NXT = WWECW?

[Evil Vito]

<font color=goldenrod>So NXT Season 5 has now reached its <i>30th</i> week. There have been 3 competitors left for the longest time. Titus O'Neil is teaming with Percy Watson for some reason while his Pro Hornswoggle is in a random romance angle with AJ. Darren Young and Derrick Bateman don't have Pros. Bateman is a heel now and sadly no longer funny...he's also dating Maxine who returned for reasons unknown.

They haven't mentioned the actual contest in forever, nor have they brought up that the prize was meant to be a spot on Season 6. 2 of the competitors from this season (Jacob Novak and Lucky Cannon) were outright released. William Regal and Matt Striker are wrestling on the show semi-regularly. JTG, Tyson Kidd, Yoshi Tatsu, Trent Barreta, Jinder Mahal, The Usos, Curt Hawkins, and Tyler Reks are all making appearances.

If I didn't know any better, I'd say they've officially switched NXT from a competition-based show to ECW. I personally liked ECW because it served a good purpose. It gave storylines to people who had nothing to do (unlike Superstars, which is strictly just matches and now no longer in the domestic market). It also provided a nice way for people to debut before being thrusted right into the limelight on Raw or SmackDown. They could still do this with people from FCW, just not in competiton format.

Are you a fan of how NXT has "evolved' so to speak? Right now the booking feels completely random...but if the long-term goal is to officially abandon the contest portion of it and turn it into a show for the undercard I'd be all for it. I'm just hoping they don't officially turn it into a 3rd brand again...because it always kinda irked me how it was blatantly the minor leagues and they'd get raped in the draft.</font>

[Xero]

I don't watch NXT.

[Lock Jaw]

The Tyson Kidd/Yoshi Tatsu feud over an Action Figure got me watching this season.

It is pretty glorious.

[Triple Naitch]

It seems like it's become a tag team show now. With JTG/Young, Watson/Titus, the Usos, Bateman/Kidd, and Hawkins/Reks all featured on the show it's nothing but tag matches. I don't mind it, as long as they keep bringing in new talents from FCW from time to time.

[Gertner]

The Tyson Kidd/Yoshi Tatsu feud over an Action Figure got me watching this season.

It is pretty glorious.

Those two have had OUTSTANDING matches on NXT. Tyson Kidd is incredible.

[BigCrippyZ]

They still waste time filming this piece of shit! Really?! :wtf:

[Skippord]

Those two have had OUTSTANDING matches on NXT. Tyson Kidd is incredible.
love his workrate

[Mr. JL]

The only NXT I have ever watched or had any sort of remote interest in was the one main evented by Chris Jericho and Daniel Bryan, which may have been the debut show.

[Razzamajazz]

wait, lucky cannon was released?

[glanville6]

I miss WWECW so much. It was just an hour long. And it was on TV. Who wants to watch a WWE produced web series anyway? If it were on TV, I might be watching NXT.

[Emperor Smeat]

They obviously didn't plan for the season to be this long because I remember how a report was saying the WWE wanted to bring NXT back on tv to go along with Tough Enough or at least the 2nd season of TE but neither ended up happening.

Not sure how much time is left on their current tv contract for NXT but wouldn't be surprised if Redemption doesn't occur until the WWE Channel is available.

[blak23]

I think its being used nicely.

[Mr. Nerfect]

Right now, I personally hate it -- just because I can't make sense of it. To me, shit went downhill when they brought back Derrick Bateman. Let the guy re-debut on either RAW or SmackDown!. They brought him back with Daniel Bryan as a Pro, only to have Bryan ditch Bateman a few weeks later when they made Bateman a heel. That there are two heels in a popularity contest makes little sense to me. Also, I don't know how Percy Watson fits in. The dude isn't signed to either RAW or SmackDown!, officially, but he's got his own titantron with Titus O'Neil (like they're officially a tag team) but O'Neil is still competing in NXT? And Darren Young & JTG are talking about going after the WWE Tag Team Championship? Plus, this past week we saw Hornswoggle leave as O'Neil's Pro.

This show really needs a one-off appearance from Triple H to just get everyone not involved in the competition off the show, and let Bateman, O'Neil & Young finish it off. Right now, even though they are positioning O'Neil to be the fan-favourite, I think (taking into account the Pros vote), Darren Young would actually be the most logical choice for a winner.

But yeah, next season, I like the idea of the competition remaining, only instead of guys getting exiled, maybe they can just lose their shot at earning the title shot, but they can stay around and continue to work and build familiarity with the WWE audience and such.

[XL]

Seems like they're treading water at the minute as they are unsure what they want to do with the show.

Either way, I'm glad it exists. It's the show I watch least but it has it's place as it allows new talent to get used to being out there in front of a "big" crowd, even if nobody watches on TV/website.

[Lock Jaw]

They should end the season like this:

http://gifsoup.com/view1/1146669/michael-cole-gongs-nxt-o.gif

FADE TO BLACK.