NXT Thread *SPOILERS*

Decent enough NXT. Liked Dakota's promo and the Kross/Joe stuff.

The Shaun Ryan Prime Target package for Walter/Dragunov was awesome too. I liked the InDex ending too as cheesy as it all is.

Some other good stuff on the show too. It's not as good as it once was but NXT is still very solid.

Here's where those excerpts are from. Definitely doesn't sound very positive if this is true. Makes you wonder what any of the top prospects would want to hang around in NXT once their contracts are up.

AFAIK Smackdown is 8 EST and AEW is 10 EST. So immediately after Smackdown Rampage starts.

They were nearly on the main roster as a team but Ciampa got injured after their first or second appearance.

Think that's a bit harsh. I think if there's been a lack of drive from them it's because there's literally nothing more for them to do and clearly no direction for them at this point. Had they pulled the trigger on DIY in 2018/2019 it would have been a big deal but once there was a whiff of AEW they kept them down to compete and in the process killed half the interest in the product because a good chunk of the people that were carrying NXT at that point were already well past due being called up and became stale because they were kept where they'd pretty much done everything that could be done. Ciampa/Gargano and TUE are the biggest examples of this.

When AEW launched they treated it as a third brand so there was no real reason for call-ups. I'm not saying they were at their absolute heights, I think when Gargano and Ciampa were feuding was when they were at their biggest but I think if you look at the pattern from around Mania season 2019 to now it's clear they kept all those guys down in NXT more so than they would have without AEW.

Mania weekend with Takeover New York. Ciampa was stripped of the title due to injury and Cole/Gargano face-off for it. By April AEW was official but no inidication of what day it would air. Gargano wins the title for the first time and has now officially won every belt in NXT, nothing left for him to do. Logical booking and history of the brand would suggest once he drops that he moves onto Main Roster. Likewise Ciampa though injured won the title, his feud with Gargano has ended and assuming he's back from injury then there's nothing left for him in NXT.

Cole gets a re-match at the next Takeover and wins the belt from Gargano (Now Cole has won all the belts, him and Gargano are the only two to ever do so). Should probably be about now when Gargano moves up. They were still both hot acts, both of their matches got over 5 stars from Meltzer. By now though WWE are ready for competition and later that month AEW file a trademark indicating they will be airing Wednesdays. After that WWE doubled down, anything they did after that was to make the brand feel big and for TUE and Gargano/Ciampa be the selling point for the brand. Hell by September of 19 (First NXT on USA) the Undisputed Era held all the gold for the first time. They kept who they thought were the faces of NXT at the time, TUE and DIY down in NXT to compete with AEW even though by the time they'd launched they had pretty much run out of things to do with them. TUE had all the gold and Ciampa/Gargano had nothing left to do. Cole and the rest of TUE should have moved up once he dropped the title. The calibre of matches was still good but WWE had already put a lot of work into making the guys in NXT feel like a big deal (Survivor Series '19) despite the fact all the major stars down there now had nothing to do as their major feuds were wrapped and the titles had been won. It's why the just threw Ciampa in a tag-team (which I like) and threw Gargano into a faction (I like less) and why the broke up TUE because there's nothing else logical for them to do aside from a call-up.

I would even argue that any other singles male roster member that has moved up the main roster since 2019, was not a massive star in NXT pre-AEW. WWE kept the people they considered 'pivotal' to the brand who were considered the stars of NXT down there once AEW seemed to be going on Wednesday despite the fact they were all ready to move up.

Anyway that's my rant. They were scared to put the brand on anyone else which is why those guys never moved up.

Daniel Bryan, arguably the man who had the biggest connection to the auidence in 10 years, would never make it in NXT today.

This company....

NXT was pretty decent this week as much as the whole brand feels tarnished.

Pete Dunne/Dragunov was a good match, even though it seems strange to have Dragunov lose even if it was protected. Enjoyed the InDex segments as well. Next week looks stacked and Takeover is shaping up nicely.

Gigi Dolin, I'm a fan.

What even is NXT these days? Ages since I've watched it but reading they're doing lots of odd comedy skit stuff like Gargano disguised as a waiter and Io Shirai going for sushi and the likes and other assorted hi-jinks, just sounds like yellow Raw and quite a change from when NXT was good! Would be great if Io left, love to see her back in STARDOM.

Maybe that's why Austin left them and Indi is rebelling.

Can't remember the last time they made the "pie" joke. Indi seems to be enjoying this role. Just the small things like the entrance, trying to act like Dexter, but she couldn't keep herself from walking behind him for the view. And, of course, the big moment at the end.

Takeover is like a 4 main event card with UK, NXT and Women's title matches and the O'Reilly/Cole match.

The only other match then is the Million Dollar title match.

Another really solid NXT. Honestly right now the Takeover card looks better than the Summerslam card imo.

Dragunov match was excellent, would love to see more of him in NXT proper. The InDex stuff is a bit of a guilty pleasure of mine, I like Beth's involvement in the whole thing. As a brief aside, I think the commentary team for NXT is really underrated. Main event tag was decent but I honestly only kept a loose eye on it. Having Joe do a suicide dive after all the speculation and rumours about his health sold me entirely, Kross has been irreparably damaged already by the main roster, I'll take another Joe title run.