NXT

Finn Balor may be at the forefront of an emerging trend in WWE. He is taking slightly less money by going back to NXT in exchange for more overall flexibility to spend time with family and have more free time to do things that contribute to his own personal happiness. I’d take that deal because it sounds like it would have a great likelihood of making a positive impact on mental and emotional stability.

NXT has an advantage from the perspective of how much time it requires. NXT superstars only work one event per week as opposed to four on the main roster, and it’s always taped in the same location: Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida. Jon Moxley of AEW, who formerly worked for WWE as Dean Ambrose, made headlines recently complaining about WWE’s travel schedule and said that he thought it was too much. It may be smart for WWE to look for ways to reduce the travel schedules of its top superstars. This will improve their quality of life as well as keep them with the company rather than leaving for competing companies like AEW.

The cruiserweight division seems to be fully integrating as a part of NXT, which will significantly add to the depth of the roster. The Cruiserweight Championship has officially been recognized as an NXT title, so I would assume this means that 205 Live on the WWE Network will be scrapped. This is a smart business move because the show was simply lacking star power so even diehard fans didn’t have much of a reason to be interested. The in-ring work was fantastic, but it failed to engage fans in its storylines.

Rhea Ripley actually gives off the vibe of a credible challenger with the capability of taking the NXT Women’s Championship from Shayna Baszler. As for Bianca Belair, she has challenged for the NXT Women’s Championship before and has quietly built herself back into form over the past couple of months. My bet to win the title and begin a new era for the NXT women’s division is Rhea Ripley.

Tommaso Ciampa never lost the NXT Championship and he was a fantastic champion, so it only makes sense that he would return to claim what is rightfully his. In the meantime, it will be great just to see him in action again against Angel Garza next week.

Congratulations to Lio Rush on becoming Cruiserweight Champion immediately after seeking a 10-month hiatus from WWE. He will definitely provide the ability to cut excellent promos that hopefully strike a chord with the WWE universe – more so than Drew Gulak, and he is also every bit as good in the ring (hopefully they are not as annoying as those of Enzo Amore).

It’s looking like NXT could have some stiff competition in the form of AEW. The presentation of AEW on TNT is very similar to that of WCW back in the day, which makes sense because WCW used to air on the same network.

It’s a beautiful thing to see Tommaso Ciampa healthy, as he has sustained his fair share of neck injuries. Finn Balor will definitely challenge Adam Cole for the NXT Championship at Takeover: Wargames in November for the NXT Championship. Matt Riddle could possibly get involved because of how much Triple H loves his ability in the ring (as he should) since Tommaso Ciampa is not yet ready for in-ring action.

The return of Finn Balor to NXT after just over three years on the main roster is a lateral move now within the company. NXT, as far as I’m concerned, has elevated to the same level as Raw and SmackDown. It will then serve to create a significantly higher probability of more fans on the USA Network to tune in to NXT every week because they likely already know Finn Balor from Raw. This will also create some nostalgia because Balor is the longest-reigning NXT Champion in history.

So, this is what Vince McMahon had in mind for Balor when he took his hiatus from WWE after losing to The Fiend at SummerSlam. The reintroduction of Balor in NXT completely wrecks my own personal WrestleMania 36 plans for him, but whatever; this is way better.

My new plan for Balor is for him to do this for a year or two and subsequently come back to the main roster, this time winning the Universal Championship again and keeping it this time for an extended period. This is very similar to the plan when Balor first debuted on the main roster in 2016. He won the first-ever Universal Title at SummerSlam but had to relinquish it the next night due to injury, even though he was scheduled to hold the title for an extended run. This is much like WWE did with Kevin Owens instead.

Shane Thorne made a huge statement against the Heart and Soul of NXT Johnny Gargano despite the fact that he did not even lose to one of Gargano’s primary finishing maneuvers (casual fans won’t notice that). It’s a huge step for Thorne to be placed on the card for NXT’s first full episode on USA. It’s telling of how much trust Triple H has in him because his push is still relatively new.

