NXT: How the mighty have fallen

[Dom]

I lost interest in NXT once the Diva's season began, just couldn't handle it. I've watched a few things here and there on WWE's YouTube page from the current season, and I was actually pretty impressed. Much to my surprise, Johnny Curtis and Maxine have proven to be two great talents, didn't think either of them had it in 'em. Bateman's always been a favorite of mine, same with Curt Hawkins, so I'm glad to see them get some screen time.

I am however really pumped for this Full Sail project, and I'm MUCH happier with NXT in that format. It'll be great to see FCW talent I've heard a bunch about, such as Rollins, Woods, Rotundo, Ohno, Ambrose if he isn't called to the main roster, etc. Better than weeding through random FCW videos on YouTube.

 

[Troy]

I stopped watching after Season 2. The first two seasons were good but you could see that it was going downhill and WWE booking a Divas season didn't really help the show at all since most of them were very green. The issues I had with the show early on were the ridiculous challenges that had nothing to do with wrestling. The declining returns as the show went on in terms of talent produced showed that WWE started running out of top developmental talents to put on the show and also that their interest declined as the shows ratings declined.

What NXT ended up being was an inferior version of WWE ECW. That show was fantastic and did a much better job at creating new talent for WWE and also at reviving careers. CM Punk, Sheamus, Evan Bourne, Kofi Kingston, Jack Swagger, Ezekiel Jackson and more all debuted on the show. Mark Henry, Big Daddy V, John Morrison, The Miz, Christian, Bobby Lashley had quality runs there which helped to revive or boost their careers. I am probably missing some but it shows you how well they did at bringing through new talent and mixing them with veterans. It drew highers ratings that NXT ever did and created more stars so it was a massive mistake to drop ECW for NXT.

 

[SAL]

Well of course it hit a point of diminishing returns. WWE didn't have a bottomless pit of potential superstars. They threw their best guys into the first season (and gave them a huge angle on Raw), then their next-best guys on season 2, and then scraps from there. I'll echo the sentiment that's winning in this thread: NXT is much better off now that they've changed the format.

 

[Troy]

WWE has plenty of talent in FCW that could have been on Season 4 or 5 of NXT that were a lot better than the guys that they picked. Bo Rotundo, Richie Steamboat, Seth Rollins, Xavier Woods, Peter Orlov, Brett DiBiase, Damien Sandow were all guys that could have been selected for one of the seasons but they decided to keep some of that top talent away and instead went with some lesser talents that haven't progressed.

 

[Dale]

The main problem was that there wasn't any sort of break inbetween each season so we were just being fed rookie after rookie that the audience for the most part didn't give a shit about.

 

[The Cork]

Season 2 was prol the worst, IMO.

All the dumbass tasks and just crap wrestlers like Eli Cottonwood and Titus O Neil.

Season 3 was the best just for Punk and Cole on commentary. Everyone crows about Heenan at the '92 Rumble but he didn't have shit on those two.

 

[Kiffy Lube]

Low Ki won Season 2 so I'd say based off that it should be good but I didn't watch much of it. Low Ki deserves so much more.

 

[Troy]

The main problem was that there wasn't any sort of break inbetween each season so we were just being fed rookie after rookie that the audience for the most part didn't give a shit about.

I agree it would have been better if they booked one each six or twelve months so that there was a decent break in between. I hope that if they run NXT on the Network that they book it like Tough Enough where it lasts for X amount of weeks and then there can be a break before the next season starts.