For the longest time under Triple H’s leadership, NXT was considered the unofficial third brand of the WWE, with fans and critics often preferring it to the main brand shows Raw and Smackdown. It had a grittiness and old arena feel that took us back to the old school days of the 70s, 80s, and 90s.
And then it was moved off of the WWE Network and onto USA where it was placed across from the fledgling AEW Dynamite.
WWE’s Nick Kahn Looking to Establish NXT as Third Brand for a Better TV Deal
Outside of a couple of wins, NXT lost the Wednesday Night Wars and Vince McMahon took over and rebranded it as NXT 2.0 and went from the dark black and yellow to a cartoonish spray paint infused show that hoped to draw in a younger audience.
And when Vince “retired” Triple H changed it back exactly one year after the rebranding did little to nothing to prove itself.
Developmental brand no more
The reasoning for Vince taking it over was the original vision of NXT was to be a developmental brand to create WrestleMania main eventers and bolster the main brands, not become a third brand as it did.
Now, it looks like the push to make NXT a third brand is well underway and its reportedly Nick Kahn’s idea.
Various main brand stars have been appearing there semi-regularly and the World Heavyweight Champion Seth Rollins is expected to put in a few appearances.
The WWE is even merging NXT and WWE Women’s tag titles in one to further enhance the show’s image to get a better TV contract.
Dave Meltzer talked about this strategy on Wrestling Observer Radio. Special thanks to @the_wrestling_news2 for the transcript.
“I mean, the deal is that this is a Nick Khan thing, you know, bring… like, they had Dana Brooke, which is no big deal, but still. [Baron] Corbin. Bring more main roster stars to NXT every week, boost the ratings and try to boost the price for a renewal from USA Network because the ratings are higher. So, that’s the strategy that they’re going with. That’s why you’re going to be seeing more main rosters stars, and [Nick Khan] said it a couple of weeks ago that the plan is to put more main roster stars on NXT and make it a third brand and not a developmental brand. Which is funny, because [Triple H] wanted [NXT] to be a third brand and they nixed him and made it a developmental brand. But that’s not a surprise. Things, like they say in WWE, if there’s a new rule and it’s stupid, don’t worry, because it’s all going to change.”
We agree with Meltzer on this as it appears that’s what Tony Kahn is doing, and it remains to be seen if Shawn Michaels can book NXT to the level it needs to be at with the main roster stars.
No pressure or anything.
What do you think about NXT being a third main brand instead of a developmental brand? Let us know in the comments below.
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