Triple H and Shawn Michaels Must Fight Back For NXT.
Do you remember May 18th, 2015? If you don’t recall that night, let me refresh your memory. That was the day that Kevin Owens showed up to Monday Night Raw as NXT Champion and “beat up John Cena” long before AJ Styles coined that phrase. This led to a match between Cena and Owens at Elimination Chamber where Owens defeated the future Hall of Famer right in the middle of the ring. It was on that night that many people thought that NXT was going to start being looked at as equal to Raw and Smackdown. Unfortunately, six years later we are still referring to NXT as “developmental” or as the “minor leagues” of WWE. Many are still asking why is NXT not equal to Raw and Smackdown? Why do superstars who come up from NXT fail on Raw or Smackdown? There is no clear-cut answer, but let me shed some light on it for you.
NXT has had some really great success stories such as The Shield, the Four Horsewomen, two members of The New Day, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Alexa Bliss, and a few others. However, there are many superstars who came from NXT that should have been major players who either got pushed down the card, got released or they quit. Superstars like The Ascension, Rusev, Aleister Black, Buddy Murphy, Sanity, Emma, and Ruby Riott all should have been major players on Raw or Smackdown and instead none of them are working for the company anymore. Currently, the NXT roster is being gutted again and the fear is that the cycle will be continued. In the last year, Keith Lee and Dominik Dijakovic were called up and neither have them have done anything of significance. Now you have the call ups of Karrion Kross, Toni Storm, Shotzi Blackheart, Tegan Nox, Bronson Reed, and the return of Finn Balor. The last three years have not been favorable to NXT call ups. The ones who are still with the company are either sitting in catering or on WWE’s Hulu show Main Event. So, the question has to be asked. Why isn’t NXT fighting back?
Triple H and Shawn Michaels are the two big names behind the NXT brand along William Regal, Matt Bloom, Robbie Brookside, Road Dogg and other great wrestlers from the past. They all have an eye for talent and have produced many great matches on NXT TV and Takeovers. However, with the current NXT roster being gutted and raided again. They need use that eye for talent and direct it towards Raw and Smackdown. There are many stars on Raw and Smackdown who aren’t being used properly. On Raw you have Angel Garza, Ricochet, Cedric Alexander and Drew Gulak. All of them would make great additions to the NXT Cruiserweight Division that they are trying to build on Wednesday and Friday Nights. On Smackdown, you have the one guy who has been deserving of the spotlight for a very long time and that is Cesaro. Imagine the matches that Cesaro could have with members of the NXT roster. Not only does NXT Management need to fight for their talent. They need to fight for the Raw and Smackdown talent who aren’t being used properly as well.
Another problem that’s gone is things that happen on NXT don’t carry over to Raw and Smackdown, which is evident by what they did to Karrion Kross. Over the last year and a half, Karrion Kross has been an unstoppable force for the last year and has gone undefeated in singles competition. That undefeated streak abruptly came to an end on his Monday Night Raw debut where he lost to Jeff Hardy. This is the same Jeff Hardy whose been getting beat by Jinder Mahal and his faction on WWE Main Event in recent weeks. By losing to Jeff Hardy, they accomplished a few things. They made the NXT Championship look weak, they made the entire roster who lost to Kross look weaker and they made entire brand as a whole look like it’s a second-class operation. If I’m in NXT superstar, I would fear being called to Raw or Smackdown. If I am a writer or producer in NXT, I would be furious that my work is being neglected and not valued by others under the WWE umbrella. This is where The Game and The Heartbreak Kid need to use the same fighting spirit they had in the ring, and use it to fight for the NXT brand. If they continue to allow NXT callups to fail on Raw or Smackdown it’s going to become harder to recruit talent. No one is going to come work for a company that is starting to set the trend and have a track record of not allowing equal opportunities for everyone to succeed.
I firmly believe that NXT isn’t the problem. NXT isn’t failing Raw and Smackdown. It’s more like Raw and Smackdown are failing NXT. If Raw and Smackdown took the NXT talent they called up and transferred over what they did in NXT, Raw and Smackdown would be much better show. It would also give casual fans the impression that NXT is special and should be viewed as the same as the other two flagship shows. Until Raw or Smackdown start allowing NXT stars to succeed again, fans are always going to look at them as the “developmental brand” or the “minor leagues” of WWE. I, along with many other fans have the utmost respect for Triple H and Shawn Michaels, but it’s time to fight back. It’s time to make NXT as important as the other two shows. It’s time to make sure the talent is as important as the talent on Raw and Smackdown. If Triple H and Shawn Michaels aren’t going to fight for NXT, then the question has to be asked. Why does NXT even exist?
