Gonna be real honest, as a Graphic Designer who has taken marketing classes, and who has worked on TV shows for more than a decade, and as a longtime wrestling fan, who has loved wrestling for more than 30 years, NXT 2.0 is almost a perfect example of what NOT to do.
First, let me start by saying that I haven’t watched any WWE programming in more than three years. I think the last PPV I watched and enjoyed from them was one of the Elimination Chambers. I haven’t watched them for MANY reasons, chief among them because they don’t seem to care about the majority of their talent at all, and it seemed (and was proven) that the company was only scooping up wrestlers so that other promotions couldn’t get them, not cause they were at all interested in actually using their amazing talents, let alone pushing them. I mean if you are an unbiased and objective viewer of pro wrestling and sports entertainment, with the number of great indie wrestlers and top talent on the main rosters and developmental that have been released recently due to “budgetary reason” can attest, besides the rumors of the WWE on the selling block, there’s no other reason for this talent to be released other than honestly talent bloat, because of all the superfluous signings. All this amazing talent, many of them hardly ever being seen on TV, are being woefully misused by a company and owner in Vince McMahon that has no idea and no want to use or push anyone who isn’t at least 6’1″ and packed with muscle, because he sees less value in actual wrestling prowess. It’s all about looks to him. Also from having watching the product for 20+ years previous, it’s apparent that Vince’s grasp of what his audience wants and frankly his wrestling acumen in general has faltered badly, and people who actually have their thumb on the pulse of fans of the sport are shunned in favor of yes men and women, who at the end of the day care more about pleasing Vince than actually putting forth a consistently competent product. I love the Four Horsewomen (Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks, Bayley and Charlotte Flair). I love Asuka, Nicki Cross, Shinsuke Nakamura, the New Day, Rhea Ripley, DIY (yes I still call Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa by that name), Indi Hartwell, Io Shirai, Ember Moon, Finn Balor and many others that work for WWE, but I just can’t support this company, because among the many reasons that I have, this is a company that will stifle the natural push of a wrestler’s character, just because Vince doesn’t get it—doesn’t matter what his actual money paying audience thinks. It’s what they’ve done to so many that have walked those halls.
Second, I have a hell of a lot of respect for Triple H and his team that ran NXT during its 1.0 phase. He took a developmental territory promotion dubbed “Rookies”, and turned into a vaulted product that stood on its own two feet and offered top notch wrestling with competent, fun and relatable storylines that made sense. As a wrestling fan, for me, Triple H’s NXT was the top brand in the WWE. Honestly, though I was glad that wrestlers got to follow their dreams and move up to the main roster, it was actually bittersweet, because I loved the solid character development that the team at NXT allow a talent’s character to develop. I say that, because as any objective viewer could see, when that talent moves up to the main roster, it’s a 50-50 chance that said wrestler will actually be used at all, let alone correctly. Also, when that talent moves up to the main roster, Vince and his crapass team of yes men and women always have to put their “two cents” into what that wrestler’s character should be, oft times ruining any type of push that said wrestler is bringing with them from NXT.
I watched some of NXT 2.0, because I wanted to see what Vince’s vision of the developmental brand would be. I have been hearing rumors, and I’ve seen the new logo that my hubby likens to someone vomiting Skittles and making a logo out of it. Frankly, I can’t disagree with his assessment. So, I watched, and honestly was saddened by what I saw. First, they went from a black and yellow/gold logo that dripped prestige and bold renown, to a paint by numbers hot mess garbage one. Though I love old school hip hop from the 70s until about the early 2000s, their new music for the show is that type of commercialize pop hip hop that is dripping with cringe and the stench of pandering to the biased, sheep-like fangirls and boys that WWE aren’t trying to “Shake off.” Also, I don’t know if they meant this or not, but if they wanted the matches and action in the ring to be the focus, they failed miserably. From the first match, I don’t know if it’s because I’m a Graphic Designer who has worked in both the marketing and the TV industries or not, but from the opening bell of the first match between LA Knight and Bron Breakker (the son of Rick Steiner), my eye was not focused on the match at all, because they kept trailing off to all the people in the audience, and the flashing lights that bounced off of the lightly painted walls of this brightly lit backdrop. It’s almost like the TV team (lead by Vince McMahon, Bruce Pritchard and Kevin Dunn) did everything they could to take the focus of the show away from the actual wrestling in the ring. In fact, I found myself on many occasions actively having to force myself to look at the ring, because the action in the ring mostly flushed and mingled in with the people in the audience, and the flashing lights was distracting in a way that I haven’t seen in many wrestling TV shows. Now granted, I haven’t watched main roster WWE in a long time, but the way this show’s set was designed was Bad Design 101. If this is the planned set design going forward, I don’t know—I feel like this will be the type of show that you can listen to the day after on VOD, and just watch the matches of the wrestlers you actually like, but I can’t do it. It’s definitely not going to keep my full attention for a full two hours, and that’s a shame for many of the talent in the promotion, because there are some amazing ones. I will just stick to watching Wrestletalk, Cultaholic or Steve & Larson for the WWE recap. I will say though that the “Wedding” segment was a quirky bit of fun, because I totally feel like Dexter Lumis’s serial killer tendencies will eventually get the best of Indi Hartwell. Also, congratulations to Ciampa for getting Goldie back.