Candice LeRae definitely deserves an NXT Women’s Championship rematch at Takeover: Wargames against Shayna Baszler because of how much she connects with the NXT universe. Shayna Baszler has been Champion for borderline too long and Candice LeRae seems to have the physical capabilities and charisma to carry the women’s division in NXT.

NXT has had a beautiful opportunity over the past two weeks to establish it itself as the premier wrestling show on cable TV before AEW’s deal when TNT starts on October 2 – and they absolutely nailed it.

What I think people love about NXT, and the reason it is able to separate it itself and create a distinct feel as opposed to the main roster, is that the superstars are given more than enough time for each individual match. Therefore, they have the opportunity to turn what would normally be a very good story into a great one. The key word in that sentence is time.

NXT definitely has no shortage of performers, but they don’t have quite as many as the main roster does. This might actually be an advantage because the performers Triple H is able to sign are all viewed very highly, and they are given the opportunity to reach their highest potential. That might be the key reason why NXT is growing so quickly and why every performer who is there wants to be there and would not rather be anywhere else.

Matt Riddle finally cashed in after almost a year with NXT and armed himself with the No. 1 Contendership for Adam Cole’s NXT Championship. It should be a great episode next week. It will provide significant competition for AEW with this NXT Title match, the NXT Tag Team Championships being defended by Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly against the Street Profits, and Shayna Baszler defending her NXT Women’s Championship against Candice LeRae. The match between Cole and Riddle will be excellent and either man could win. The Street Profits will probably lose, because they would probably just skip over their rematch and go straight to the main roster if NXT had suitable contenders right now for the Undisputed Era.

Candice LeRae also most likely does not stand a chance against Shayna Baszler. While I love Candice, Triple H has put an awful lot of time and effort into establishing Baszler as a dominant Women’s Champion. It would only be believable at this point if she were to lose the title to a bad-ass woman, and LeRae doesn’t bring quite enough of that.

Side Note: Keith Lee has an incredibly bright future as a serious title contender in NXT, with his ridiculous athleticism for a man that size.

Draping The Undisputed Era in gold is a very smart business decision on the part of Triple H to begin NXT’S new frontier on USA, which is sure to grow in the future. As a new audience on USA gets more and more accustomed to the format of the show, they will want more, and this will ultimately lead to the second hour of NXT also being included on USA.

But back to The Undisputed – they have proven to be massive draws for NXT and fans love them despite the fact that they are heels. Roderick Strong, the last member to join the group, took down Velveteen Dream and completed the prophecy by winning the American Championship. It only took The Undisputed Era about two years to make their predictions come true.

The addition of Mauro Ranallo to the commentary table back in 2017 had to be a major factor in NXT being able to make a successful jump to the USA Network. Ranallo was with the main roster on SmackDown Live for a short time back in 2016 and 2017, but it just wasn’t meant to work out. A few months later, he got the position as the play-by-play announcer for NXT and has since become a cornerstone of the brand (“Mamma Mia”).

It is absolutely fantastic to see a new superstar in Candice LeRae getting an opportunity for the NXT Women’s Championship against Shayna Baszler, as she has proven she deserves it. The NXT universe is firmly behind her and can sense her charisma. It also can’t hurt that she is the wife of the heart and soul of NXT, Johnny Gargano.

It’s also very encouraging to see Lio Rush return after a lengthy hiatus from WWE to become the no. 1 contender for the Cruiserweight Championship. He should be able to put on a barnburner with Drew Gulak.

The NXT Breakout Tournament has added a significant amount of depth to the NXT roster – something that will be needed considering NXT is not only headed from the WWE Network to USA starting next week, but the show is also expanding from one hour to two. The depth is surely welcome by Triple H, along with the retention of the heart and soul of NXT – Johnny Gargano.

