WWE NXT

Popular as the developmental division of the company, WWE NXT is their third most popular professional wrestling promotion. It was started with an intention to create a space wherein the WWE wrestlers can undergo the complete training before being drafted on the main roster.

The Executive Vice President of Talent, Live Events and Creative for WWE, Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque has been the mastermind behind WWE NXT since 2013. He plays a major role in the decision regarding every aspect of the yellow brand. The promotion currently operates under William Regal as their General Manager.

Within few years since its inception, WWE NXT was successful in building its unique identity and became popular as a brand across the wrestling fraternity. In fact, the talented WWE NXT roster as well as high quality wrestling and engaging storylines are considered at par with WWE’s flagship show, Monday Night RAW and SmackDown Live.

Initially, WWE had Florida Wrestling Championship (FCW) serving as the official development territory for the WWE. The FCW was then rebranded in June 2012 and the promotion started organising wrestling events under the name NXT.

NXT Arrival was their first ever two-hour special event and it was broadcasted LIVE on the WWE Network. Soon, these two-hour specials started featuring regularly on the company’s network.

The Florida based wrestling promotion was moving towards unimagined success, one step at a time. In 2015, NXT organised its live events outside Florida for the first time. Not only that, the yellow brand’s enormously popular NXT: Takeover also crossed the international boundaries when pay-per-view was held in London.

In its early days, NXT was quite different from the self-sufficient brand that it became over the years. Back in 2010-2012, the shows were recorded at SmackDown venues. These tapings were broadcast via the WWE Network. Since the show was taped before SmackDown, the venues kept changing every week.

However, in 2012, WWE NXT was revamped and the tapings were moved to the Full Sail University. The new venue became popular as Full Sail Live. WWE NXT are shows are of two kinds. The regular one-hour show is pre-taped and is broadcasted on the Network. Their two-hour special Live shows are produced as a part of the Takeover series. These shows usually precede any of WWE main roster PPV.

WWE NXT has produced several wrestlers who went on to have an incredibly successful career on the main roster. The show has its wrestlers battling it out for four championship belts. The first is the WWE NXT Championship. It is the most important title of the yellow brand and was first won by Seth Rollins.

“The Architect” had a massively successful period in the NXT both as a single wrestler and as the member of the infamous “The Shield”. Samoa Joe and Shinsuke Nakamura are the only wrestlers who held the Championship more than once (Both these Superstars had two reigns as the NXT Championship). Joe’s second title reign lasted for only 14 days making it the shortest time period for which the title was held. Finn Balor, however, holds the record of the longest title reign that lasted 293 days.

This championship is currently held by Andrade “Cien” Alma who won it after defeating Drew McIntyre. 

NXT Tag-team Championship is yet another major title in the yellow brand. Adrian Neville and Oliver Grey were the inaugural NXT Tag Team Champions as the British Ambition. Currently, the Tag Team Championship is held by the Undisputed Era including Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly.

The Ascension formed by Conor O'Brian/Konnor and Rick Victor/Viktor has held the Tag Team Championship for the longest period of time. Their title reign of 344 days is almost seven times the shortest reign in the Title’s History. Luke Harper and Erick Rowan of the Wyatt Family have held the title for 49 days and it is the shortest time period for which the title was held by any team.

Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson’s The Revival is the only team to have two reigns in the Championship’s history. 

WWE NXT indeed did a brilliant job in preparing the wrestlers for their main roster debut. The likes of Finn Balor, Seth Rollins, Alexa Bliss, Chrlotte Flair, Big E, Samoa Joe, Kevin Owens and many more can be credited to their time in the developmental territory. These wrestlers made a big name for themselves on WWE RAW and SmackDown and came out as stronger than ever.

This might not be true in the case of few wrestlers who could not find their deserved success on the promotion’s flagship shows. However, the success to failure ratio still speaks highly of the incredible job that WWE NXT does in terms of training the future Superstars.