• Home
  • Movies
  • Music
  • TV
  • Video Games
  • Wrestling
  • Topics
  • Latest Comments
Search
Cult of Whatever logo
  • Movies
    Featured
    • The Living Daylights: Timothy Dalton as James Bond

      The Living Daylights is still awesome, thirty-five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 28, 2022
      Movie Blogs
    Recent
    • Elvis: Austin Butler

      REVIEW: ELVIS beautifully mythologizes the King of Rock and Roll

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 25, 2022
    • The Black Phone: Ethan Hawke as The Grabber

      REVIEW: THE BLACK PHONE is a flat, dull, rushed non-horror movie

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 25, 2022
    • Jurassic World Dominion Logo

      REVIEW: Jurassic World Dominion – Here we go again…again

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 12, 2022
    • Three Men and a Baby: Tom Selleck and Ted Danson

      Three Men and a Baby is still awesome thirty five years later

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 31, 2022
    • The Bob's Burgers Movie Poster

      REVIEW: Bob’s Burgers The Movie is Bob’s Burgers The Show, which means it’s great

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 28, 2022
    • Top Gun Maverick: Tom Cruise

      REVIEW: Top Gun Maverick is a sequel that soars!

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 27, 2022
  • Music
    Random
    • Elvis 1969 Bg

      Elvis's 40 Year Reign (1969-70)

      By Matthew Martin
      | September 3, 2017
      Music Blogs
    Recent
    • The Beatles: Get Back

      What GET BACK reveals about the Beatles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 15, 2021
    • Simon And Garfunkel at Feyenoord Stadium in Rotterdam1982

      The Boxer is a song about being conned

      By Matthew Martin
      | July 4, 2021
    • Lady Gaga: Chromatica Album Cover

      Lady Gaga’s discography is totally out of order

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 3, 2021
    • Michael Jackson Thriller Album Cover

      Thirty years ago music fans said “Nevermind” to Michael Jackson

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 21, 2021
    • Queen II Album Cover

      On Queen’s The Miracle, and the importance of track ordering

      By Matthew Martin
      | February 16, 2021
    • Linda Paul Mccartney 1976

      50 years ago, McCartney dropped “Lennon” and went solo…

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 5, 2020
  • TV
    Featured
    • Nancy Drew S03e01: Kennedy McMann as Nancy

      Nancy Drew S03E01 Review: The Warning of the Frozen Heart - Uh-oh!

      By Salome G
      | October 10, 2021
      TV Blogs
    Recent
    • Roswell, New Mexico S04e03: Sibongile Mlambo, Lily Cowles and Michael Trevino as Anatsa, Isobel and Kyle

      Roswell, New Mexico S04E03 Review: Subterranean Homesick Alien – Treading water?

      By Salome G
      | June 23, 2022
    • Obi-Wan Kenobi Series: Ewan McGregor and Vivien Lyra Blair as Obi-Wan and Leia

      REVIEW: Obi-Wan Kenobi had a good season and little else

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 22, 2022
    • Evil S03e02: Sohina Sidhu and Aasif Mandvi as Karima and Ben Shakir

      Evil S03E02 Review: The Demon of Memes – Delightfully creepy

      By Salome G
      | June 20, 2022
    • Dark Winds S01e02: Jessica Matten as Bernadette Manuelito

      Dark Winds S01E02 Review: The Male Rain Approaches – Loose threads

      By Salome G
      | June 20, 2022
    • Riverdale S06e17: Madelaine Petsch, Camila Mendes and Lili Reinhart as Cheryl, Veronica and Betty

      Riverdale S06E17 Review: American Psychos – Bored

      By Salome G
      | June 18, 2022
    • Star Trek Strange New Worlds S01e06: Ian Ho and Husein Madhavji as First Servant and Elder Gamal

      Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Episodes 6-7 review (the best and the not-so best)

      By Matthew Martin
      | June 18, 2022
  • Video Games
    Featured
    • Arkham Knight

      Batman: Arkham Knight - A fitting end to a trilogy

      By Tom Farr
      | July 18, 2015
      Video Game Reviews
    Recent
    • Legend Of Zelda

      Can a Legend of Zelda movie work?