NXT may also be getting another big acquisition either right when the show moved to the USA Network or shortly after. Kevin Owens recently posted a tweet and no one could possibly figure out exactly what it means. All it said were the numbers “14 – 24 – 20”. Some members of the WWE universe have guessed (because that’s all they can do) that this may mean he is moving to NXT because these numbers coincide with the letters of the alphabet N (14th) X (24th) T (20th). If he were to go back to NXT, he would presumably challenge Adam Cole since Owens has been champion before and Cole doesn’t have a legitimate contender for his title after he disposed of Johnny Gargano.

This would be a massive acquisition for NXT, and Kevin Owens would need to be prepared to take a similar perspective to Tyler Breeze on the move – it would best serve him to view it as more of a lateral move within the company as opposed to a demotion. Unless this would be a short – term move, my personal pick for Owens to win the WWE Championship would be ruined (not that I’m very attached to it). These are all possibilities we are throwing around, we don’t know anything for sure.

We ended last week with Keith Lee and Dominik Dijakovic redefining what was possible for men of their size and new NXT Tag Team Champions. I believe they are the first team to ever win the championship on three occasions. Now all that needs to be done for The Undisputed Era is for Roderick Strong to take the North American Championship off the waist of the Velveteen Dream and The Undisputed Era will finally be draped in gold. This could be a great way to introduce NXT to the USA Network.

It was an excellent effort on the part of Jordan Myles, but he simply could not get it done against Adam Cole Bay-Bay. On a serious note, he’s not quite ready to be Champion, but he made a legit statement and it was a fantastic idea by Triple H to give all the talent at the WWE PC this opportunity. It has gotten to the point in Adam Cole’s title reign where it feels natural to think of him as the NXT Champion, which is always the goal in WWE.

Roderick Strong definitely made a statement in his quest to receive another opportunity for the NXT North American Championship by burning Velveteen Dream’s couch.

Breezango appears to be losing a little bit of steam in terms of being taken more seriously as a threat in the tag team division considering that their wardrobe and body language in the ring is still saying that they are a comedic act.

This felt like the right time for the Street Profits to lose the NXT Tag Titles. They are starting to make appearances regularly on Monday Night Raw, and they are also incredibly authentic and over in NXT, so there is not much of anything left for them to accomplish on the black and gold brand.

It is also a great idea to make The Undisputed Era champions. Maybe Roderick Strong could also win the North American Championship from Velveteen Dream at NXT Takeover: War Games III in November, giving The Undisputed Era all the gold in NXT as has been their goal for a couple of years now. This would be a great way to introduce NXT to the USA Network since The Undisputed Era is so entertaining.

Dominik Dijakovic and Keith Lee truly transcended and raised the bar in terms of what we should expect from men that big.

It was also a nice surprise to see Rhea Ripley come over from NXT UK to challenge Shayna Baszler at Takeover: War Games III.

Some gigantic news that just broke early this past week regarding NXT is that it will be moving from the WWE Network to the USA Network beginning on September 18. It will also expand to a two-hour show instead of just one. This will provide another wrestling option to watch on Wednesday nights, since AEW has a weekly TV deal with TNT starting up in October.

NXT TV tapings will still take place at Full Sail University, so it won’t cost WWE any extra money for the venue. It will be more costly, however, because the NXT TV tapings will be every week now as opposed to about twice per month. This deal is also very lucrative because:

• The USA Network will be paying WWE $50 million yearly to air NXT.
• This is in addition to the $265 million they’re already getting from the same network to air Monday Night Raw.
• And, the $205 million being received from Fox to air SmackDown.
• In short, WWE is more lucrative than ever.

205 Live draws the unfortunate hand in this situation because it will either have to be canceled or moved to a different time slot. No one can argue that the athletes who are featured on 205 Live are extremely talented; there just may not be quite enough star power to get the attention of very many people.

