What show did a better job giving WWE talent their "start": WWECW or NXT?
 

Thought of this watching the Walking Dead. WWECW was pretty terrible at times but it did give us:

CM Punk
Jack Swagger
Kofi Kingston
Sheamus
John Morrison
Natalya
Layla
Kelly Kelly
Zack Ryder
The Miz (pretty much was nothing before ECW)
Tyson Kidd
Evan Bourne


NXT thus far has produced

Daniel Bryan
Wade Barrett
Bray Wyatt
Heath motherfucking Slater
Justin Gabriel
Darren Young
Curtis AxelBig. E. Langston
AJ
Kaitlyn
The Shield
Ryback
Titus O'Neill


Which show was better and which show will have produced better talent a few years from now, because WWECW is looking pretty tough to beat.

WWECW, because people actually watched it.

Also, it was a really great, well booked show, with great wrestling, all the way to about when Lashley entered the picture. Then it took a turn.

But the beginning of WWECW was the last time I could say I truly loved and enjoyed watching wrestling every week.

NXT really exposed everyone's weaknesses and it took a majority of them a good while after getting off the show to recover from it. I think Wade Barrett was the only one who looked like a star fresh from being on the show.

Once it stopped being a competition and turned into a ridiculously good vehicle for the lower midcard and jobbers it became my favourite WWE show. WWECW was much better for introducing guys as legit superstars though because people actually watched it.

Absolutely beyond a shadow of a doubt NXT, IMO.

After all, NXT did give us The Nexus, a fact we'd all be remiss not to take into account in this debate.

I used to only watch ECW in 2007 or 2008. Could not stomach raw and the show was only an hour on a tuesday so it was quite easy to watch.

I think in the long run NXT. NXT will still produce I believe 3-4 more top stars that could enter this equation and push it over the top

If you aren't on real TV, showing up on one of the main shows is really your start

OVW

WWECW was better producing the current star power right now but felt NXT was better overall as a show.

Future-wise, its going to be NXT considering the huge investments the WWE has put into their development.

NXT only gave us Wade Barrett. Everyone else was developed after their time on the show. WWECW have us CM Punk, Jack Swagger, Miz, and John Morrison.

And Mike Knox!

ECW Had Sheamus too I recall (although I wasn't watching wrestling at that time).

Sheamus was mentioned in the original post.

Love me some Mike Knox

Yes but I believe Sheamus's character developed on Raw mainly. WWECW did not elevate him like it did for the people I mentioned.

I disagree. I think Sheamus is an ECW guy.

I believe it was a feud with Goldust in ECW that started establishing Sheamus as a beast. Of course his Raw involvement seemed bigger, but only because it was on Raw.

Remember when people would wonder if ECW was canon?

ABT is correct. Sheamus got his start with a feud with Goldust.

The problem is looking at it now, WWECW was a few years ago, and a lot of the guys who came from that are now fully established stars, even main eventers.

A lot of the NXT guys, other than Barrett and Bryan, haven't had much exposure and haven't had as long to build themselves. If you asked the same question in five years time, the NXT list may look just as credible as the ECW one.

I agree with the pro-WWECW arguments so far and would add the WWECW Title elevated Punk, Morrison, etc. more than the NXT Title has elevated anyone so far.

Except the Living Legend Bo Dallas.

Pretty much this though, NXT is going to produce more stars in the long run just due to WWECWs short run.

ECW was more of a 'rehab' place where shitty wrestlers got new gimmicks and got over, like Mark Henry, Christian and Test. Swagger and Sheamus looked beastly when they started on there tho.

NXT just flooded the roster with vanilla midgets imo.

I still haven't figured out if your mom is canon.

Colin Delaney should have been ECW champ. I'm sure he could be NXT champ.

Ambrose is very boring

Ambrose never made a single appearance on NXT before his main roster debut. Roman Reigns was on there like two or three weeks before he was called up.

Full Sail NXT is pretty much developmental anyway, its FCW with better production.

NXT is overall the better thing for younger talent, in my opinion. The case made for ECW has been surprisingly good, since I expected it to get smoked out, since it wasn't really a developmental show. A lot of guys got their main roster start there, but their real successes came later. Of course, that's the same with NXT, but that feels like a proper progression.

I don't really know what I am trying to say. I guess I'd like to point out that ECW had its greatness, of course, but so has NXT. ECW threw a lot of shit at the wall to see what would stick, and you did get a lot of misses (Remember Ricky Ortiz, Gavin Spears, Tyler Reks' surfer and Ryan Braddock?). NXT seems to properly develop guys until they are ready to move up.

You forgot to mention both Fandango and Brodus Clay anywho ECW wasn't intended intended to necessarily be a developmental ground for new guys that's what OVW/FCW was meant for. Really it was just another alternative for fans that enjoyed the more hardcore wrestling match types which happened to be featured less on the other brands. Over time nXt's format has improved whereas ECW went right in the other direction so if I had to pick one i'd say the former since it accomplished what it set out to do.

I miss Kevin Thorn.

Somebody has to mention that wwecw did bring us the legendary Braden Walker. Now this thread is complete. Oh and it also killed that one guy. You know who I'm talking about.

The Zombie?

I feel NXT in its current form is a fantastic starting point for the younger guys. Original NXT with all its games and challenges almost set out to make a mockery of some of the guys on the show. At least now they get a decent chance. My only fear is that there might be a bit of a "Big Fish leaving a small pond" type deal that goes on with some guys. Whilst Sami Zayn, Corey Graves, Adrian Neville seem like big deals in NXT, I'm not sure it'll transition to the main roster all that well.

Yeah, like Big E is crazy over on NXT and gets no reaction on the main shows.

Smackdown 2002 - 03

I miss Mordecai

Current NXT > ECW > NXT on SciFi

Uh, no dumbass!

RVD, Tommy Dreamer, Mike Awesome, The Sandman, The Dudleys etc are ECW guys.

That haggis lover is the definition of a WWE guy.