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 6, 2022
    • Super Mario 64

      Which system had the better launch: A battle of four Nintendo consoles

      By Matthew Martin
      | December 1, 2021
    • Luigi's Mansion

      Happy twentieth to Nintendo’s underrated gem, the Gamecube

      By Matthew Martin
      | November 18, 2021
    • Metroid Dread

      Metroid Dread – Post Game analysis and sequel needs

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 29, 2021
    • Mario Headphones

      The SNES Turns 30: A look at some of the system’s best soundtracks

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 22, 2021
    • Metroid Dread Poster

      REVIEW: Metroid Dread reawakens the old gamer in me

      By Matthew Martin
      | October 11, 2021
  • Wrestling
    Featured
    • Wwe Payback 2017 Poster 2

      Your SO OF COURSE preview of WWE Payback 2017

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 30, 2017
      WWE Blogs
    Recent
    • AEW Double or Nothing 2022: CM Punk vs Adam Page

      REVIEW: AEW Double or Nothing 2022 delivered an up-and-down show

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 30, 2022
    • MJF on AEW Dynamite 17th November 2021

      Getting AEW to the next level…

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 29, 2022
    • Raw 210501: Triple H and Stephanie McMahon

      May 21, 2001 – A (forgotten) date that will live in WWE infamy

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 20, 2022
    • WWE WrestleMania 39 Logo

      Your WAY TOO EARLY predictions for WWE WrestleMania 39!

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 20, 2022
    • WWE WrestleMania 38 Poster

      Your SO OF COURSE preview of WWE WRESTLEMANIA 38!

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 30, 2022
    • Wrestlemania 31 Paige Aj Lee 2

      BOOK REVIEW: The Women of WrestleMania is a balanced take on an under-valued slice of history

      By Matthew Martin
      | March 16, 2022
  • Topics
    • site logo
    Latest
    • REVIEW: ELVIS beautifully mythologizes the King of Rock and Roll
    • REVIEW: THE BLACK PHONE is a flat, dull, rushed non-horror movie
    • Roswell, New Mexico S04E03 Review: Subterranean Homesick Alien - Treading water?
    • REVIEW: Obi-Wan Kenobi had a good season and little else
    • Evil S03E02 Review: The Demon of Memes - Delightfully creepy
    • Dark Winds S01E02 Review: The Male Rain Approaches - Loose threads
    • Latest Comments

    What’s NeXT?

    By Matthew Martin
    | May 19, 2015
    WWE Blogs

    Big Wwe Nxt Logo

    When NXT began it was more of a gameshow than a wrestling program. Would-be WWE superstars, who moonlighted with the Florida Championship Wrestling developmental territory, would be brought in to compete for a WWE contract. The show replaced the ECW program that had been dying a slow death from the moment a zombie staggered onto the scene. Originally, the “contestants” would compete in everything from juggling to life-size “rock-em, sock’em” battles, while their “mentors” (WWE performers with nothing better to do) presumably advised them on the Pat Patterson way to spin plates on a pole.

    Little did those contestants realize that learning how to juggle is almost as important to Vince McMahon as learning ring psychology.

    The gameshow format brought us winners you may have heard about: Wade Barrett, Johnny Curtis (later “Fandango”) and Kaitlyn, as well as non-winners you know such as AJ Lee, Daniel Bryan and Skip Sheffield (the future “Ryback”). For eight months, NXT on SyFy was this weird show that hardly anyone watched and which didn’t matter to the overall scheme of WWE programming. Then Smackdown moved to SyFy and NXT became a WWE.com exclusive show. It then was watched even less, mattered even less, and basically dropped off the face of the earth.

    To give you an idea about how bizzaro this show was, contestant Daniel Bryan was kicked off because the judges felt he lacked heart.

    That’s right. Daniel Byran lacked enough moxie and go-get-em attitude to make it on the NXT gameshow.

    Db Mania

    lolokay

    The gameshow aspect of NXT continued until early 2012, when it was finally replaced with a more traditional wrestling show, using a mixture of FCW and WWE talent. By August of 2012, FCW was absorbed into the NXT banner, and the beginnings of what we today consider NXT officially launched.