Chris Jericho has been somewhat critical of NXT’s move to USA, saying that WWE is diluting their product by overexposing it. This is very reasonable and expected, however, because Jericho is now working for AEW. I still have all the respect in the world for Jericho. The efforts he has put into the wrestling industry since 1990 have significantly helped to elevate the wrestling industry as a whole to an exponentially higher level. He helped immensely in elevating NXT from its FCW days.

It was encouraging to see a couple of superstars who participated in the NXT Breakout Tournament featured on NXT so quickly. Bronson Reed had a match against Shane Thorne (who is worth keeping an eye on given that he is on a two-match win streak and victories appear to be more telling of a superstar’s future in NXT than they are on the main roster. This emphasis on wins and losses may become more of a factor in the future when Triple H and Stephanie McMahon take full control of WWE, since Triple H is in charge of NXT).

Jordan Myles should also make for an interesting challenger to Adam Cole in a couple of weeks. It seems to be almost a sure thing that he will not win, but nonetheless this is a huge opportunity for him to further his WWE career and develop a connection with the NXT universe.

Side Note: The rivalry between Matt Riddle and Killian Dain seems to absolutely be worth exploring.

It would be awesome if Triple H works to explore making each member of The Undisputed Era champions because the group is gaining an awful lot of transaction and influence in NXT. They have been a group for nearly 2 years now, and even Roderick Strong has been a member of the group for quite a while.

For this to happen:

• Adam Cole would need to retain his NXT Championship against Johnny Gargano at Takeover: Toronto 2;
• Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly would have to win the NXT Tag Team Championships from the Street Profits;
• And, the previously mentioned Strong would have to win the North American Championship from Velveteen Dream and survive the experience (it’s also great to see Pete Dunne, who held the United Kingdom Championship for nearly 2 years, added to this match to make it a triple threat).

Jordan Myles is officially a name to watch for after advancing to the finals of the NXT Breakout Tournament. And, after seeing Shane Thorne come out and establish a presence for himself at the commentary table, he may be on to something and this may be the beginning of at least a small push for him. Johnny Gargano has legitimately done it all in NXT, appearing at more Takeovers than anyone. The street fight stipulation for his NXT Championship match with Adam Cole seems predictable, but it should still be an awesome match.

It’s quite clear that Bianca Belair is set to work her way back into the NXT Women’s Championship picture. She is simply too great of an athlete to not go to the main roster otherwise.

Damian Priest, formerly known as Punishment Martinez appears to have found a niche for himself in WWE and has now been established as a significant threat in NXT, unlearning the biggest victory of his WWE career to date against Keith Lee (who is bound to receive a push at some point in the future based on the reaction he gets from the crowd).

The pace at which NXT is moving will begin to speed up in the next six weeks or so as we approach Takeover: Brooklyn, which was established as NXT’s biggest Takeover event started in 2015. It coincides with WWE’s build to its second-biggest pay-per-view, SummerSlam. It is great to see WWE working towards building the future of the business by introducing new people like Arturo Ruas, who has competed before in NXT under a different name. He also competed this past Saturday on Evolve’s 10^thAnniversary Special. His match with Matt Riddle was contested similar to a UFC fight because both are well trained in MMA. The match ended with Riddle being attacked by Killian Dain, who is finally making his NXT return after failing to make a meaningful impact with Sanity on the main roster.

I can really appreciate the reference to the late Bam Bam Bigelow by Beth Phoenix. He was a very underrated performer who is remembered most for his match with the great linebacker Lawrence Taylor of the NFL’s New York Giants at WrestleMania 11 in 1995.

One last element that needs to be addressed is the Kushida – Apollo Crews match. Kushida is truly a one-of-a-kind talent who’s in-ring style is so adaptable that it can mesh with almost anyone. It is also extremely unselfish on the part of Apollo Crews to return to NXT to help put Kushida over. I know of plenty of superstars who were not willing to do that, so it speaks volumes about Apollo’s character and his attitude toward the company that he is willing to do that.