I frequently watched it when it was a Network only show, and eventually dropped off when it became the two hour show.
I’ve never stated once Triple H won’t be an improvement.
I’m just saying he’s been a part of this corporation for nearly 30 years. He’s working with a lot of the same players that have been in the same system for varying degrees of time.
I just don’t agree that Raw and Smackdown suddenly becomes NXT of old. That’s my main argument. They aren’t in the business of making that type of product.
What makes anybody believe that Stephanie has a grand vision that is different than her father’s? What makes anybody think Nick Khan has a different vision?
Aside from being more media friendly, I don’t see them as a big difference.
I don’t think Raw/SD become the new NXT either for the record.
I am saying that I think there will be major improvements creatively. I don’t think WWE being a corporation and having corporate goals and having poor creative are mutually exclusive. Poor creative was a Vince issue, and as far as the same people being involved, so? AEW uses mostly people that were involved in WWE as well, at the end of the day when the head of the snake has shitty ideas, it doesn’t matter who’s underneath.
Now could I see a power struggle initially between Hunter and Vince’s right hand men, sure. But unless Vince comes back, I dont see that being an issue long term because they will be fired.
Look at Marvel, would anyone ever say “Well Marvel/Disney isn’t in the business of making a good product, they are in the business of making money”. Of course not, many entertainment properties are ran by corporations. As long the person in charge is good at what they do, they will be fine. Cant be worse then what it is now.
As far as them being involved with things like NIL, they should be. The issue isn’t using Indy wrestlers or using collage athletes, the issue is when you don’t have an open mind and blindly stick to one philosophy which is the epidemy of the way Vince would book.
Creatively it honestly can’t get much worse, but HHH got his ass handed to him by AEW. He is not a miracle worker. So much talent was dropped by the company the past few years and the damage is done.
I don’t think they can get over the three hour RAW obstacle to make that show entertaining every week - it is just not possible.
The three hour Raw is nothing compared to the total 7 hours of TV they have a week. Plus at least one three hour PPV every month. It’s impossible for anyone to make 400 hours of good content a year. At best its mostly “fine” with a couple of strong storylines/feuds sprinkled in so there’s at least two hours of really good content each week spread out across that seven to keep people tuned in.
I’m more than confident that Paul Levesque (which we should call him that now @MarkP by the way because he is an executive, not a wrestler) has some stuff in his sleeve. I’m concerned he might taking up a lot of duties considering his overall health. It might be a lot of days with no sleep. Then again, I say that about Tony Khan too.
And that’s the problem with becoming a publicly traded company that has one goal - to increase profits for shareholders. That’s why there is 7 hours of TV and why they cut so much talent. This ain’t the same company so many of us grew up with. It’s a hungry and never satisfied monster that needs profits
But Steph is not in charge of creative. Again, I dont see the “corporate” nature of WWE changing. I dont see Raw going to 2 hours, I dont see them stopping the idea of pushing out content. What I am hoping to see is guys like Ricochet being used properly, things like the 24/7 title being scrapped, story-lines starting, and finishing properly etc.
I get where you are coming from with Pritchard and Dunn. Hopefully they both get the boot sooner then later.
NXT was forced onto Cable to compete directly with AEW. HHH didn’t fail, he worked on a product that was basically shot in a studio with smaller crowds and little to no support in promoting the product. RAW & SD are better-resourced productions in front of larger crowds. I would look more at the successes of NXT Takeover’s.
NXT was moved to Tuesdays and undermined as a product thereafter.
I don’t see HHH as some kind of savior. But, my experience with WWE since 2016 was that they spend too much time fighting against natural paths to telling stories changing programs, stories, and booking on severely erratic whims, without consideration for long-term planning. Every one of their shows in its current incarnations, in my opinion, are unwatchable schlock. So, any new booking ideologies are a very welcomed change.
Again, RAW & SD are both better-resourced productions. We’ve never seen how those shows work with a different creative vision and scope.
And fan curiosity about the changes could be enough to get people to tune in, in a direct competition that’s enough sometimes.
