one of which is to produce potential talent from scratch, but it is also to fine tune talent, teach them the WWE style and develop their characters. Raiding other promotions of top name guys to develop into WWE guys is not a new practice - that WAS the 80s! The territories are now independents. I for one am much happier when I see an indy guy signed to NXT/WWE and make something of him/herself - they worked for it! And while some from scratch talents may have had dreams of being a WWE superstar, some of them are just there for the job and money (Nothing wrong with that btw).
 
#21 ·
Everyone who has come out of NXT and become a success on the main roster were made stars by NXT, everything they did before that (ROH, NJPW) just layed the foundation of who they were. Most of the wrestling world would have no idea who Tyler Black or Prince Devit was if they hadn't come to NXT and become a star on the main roster
 
#24 ·
Most of the wrestling world would have no idea who Tyler Black or Prince Devit was if they hadn't come to NXT and become a star on the main roster
NXT gave them exposure, but they were ready made talent. Same thing with Owens, Neville, Cesaro, Zayn and guys there now like Nak, Joe, Roode, Aries etc etc. Its not like these guys were a bunch of rookies who needed to be worked on when they showed up.
 
#26 ·
You're bragging about talent who were developed litereally over a decade ago. Cena, Batista, Lesnar and Orton were guys who were in OVW 12-14 years ago, a decade and a half and you're calling NXT a failure despite being a touring brand for less than 2 years? I mean, OVW didn't even tour, it was entirely in Kentucky and they certainly didn't sell our the Barclays centre twice , Dallas and Wembley Arena(in another country). While NXT may not produce someone like Cena, that isn't exactly a bad thing , especially if they can make a few Orton type guys. NXT/FCW alone has developed Ambrose, Rollins , Reigns , Big E , Xavier Woods , and Cesaro are guys who have been with the company for several years. Then to a lesser extent guys like Owens, Zayn, and Neville

OVW had a good class with those names you mentioned, but it'll never happen again. You can't really name many guys that came after them, The Miz , CM Punk and Dolph Ziggler spring to mind. Most of the other guys are forgettable or didn't make that big of an impact. NXT is definitely more successful , maybe not in terms of bringing out a star like Cena or Batista, but the wrestling landscape has changed from 2002 to 2016. NXT is a touring brand, that alone makes it more successful than OVW.
 
#27 ·
The question isn't whether NXT can turn already developed talents into household names, it's proven it's good at that; the question is can they develop performance center rookies into stars? The biggest names to have 90% or more of their wrestling training be in FCW or NXT are Reigns, Big E, Bray Wyatt, Rusev, Enzo and Cass, Charlotte, Jason Jordan and Chad Gable. That's not a half bad list and once you add in people who needed serious refinement like Rollins, AJ Lee, Kofi, Xavier, Bayley, Sasha, Paige, Dash and Dawson and I think they've proven their ability to make mostly homegrown stars.

The problem is that it seems to be less of a focus than pushing older stars who either don't need development or aren't required to develop because they have big names already and even bigger contracts. Balor needed some refining but wasn't required to do so neither is Asuka or Itami and now the CWC guys get to skip NXT completely.
 
#31 ·
NXT has been doing bad since Itami or Bàlor, that's when they started the whole indy stuff. In the Main-Event for the last Takeover, the younger talent was Shinsuke Nakamura who is 36 years old. That's not a star you can actually build. Just put him on the main roster because NXT isn't going to make him better, same for Austin Aries.

Any Finn Bàlor promos should be enough to see that NXT isn't that great. The point of a talent like him should be to work on his mic-skills because it's obvious that he is where he was the weakest and he sounds like a rookie on the mic. Seth Rollins of all people buried him on the mic.

That's why The Revival or American Alpha are awesome, because what they did before the WWE doesn't matter, it's all about what they are doing now, we saw them improve to be some of the best tag team in the WWE
 
#40 ·
Okay so there are a few things that you are missing. Here's a brief timeline to help you compare OVW with NXT properly.

*OVW opens in 1997
*Brock Lesnar is the first star to debut on the main roster in 2002 (5 years later)
*Brock Lesnar is the first OVW guy to win the world title 2002 (5 years later)
*Randy Orton wins the world title 2004 (7 years later)
*Batista & John Cena win their world titles 2005 (8 years later)


*NXT opens it's Performance Center 2013

Start this thread in 2018 and we can then compare what NXT original talent looks like, will they have a Brock Lesnar by that point? Probably not to the level of what he's become now but I'm guessing they'll have somebody to the level that Lesnar was back in 2002.

Then start this thread in 2021 (8 years after the opening of the Performance Center) and we'll see if they have 4 guys like Orton, Cena, Lesnar & Batista were at that stage in 2005. Another key point to remember that in 2005, these guys were decent but they were nowhere near as good as they are today (with the exception of Lesnar.)
 
#48 · (Edited)
And of the two, Bray has been placed at the bottom of the totem pole to ever be a main eventer, and Roman is the biggest flop as a top star in the history of the company. It's way worse than Luger in 94. But NXT isn't about developing talent, it's about making Triple H popular with smarks, and mission accomplished. They turned the person most hated by smarks into their hero. Give them credit for manipulation, as bad as they are at creative. NXT is a money loser for WWE, they don't make back what they sink into it. It's purely a way to give Triple H a niche brand for smarks to worship him for. And they're losing even more money by keeping guys like Joe and Nakamura down there WAY too long, when they could be making money for WWE today, instead of dwindling their career down piece by piece and shortening how long they can be on the main roster.
 
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