This past week on The NXT program we were “treated” to a series of videos featuring Matt Riddle and Pete Dunn in a series of videos trying to figure out “How are we going to get to Portland?” before the next NXT Takeover event in Portland Oregon. The end result is both guys sneaking aboard an airplane in the luggage compartment (with the Dusty Rhodes tag team tournament Trophy) and then it was revealed that it was Triple H’s private plane.
I was waiting for Todd Pettengill to pop up suddenly and tell us “Welcome to the NEW Generation!”
I found those videos to be confusing and wondering what the Hell they were doing. This kind of thing is not what made NXT as popular as it has been. This kind of thing hasn’t been popular since the ’80s and used during a time when the WWE wasn’t making any money at all. People are watching NXT and they have their fanbase because they DON’T do stuff like this.
Silly videos like that are a thing of the past. It would be more like something Dick Murdoch and Adrian Adonis would do back in the early 1980s. And that idea is giving it a lot more credit then it is due.
There is news going around that Triple H himself says that NXT needs to appeal more to children now. Right. Because what the NXT audience is clamoring for is THAT. NXT isn’t going to keep the audience it does, let alone see it grow, by doing “funny” videos like this and bring about memories in many fans of the days when guys like Bret Hart would feud with a pirate or a dentist and guys like Todd Pettengill would try to shove it down everyone’s throats that this was really cool and happening.
Now I wish I knew what the WWE could do to make things popular again but if I knew that I probably would be working for the WWE instead of writing articles for a living. But my guess is don’t do things like this again. This isn’t “entertainment” to me and more of videos like this would have me turn the show off. If the WWE is trying to get some of the AEW audience, this probably isn’t the way to do it either. Stunts like this that harkens back to stuff that the WWE did decades ago isn’t going to bring in a younger audience of kids to watch your shows. If anything, you might get a watch from their parents or even their grandparents with them saying “I remember when they did that back during the New Generation!”
What the WWE and NXT need to understand is that doing stuff you have done before and made money with isn’t going to be successful a second time around. Whether kids or adults, an audience isn’t going to be into things that have been done before.