    For the next year and a half NXT went from being this nothing-show that no one cared about to an underground wrestling thing that some of the die hard fans were whispering about. A few months after the new NXT kicked off, a trio of guys from the Florida development program (Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, and Leakee–now called “Roman Reigns”) invaded the Survivor Series PPV and took WWE by storm, dubbing themselves “The Shield.”  A few months later, vignettes started hyping the debut of Bray Wyatt and his cult family, who had last been seen running roughshod over the NXT “universe.”

    2013 Shield Sheamus Dean Ambrose Roman Reigns Seth Rollins

    Wwe 07042014 Wyatt Family 2

    Surprising debuts and interesting personalities have always been around, but in the old days they came from ECW or WCW. Later they came from the independent scene, or from wrestling around the globe with international territories. Here they were all coming from the same place, this little-known-about thing called “NXT.” Fans started to rumble and look into it, though for United States fans you needed a Hulu subscription in those days if you wanted to enjoy it. Then came the WWE Network.

    Then came ArRival.

    What a perfect name for what, for many, was their first taste of NXT. Me personally, it was my first experience with it and I was a fan immediately. I didn’t know anyone apart from Cesaro and a random appearance by Too Cool, but I wasn’t watching it to see guys I knew. I was watching it because it had been hyped as the factory producing the superstars of tomorrow. ArRival featured Sami Zayn, Adrian Neville, Paige, Rusev, Tyler Breeze, Xavier Woods and more, packed into a two hour non-stop wrestling supershow. It was remarkable. I saw one of the best matches I’d ever seen from Cesaro (a guy I was only starting to get into) and Sami Zayn (whom I had never even heard of). I didn’t know anything about their feud that was climaxing with the match, but by the end of it I was floored. I saw the best women’s match I had ever seen (to that point) when Emma took on Paige. And of course I saw a Red Arrow for the first time. There was no better introduction for NXT than ArRival.

    From then on I have been a regular Thursday/Wednesday night watcher.

    As big a seismic shift the WWE Network was for the brand, things didn’t really get crazy for it until a trio of new guys arrived: First there was Hideo Itami, then Finn Balor, and finally Kevin Owens. Three guys with huge indie name-recognition had joined the roster and began tearing the house down on a weekly basis. The show found a new level of awesomeness and each new TakeOver event seemed to get better and better than the one before it.

    Kevin Steen Owens Balor Neville Zayn Itami

    Not only the main event guys, but the rise of the women on NXT added to its appeal. Paige and Emma, as stated, wowed everyone with their women’s title match at ArRival, then Charlotte captured the gold a few months later in a great match with Natalya. Matches with Bayley and Shasha Banks at the next two events brought drama and passion to the matches that “Divas” matches on WWE’s main programming had never come close to having. Then, on the February 2015 TakeOver special, the women had a fatal-four way match that not only stole the show, it was so good it embarrassed the entire company for how poorly women’s matches had been treated in the past and in the present on the main roster.

    Nxt Sasha Banks

    The high fans were feeling from NXT was rightly capitalized on: WWE took NXT on the road for the first time with stops in Ohio and then a big house show in San Jose during WrestleMania week. That was the show that seemed to kick off the next era of NXT.

    ____________________

    And what is that next era? What is NXT becoming? What’s next for the yellow brand of WWE that is more beloved week-to-week than anything on Raw or Smackdown?

    The show is going on the road. The success of the San Jose show has led to NXT making a recent stop in Philly in advance of the Payback PPV. Reports are that the show was just as big of a success as the San Jose show. Most notably was the main event of the show: A women’s title match between Sasha Banks and Charlotte. That’s right: The NXT title match between Kevin Owens, Finn Balor and Tyler Breeze was slotted in the mid-card spot, while the women’s title match closed the curtain. For anyone who isn’t a regular NXT watcher, that seems an absurd thing to do. NXT fans weren’t surprised, however. They were appreciative, certainly, but not surprised.

