For a while late last year and early this year, NXT had been given heavy attention by Vince McMahon and the WWE. Being the winning brand at last year’s Survivor Series, featuring their stars heavily at the Royal Rumble, and even giving them a slot on Wednesday nights to compete against AEW Dynamite.
The ratings war against AEW has been difficult though, and NXT’s Halloween Havoc episode finally snapped a weeks long ratings victory against Dynamite, though Dynamite still won the coveted 18-49 demographic. Has any of this changed how WWE perceives the black and gold brand now?
During Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer discussed the WWE’s current mentality toward NXT and how the change possibly led to them being snubbed from Survivor Series. Ratings have played a factor, but the recent COVID outbreaks at the Performance Center may also be involved.
“I think the COVID thing plays into it, but last year I think there was a mentality of ‘beat AEW,’ and this year I almost think it’s like — even though they did a good number this week — you know they’ve got hammered so much that it’s just one of those things where you just don’t acknowledge the fight anymore and you don’t try to put all your resources into fighting because then it becomes one of those things where ‘we sent Becky Lynch and Seth Rollins there and we sent Charlotte Flair there for a couple of months and we did this and that and look at what happened.” “It’s kinda like our goal now is to keep that 200-250,000 people away from them so they look better and that’s what it is. You know just to keep them below a certain level and that’s what [NXT’s] role is.”
The change of mentality may have changed a lot of things creatively. NXT was left out of this year’s WWE Draft pool, along with with the Survivor Series snub. The WWE still mentions and pushes big NXT events, but the momentum they had from a year ago seems to have evaporated. Considering they were the winning brand at last year’s Survivor Series, their abscence isn’t just noticeable, but disappointing to some fans.
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