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NXT Brand Extension?

Hi Scott,

You recently commented on an NXT review that the difference between the Indy names (Owens/Zayn/Balor/Joe) and the Homegrowns (Rawley/Blake & Murphy/Corbin) has become pronounced. WWE is obviously looking to make NXT a touring show. Given that, would a "brand extension" work best for NXT? The touring roster could be the Indy and best Homegrown talents, while the Full Sail crew could be the Homegrowns that are still developing along with a few freshly signed Indy names who are learning the WWE style. This way WWE has another hour of programming for the Network, Triple H can still raise his "baby", developmental can continue on grooming future talent, and us indy fans would have something that we'd like to watch. Or would this just be stretching NXT too thin and cause quality problems? Any thoughts?

Wes

That's exactly what HHH has openly stated is his goal for the product.  And it makes sense -- look at the difference between, say, the Four Horsewomen and Carmella v. Bliss, for example.  Bliss and Carmella work hard and raise the hotness level of the show 15 notches each, but no one expects them to hang with Sasha Banks yet. However, as the upper level of a lower-level touring brand, they'd be great.  I mean, as wonderful as the Indy Five have been for the product, I was fine with NXT as a learning show when the biggest stars they had were Leo Kruger and Tyler Breeze. It's really interesting on a meta level, actually, in that NXT is a show about developing new talent and on a larger level it's a show about learning to develop a new brand and HHH learning how to run a wrestling promotion and learning what works and what doesn't.  

For the lower level touring brand, I wouldn't even put it on TV.  There's so many indy geeks floating around there that you could build an effective ROH-style brand with the Hideo/Balor crew, while someone like Baron Corbin could be the top star of a small-scale touring brand without the pressure of the Full Sail nerds turning on him all the time.  I think it would be win-win.  

Comments

  1. Braden Walker *did* jump to the WWE!

    So did I, but they called me Marquis Corvan

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  2. I think that even works in reverse - say in 2010 John Cena randomly showed up on TNA, would it even matter? I don't think it would've moved TNA any closer to the WWE. There guys are mostly homogenized, home-grown talent that they can plug and play

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  3. I find it interesting that Triple H is doing something similar to what Vince did in 1983-4, build the future of the company around the top stars of the independents/territories.

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  4. I'd call NXT less developmental at this point and more "WWE finishing school" - they have mostly polished talent that are ready for prime time, they're just teaching them to float over to the hard camera for a pinfall - for better or worse.

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  5. Sting debuted in WWE that way, and I think he's the last person who ever will. That era is over.

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  6. AMW is interesting to me because of what an anomaly they are. They were molten hot in TNA for a bit and had great matches. The obvious star was James Storm. Chris Harris jumped to the WWE and one of my favorite things ever was created, Braden Walker. James Storm went on to team with Bobby Roode in beer money, but he was overshadowed. So, how was AMW so good? I'll never understand...

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  7. Funny how two people watch the same thing and have completely different views on things. Chris Harris, to me, was the sure bet star. I would've put money on it.

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  8. Sometimes people working together have a certain chemistry that causes the sum to be greater than the total of the parts. The same is often true for rock bands.

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  9. The thing is that TNA is just so far beneath WWE - it just always seems like a step-down. Angle showing up in TNA was a big deal - but you also knew that the reason he was there was because he was fired by the WWE. Ditto for the Dudleyz, Steiner, the NAO: everyone knew that the reason they were in TNA was because they were fired or couldn't get a job with the WWE. Really, the only guy I can think of who chose to jump to TNA was Christian.

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  10. Same here. I liked them both, but thought for sure that Harris would have been the one to be a singles star.

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  11. Yeah, around the time I started watching/paying attention to TNA (debut on Fox Sports), Storm was injured and they gave Harris a main event-ish push (had a few title matches against Jarrett and I think he was in the first King of the Mountain too). He didn't suck.

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  12. it's very Easy with rspwfaq ... < my classmate's step-sister makes $73 hourly on the computer . She has been out of a job for 5 months but last month her pay was $14417 just working on the computer for a few hours.
    visit > CONTINUE READING

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  13. There was a period where HHH had high interest in Beer Money and for as much as Storm and Roode have been able to accomplish in TNA, I can only wonder if they'd choose to jump if they had the chance to do it all over again.

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  14. and sitcom ensembles

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  15. Sting was also there by choice...dumb dumb choice

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  16. The modern version of this is when Kevin Owens or Sami Zayn show up on Raw

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  17. Fat, Ugly Inner-City SweathogJune 4, 2015 at 4:39 PM

    You even jumped after WCW made you the first black world champion

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  18. Well he never really jumped. Whether or not it was dumb....he seemed to be motivated by reasons beyond money and stardom. I bet Christian looks back and thinks it was a mistake. I don't know if Sting does.

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  19. Not really, because most people don't know who they are.

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  20. The Rock n Roll Express is always my Exhibit A. The Midnight Express is Exhibit 1a.

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  21. Oh, I realize that, but it's still the closest modern equivalent we've got

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  22. That may be, but TNA transformed Sting from a guy who legitimately got me excited to watch wrestling to just another guy.

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  23. I think Joe probably is the closest - he was red hot for a while in TNA and that mystique stuck with him for a while even with TNA's bad booking

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  24. I think in this case it was his age more than anything else. He had a good character at times in TNA.

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  25. but he didn't debut on Raw/WWE proper...I thought that's what we were talking about

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