    Nxt Kevin Owens

    There has been talk of having the NXT talent tour along with the main roster to the towns that host the PPV (though Payback is in Baltimore), and use the publicity of the main roster talent coming to town as a backdoor to getting fans to pay to see the NXT talent too. At the rate NXT is going however, it won’t be too long before fans are shelling out the big bucks to watch Kevin Owens vs Hideo Itami, and treating Seth Rollins vs Randy Orton as the “and also” attraction.

    Beyond that, NXT might do well to tape their shows in smaller blocks. Right now they tape about four episodes at a time and the viewers at home can usually tell which is the final taping, as the crowd is less energetic and the performances a little more sloppy. Not to mention it would help bring the goings-on of NXT closer to the chronology of the main roster shows. Raw is airing live every week, but NXT is taped a month behind it. A more in-sync chronology would make for easier cross-promotion, as a way to draw more Raw viewers to NXT (and therefore, to the WWE Network in general).

    Also, due to the ever-increasing roster size, an additional thirty minutes might be in order. Possibly also a secondary title (something like a TV Title) could be created as a goal for the midcarders to feud over. There’s only so many ways people can have a beef with Baron Corbin. And sure, some fans will complain that NXT doesn’t need to change. Some fans will argue that the spirit of NXT is being lost with the bringing in of these old vets like Rhyno and Brian Kendrick (who, oddly, hasn’t been seen beyond one or two appearances…), and by occasionally leaving Full Sail University (the home of the NXT Arena), but those who say that miss the point: NXT has been changing evolving from the beginning.

    What started out as a stupid gameshow that didn’t know what to do with the talent it had on hand, became a little-cared-about indie promotion that had no importance outside of the greater Orlando area. And then, because sheer talent can not be ignored forever (the cream rises to the top as Macho Man famously said), NXT flourished as the place to “watch wrestling’s superstars of tomorrow entertain you today.” Now, NXT has become so must-see it is simply the place to watch wrestling’s current superstars entertain you. NXT is no longer the future of wrestling. NXT is wrestling. NXT is no longer about what is next.

    NXT is now.

    Share this article:

    Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit

    Tags

    NXTNXT ARRIVALTakeover

    COMMENTS

    Please read our Commenting Policy before you join in with the discussion.

    Note: If you have email notifications enabled, please check your email spam folders to ensure emails are not missed.

    Subscribe
    Connect withD
    I allow to create an account
    When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
    DisagreeAgree
    Notify of
    guest
    Connect withD
    I allow to create an account
    When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. We also get your email address to automatically create an account for you in our website. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account.
    DisagreeAgree
    guest
    0 Comments
    Inline Feedbacks
    View all comments

    You might also like

    • Interview: Prince Devitt aka Finn Bálor

      By Josh Modaberi
      | November 3, 2014
    • No school like the old school

      By Matthew Martin
      | February 15, 2015
    • Big WWE News: Kevin Steen signed to developmental contract!

      By Cassidy
      | August 12, 2014
    • NXT Takeover II Recap: Fatal Four-Way

      By Callum Wiggins
      | September 12, 2014
    • Breaking WWE News: Kassius Ohno Released from Contract!

      By Cassidy
      | November 10, 2013
    • Interview: Martin Stone

      By Josh Modaberi
      | May 25, 2014
    • NXT Takeover: R Evolution Recap: December 11th 2014

      By Callum Wiggins
      | December 12, 2014

    FIND THE TOPICS YOU WANT...

    Wrestling Topics

    Recommended for you

    • REVIEW: AEW Double or Nothing 2022 delivered an up-and-down show

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 30, 2022
    • Getting AEW to the next level…

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 29, 2022
    • May 21, 2001 – A (forgotten) date that will live in WWE infamy

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 20, 2022
    • Your WAY TOO EARLY predictions for WWE WrestleMania 39!

      By Matthew Martin
      | April 20, 2022
    • Money in the Bank and making a main-eventer

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 31, 2017
    • What we want from an AEW video game

      By Matthew Martin
      | May 31, 2021
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy
    • Affiliate Disclosure
    • Cookie Policy and Settings
    • Terms of Use
    • Photo Credits
    • RSS
    All Cult of Whatever articles, logos, illustrations and graphics are copyright CultOfWhatever.com. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. © 2021 CultOfWhatever. All Rights Reserved.
    • facebook
    • twitter
    wpDiscuz