With WWE Raw suffering a seemingly never ending run of low ratings, the WWE has taken an interesting approach to what appears to be an effort to help their flagship show and NXT, and it involves constant crossovers.
For many, having some semblance of continuity in the storylines and a stop to the constant gimmicks like triple threat and fatal four ways would help, but it looks like injecting fresh talent is their way to go.
For the last couple of months we’ve seen AJ Styles get into a feud with Grayson Waller, and now Dolph Ziggler (with help from Robert Roode) went through Tommaso Ciampa to get a shot at Bron Breaker and the NXT Championship next week.
Crossovers were meant to happen
According to Dave Meltzer on Monday’s Wrestling Observer Radio, the plan when NXT was reimagined into NXT 2.0 was to have a main roster talent involved on NXT constantly and for the exchange to go between the shows.
The preference was for the superstar to come from Raw in what was meant to bring more viewers to NXT 2.0, and we think it also goes for Raw and their low ratings.
It’s an interesting strategy since the old fans of NXT preferred that brand to the main brands, as did many critics.
But since Vince McMahon and Bruce Prichard wiped away Triple H’s work and legacy to replace it with a true developmental brand those fans mostly left while main brand fans drifted in.
At least, that’s what commentary on social media the last few months have made it seem like.
It makes sense since NXT 2.0 is being produced by Prichard, who also produces Raw and Smackdown and Vince overseeing all three. IN the end, NXT 2.0 is a copy of the main brands and it shows.
Trying to create a flow
While NXT 2.0 has been on the Syfy channel for the ratings disaster that was the Winter Olympics, their ratings dropped 25.36% from the Vengeance Day special the year before and the key 18-49 demo dropped 31.25%.
By establishing a flow of wrestlers between the two shows, it’d get fans tuning into both to see what’s going to happen, in essence helping both shows.
It’s also interesting that the WWE is bringing back the Saturday Night’s Main Event name for two post-WrestleMania house shows to draw fans in for the Raw brand, and subsequently NXT 2.0.
We’re guessing that since Raw is receiving the majority of other show support that Smackdown is considered safe as it’s their best show.
We’re curious if the crossovers are going to involve more than two people and how much more frequent will they be as the WWE tries to prop up their struggling show.
Things are definitely going to be interesting going forward.
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