Would the WWE be better off making NXT a third brand like they did with ECW?
 

I was watching the WWE Untold 2nd coming of ECW tonight. I loved WWECW. Id much rather watch ECW than NXT. From the New Blood vs Originals to the Superstar Initiative, I thought it was great. It seems like looking back that more often than not, wrestlers moving from ECW to the big two didnt NEARLY have the transition problems like they do now. I think a lot of it has to do with wrestling in front of the same crowds as Raw/Smackdown. Plus it had a small roster, so it really focused on the select few on a weekly basis which you dont really get in NXT. Just found it interesting looking back.

I was a very big WWECW fan. I remember for a while I got miffed when they'd do the draft and stuff and ECW would lose all of its big names and get reclamation projects...but then I eventually accepted that that was the entire point of the brand and I ended up digging it.

As much as I love the cruiserweights, half the crowd leaves before 205 Live and the few that stay don't make a peep. I think people would stick around to watch NXT after SmackDown. Just have a dozen or so dedicated NXT regularly featured on the show and replace them once they get "drafted" to Raw or SmackDown.

Shit I even liked original run NXT, the whole "rookie" concept...got them in front of a SmackDown audience and launched several decent careers.

Even once it was no longer a rookie show they used it as a place for all the unused main roster jobbers to have wacky storylines, I enjoyed it.

WWECW failed because they called it ECW but didn't deliver ECW. They should have called it anything else.

It already is.

I mean like a third brand taped in front of the same audience as Raw or Smackdown lik ECW or the original NXT

Considering NXT is still a big money sink for WWE, I'd assume its just too expensive on WWE's end to expand NXT into a weekly main roster tier brand and touring.

Just the costs for tapings alone would skyrocket if they had to hold it weekly instead of monthly and if it was held live.

WWE did try a similar idea with 205 Live by trying to spin it off into a legit third brand but the added costs and a bad initial tour pretty much killed that idea.

I would just make it the third brand as a "finishing" brand like they did with ECW and make the current NXT a 4th level. So you'd graduate from Full Sail to NXT and then to the big two like they used to before.

Filming it in front of a Raw/Smackdown audience kinda ruins it. The audience would be dead. Being an alternative for the hardcores is the whole appeal.

No, the NXT Crowd is what gives the charm. They do everything to try to put the talent over.

When NXT travels to large arenas all the crowds want to act like an NXT Full Sail crowd. If they don't have Full Sail fans to teach them what they should do they will just be a typical dead crowd.

Easiest solution would be to just hold weekly NXT specialty matches on RAW and Smackdown to build up interest and exposure with regular crowds.

Would help NXT talent a lot more than WWE's current abysmal efforts at transitioning them to the main roster.

Just televise the current nxt shows. Get the full sail crowd and vibe, but put it on for the general masses on an actual tv network.

The Full Sail crowd tries too hard to get themselves over

That's part of the problem. I think they'd get more accurate crowd reactions and feel for gimmicks if they presented such in front of the same crowd.

Lol charm and NXT crowds do not go together. Part of learning the system is dealing with dead crowds. There's no variety in NXT. The crowds react to everything.

That would work

Outside the “finishing school” elements, NXT is largely pointless as anything other than a boutique product. It has no relevancy and certainly provides no guarantee that wrestlers are going to transition effectively.

I’m at the point where I’ve accepted that WWE is unlikely to get better on its own, so the most interesting thing they could do, internally, is do a genuine split and start up a separate promotion that runs its own touring schedule, has its own creative, etc. Give one to Steph and Hunter and one to Shane. Maybe even call the new one “WCW,” and hope that nostalgia is there, and try and get it up on TNT. NXT talent can be signed to either WWE or WCW.

They have two other brands! NXT and NXT UK is building up to stand on it's own by the end of the year I bet.

They want them to, and I think things like Halftime Heat were feelers to see if there is interest in NXT as an autonomous brand, but given that it’s not even at 1 million views kind of answers that. Only the hardcore of the hardcore have time for it.

It’s why Triple H runs things at a major deficit instead of plopping it on TV for some rights fees, only for it to get embarrassing ratings that shatter the myth it’s a hot property. It’s a deep 8-figure secret he wants to keep.