the Death of NXT

On September 8th the wrestling world got news that NXT creator Triple H had undergone a cardiac surgery. This would take him completely out of any work within the business as talent was instructed not to contact him for anything concerning the company. Following this change would be what core NXT fans have come to feel were the final days of Triple H’s NXT as we know it. It took time to become clear to fans less in the loop of behind the scenes politics but the changes were happening almost immediately. Samoa Joe had relinquished the NXT championship without real description of the sudden injury he sustained leaving the new management to pick their transitional champion, who became Tommaso Ciampa, the second father of NXT, first as far as in ring was concerned.

Changes

In early December WWE would unveil the “Next In Line” program that would serve to be a direct pathway for collegiate athletes to enter the WWE. This came after rumors that Vince McMahon no longer wanted to sign stars from the independents. The NIL program seems like a great scouting program initially but a small sing of things to come. Shortly after this announcement a statement surfaced that Mr. McMahon no longer wanted NXT to have wrestlers that were “small and over 30”. The combination of mall, over 30, and non independent clarify 2 things; first, is that the NIL program will be a prime source of talent from here on out and second, that nobody in NXT from Triple H’s time met the qualifications for Vince’s new NXT 2.0. Change was no longer an unpleasant rumor, it was upon us.

One by One

After we identified the end of days for the NXT that was, the people that made were weaved into the fabric of what it represented we slowly removed. Beth Phoenix, female commentator and veteran in the women’s division would leave to focus on the next stage of her career, later returning to main roster action. Scotty 2 Hotty NXT trainer and tag team specialist would ask for his release while expressing that he told himself “I would never be part of something solely for the paycheck and that was where I was at.” also stating his love for a past nxt saying “The black and gold brand was something special and I am proud to have been a small part of that.” Scotty would later say on Chris Jericho’s podcast how he felt the level of love and family and spirit that was there in the beginning just wasn’t there and that all his friends seemed to be leaving. These friends were the NXT vets that were either letting contracts run out or being released by frequent budget cuts. Stars such as Johnny Gargano, Kyle O’Reilly, Hit Row, Oney Lorcan and Danny Birch, and plenty more.

A New Years Evils

Somewhat of a culmination of the changes came in the start of 2022, leading up to and following NXT New Years Evil. In the main event was fast rising star and clear new golden boy of NXT 2.0 Bron Breaker, going up against Triple H favorite and one of the lasting members of old NXT Tommaso Ciampa, for the NXT Championship. While the entire premium live event was essentially an event to pass from old to new, this main event proved to be the exclamation point on what this meant for the NXT we had grown to love so many Takeovers ago. Bron’s entrance made the statement more than clear. The black and gold brand was dead.

While Ciampa came out first and gave his quality standard entrance, Bron would come out in chains, chains made to connect to the old NXT logo. Bron would then break these chains to free himself, dusting away the old logo like the snap of Thanos. Not quite hammering home his point, Bron would then kick and/or break through a giant gold X to make his way down to the ring. It was obvious whose time it was now, Bron would go on to defeat Tommaso and give NXT 2.0 a champion that could be the all 2.0 with no ties to what use to be, young and athletic, fresh and not of the indies.

Following these events would be the release of former champion Samoa Joe, trainer Road Dogg and General Manager William Regal who was one of Triple H’s biggest mentors. It seemed as if the last of Hunter’s team was finally done away with. Vince and his men were promptly in charge, Pete Dunn and Tommaso were off TV for a few weeks appearing on live shows possibly being assessed for their next steps, and plans were in place to make sure the NXT we started with, that some of our top starts across the states owe their training to, was never going to be the same. The question is, with this current NXT scoring its lowest ratings ever, was all this the right move, or have we watched something beautiful fall for something lesser to rise from its ashes?