A good example of that was Vince using Russo and Ferrera when losing to WCW, booking changes, the audiences came back. WCW & TNA tried the same trick but failed them. Speculation is just that speculation.
What if, NXT had a two-year run on USA before AEW was formed? Would Khan have picked Wednesday night? Would AEW have still won?
He also had a seven year head start with zero competition and an unlimited budget. All he did with NXT is take the best talent on the indies and let them do their thing. Anyone could have done that.
Then he gets a little competition and failed completely. I don’t think any of this matters anyways because he will be a stop gap before the company is sold.
He had a VERY limited budget… If the budget was so great, why were they running out of the performance center? Why was NXT signing Indie talent and unable to afford big stars from other promotions? Why wasn’t it a touring brand going from Arena to Arena? Why wasn’t it more heavily promoted and marketed across more platforms?
Answer: Limited budget. Just look at the show, the staging and the talent salaries.
Tony Khan just did all the things you’re saying HHH just did on a different network and under a different name with a bigger budget and the talent that WWE couldn’t sign.
There are too many considerations to say HHH failed, he also didn’t succeed. NXT was and still is booked and budgeted small. It could stand to reason that if NXT was better resourced that it would have been more competitive.
Because all the “big stars” were on the main roster. NXT signed Samoa Joe, Adam Cole, Nakamura, Bobby Roode, Kevin Steen, Riccochet, EC3, Generico, etc. Who did they not sign?!?!
Again, it wasn’t popular enough and couldn’t sell tickets.
Because Vince didn’t like it. But again, it was never that popular to begin with.
NXT and HHH had every opportunity and advantage to succeed but they failed. Bottom line
NXT failed to draw a higher rating than AEW in the 18-49 demographic after it debuted on USA in September 2019. That is a fact. And to WWE as a business it was obviously the key metric that resulted in a change to the leadership and an on-screen rebranding. So if you are a WWE stockholder maybe you think that NXT failed. If that is your only metric then WWE is the greatest company in the world right now with record Billion dollar profits.
But for seven years from the very first TakeOver in February 2014 until August 2021 it put on some of the best wrestling shows, telling the best stories and put on some of the best matches ever. And was consistently the best show week-to-week for years. To say “anyone could do that” really does a disservice to all the people that did work their assess of on screen and behind the scenes to provide that entertainment and be so consistently good for so long. Especially with the albatross of Vince McMahon coming in a picking up random talent forcing creative to constantly pivot.
It did not fail to entertain me and many other people. Even on USA it was often competitive with AEW in total viewership. That’s a win for me and I will remember the black-and-gold era as a high-point of professional wrestling history.
Again, he had no competition. Anyone could have signed Nakamura, Samoa Joe, Roode, Ricochet and done what HHH did.
The show really struggled in the two hour format and never should have left the network. The whole concept also ultimately failed because of how few stars they produced for the amount of money and TV time they were provided.
They got destroyed by AEW. I was a fan of the talent but the whole NXT concept was mostly pointless. It was used to damage other promotions and hoard talent. There were no actual plans for the majority of the people they signed.
Maybe that changes now but the two hour format does not work for developmental
I guess you just forgot about some of the best women’s wrestlers in the world that NXT helped develop. Charlotte, Sasha, Bailey, Becky, Alexa, Bianca, etc. Were they good before NXT? Yes. If they had gone straight to WWE would they have succeeded? Maybe 1 or 2 of them. But NXT’s success rate with the women show it wasn’t a fluke and gave these women an opportunity to be taken more seriously and put on performances that they couldn’t elsewhere. Nobody else was giving women 30+ minutes for matches. It’s still a problem across the industry as WWE main roster has ignored them and AEW only barely fits in their female talent.
And the drop-off in quality was not as massive as you make it seem. You can go back and find that week-to-week there were board members who preferred NXT to Dynamite. And both shows were hurt by the pandemic.
Back to the topic if HHH makes Raw and Smackdown more watchable and engaging then he will have succeeded in my book. Even if it means a drop in ratings and hurts their future earning potential in TV renewals. As a viewer I don’t care about that.
