NXT has been the landing page for the smarks all around the world for some time now. For the people who are really vexed with the mainstreaming of content in the WWE, NXT has been an absolute boon. NXT, with its mainstream free content, has captured the hearts of millions of fans and has made a huge impact in the wrestling community of late. But, is that dreamland going to be demolished soon?
Recently, there are speculations floating around that NXT might be soon coming to an end. The developmental brand could possibly fold to give way to the brand split that has been making waves among the wrestling community now. Though there is no clear indication that NXT will end, these rumours may have some grain of truth if you consider the following reasons.
These five reasons may stand alone when we look overall. But when we bring them under one roof, the result might just hint a major shocker we can receive in the upcoming weeks.
#5 Triple H’s cryptic tweet and the lack of advertisement
Let’s get the obvious one out first. This whole debacle started with Triple H’s cryptic tweet. The following tweet by Triple H kickstarted the whole speculation.
As you can see, this might probably be an reference by Triple H to indicate that the developmental brand might be coming to an end. Though this seems more like a marketing stunt, combine this with the fact that WWE.com recently removed TakeOver: Brooklyn from their scheduled events and this might just make sense. TakeOver: Brooklyn was scheduled to take place after the date when then brand split will come into effect.
Moreover, the final advertised dates for NXT’s live events too end just before July 19, which is the date the brand split will come into effect. One might argue that WWE would have felt announcing dates after July 19 would be too early in advance to announce. But, it stands to reason that there might just be a possibility that the developmental brand will be no more.
Below are last advertised dates for NXT live events.
#4 The lack of roster depth to support Brand Split
This is the next obvious reason that might hint at a possible end to the developmental brand. In short, there are not enough Superstars on the main roster to support two separate rosters. So, it is obvious that there will be more main roster call-ups once the brand split comes into effect. NXT will undoubtedly flushed to support the brand split and make two seriate rosters for two shows.
Combine that with the fact that NXT in itself doesn’t have more than a handful of superstars. So if the call-ups are made, the NXT roster would be completely depleted. And without a doubt the remaining players would not be major names in the brand. So, the possibility of NXT surviving this flush are slim.
With most of the talents that supported the brand and entertained the fans called-up, NXT would only be a collection of green talents. WWE may use it to train greener talents who have been selected in the tryouts. But the NXT that entertained us will be gone.
#3 Rumored change in plans for Bayley
The another major concern that WWE faces now is that they don’t have a proper female roster. I agree that the talent in the women division is at the highest point it has been in the recent times. But, apart from Charlotte none of the talents have been built. The other female superstars have been inconsistently booked and only one more major name remains that hasn’t lost its charm – Sasha Banks.
But two seriate rosters can’t run on two superstars. So, the most probable solution is to call up NXT talents. The NXT female roster is as sparse as the built talents in the main roster. Also, there have been speculations about Bayley recapturing the title. Regardless of whoever wins at TakeOver, both Asuka and Jax have been built up by the company until this point. And if WWE plans to take the title away from them quickly, it will surely hurt them.
The only reason for WWE to do is that both of them are not over with the main brand fans like Bayley. If WWE is planning to bring the title to main roster, they need someone legitimate to carry it to the main roster and hence they would be looking for Bayley to bring it instead of the others. And this might just solve the title problem the women’s division has too.
#2 Hiring top tier talents
When we note WWE’s recent hirings, many of them are major names from other names. To simply put, WWE has been consistently hiring main event talents from other promotions instead of grooming their own talents. There could be only one reason for it. WWE is looking for established Superstars and they don’t want to spend time in creating a Superstar.
This looks as if WWE is planning this for a long time. Bobby Roode, Eric Young, Samoa Joe, Finn Balor, Austin Aries and Shinsuke Nakamura can readily be placed in the upper midcard of the two rosters and effectively put to use against the talents like Zayn, Cesaro, Styles, Owens, Ambrose and various others who are currently occupying that spot. This just hints that this has been long time coming.
#1 Backstage heat between Vince and Triple H
And at last we arrive to this. It is a well known fact that Vince McMahon is the ultimate decision maker when it comes to WWE. He can pull the plug or support a Superstar’s push just because he feels like it. And it is also well known that NXT is the brain child of Triple H.
There has recently been a lot of speculations about how Triple H and Vince are not on the same page anymore. It was rumored that Triple H was against Shane facing The Undertaker at Mania. But, Vince was adamant with it and even wanted Taker to lose to Shane. But, Taker refused and it has created some friction between the duo too. It is also rumored that Vince and Triple H have had several arguments since then.
It is also known that Vince is not high on NXT. He feels the product to be not upto the mark. The recent call-ups had not made a major impact apart from Enzo and Cass and this is also making Vince unhappy with the product. It is even said that he doesn’t understand why fans are behind Zayn and is not that high on Owens.
Combine all this, and you can feel that dreadful feeling creeping upon you if you are an NXT fan. Let’s pray that Vince doesn’t pull the plug on the developmental brand. Even though it might be awesome to watch Nakamura, Balor, Joe and others on main brand, the cost may not be worth it this time.
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