{"id":46695,"date":"2019-09-19T23:36:29","date_gmt":"2019-09-20T03:36:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=46695"},"modified":"2020-08-12T09:34:38","modified_gmt":"2020-08-12T13:34:38","slug":"not-a-fan-of-split-nxt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=46695","title":{"rendered":"Not a fan of split NXT"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: Lora; font-size: 12pt;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"border-image alignnone wp-image-46696 size-full\" src=\"http:\/\/totfc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/nxt_scrum.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"510\" height=\"287\" srcset=\"https:\/\/totfc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/nxt_scrum.jpg 510w, https:\/\/totfc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/nxt_scrum-300x169.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 510px) 100vw, 510px\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Lora; font-size: 12pt;\">When it was announced that NXT was going national, I was most definitely in the camp that met the news with a feeling of dread.\u00a0 Not just because I\u2019m a cheapskate that doesn\u2019t have access to the USA Network, much less cable television in general, but also because I was very puzzled and dubious about the whole planned execution of NXT, with the first half of the show being exclusive to the USA Network on cable television, and the second hour being exclusive to the WWE Network streaming.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Lora; font-size: 12pt;\">When the day is over, the medium that brings in advertising revenue is going to win out, and I didn\u2019t have to watch <em>New<\/em> NXT to have guessed that they were going to stack the first hour and then take their foot off the gas once the cameras switched over to streaming for hour two.\u00a0 Look no further to the hour by hour comparison in matches\/segments and come to your own conclusion:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Lora; font-size: 12pt;\">Hour 1 (Nationally televised on USA):<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Lora; font-size: 12pt;\">Io Shirai vs. Bianca Bel Air vs. Mia Yim vs. Candice LeRae, Fatal 4-Way for #1 Contender to NXT Women\u2019s Championship<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Lora; font-size: 12pt;\">Cameron Grimes vs. Sean Maluta<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Lora; font-size: 12pt;\">Roderick Strong vs. Velveteen Dream for NXT North American Championship<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Lora; font-size: 12pt;\">Hour 2 (Exclusive to WWE Network subscribers):<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Lora; font-size: 12pt;\">Pete Dunne vs. Arturo Ruas<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Lora; font-size: 12pt;\">Xia Li vs. Aaliyah<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Lora; font-size: 12pt;\">IMPERIUM promo<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Lora; font-size: 12pt;\">Lio Rush vs. Oney Lorcan for #1 Contender to WWE Cruiserweight Championship<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: Lora; font-size: 12pt;\">Matt Riddle vs. Killian Dain<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Lora; font-size: 12pt;\">Sure, it\u2019s hard to count the Grimes\/Maluta match considering it was a squash where the entrances took 5x longer than the match itself, but two long-form matches featuring the top talents in both the men\u2019s and women\u2019s divisions, it\u2019s clear that WWE is putting nationally televised first, and taking their foot hard off the gas in hour two, because fewer things denote a reduction in effort than an Aaliyah or Arturo Ruas match, regardless of whom they\u2019re up against.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Lora; font-size: 12pt;\">It\u2019s not even just the format that was troubling to me, it was the quality of the card itself that makes me really wonder if the WWE is taking the impending Wednesday Night Wars with AEW remotely seriously.\u00a0 As much flack as I gave to AEW\u2019s Double or Nothing show for feeling way too much like a glorified episode of WCW Monday Nitro, New NXT Episode 1.5 was basically an episode of Nitro itself, with IMPERIUM playing the role of the nWo invading and announcing their arrival, and the gigantic schmozz that the show ended in was basically a stereotypical ending to an episode of Nitro, minus the 20 lbs. of trash hurled into the ring by unruly rednecks.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Lora; font-size: 12pt;\">Ultimately, I really dislike the general splitting of the show, because it means that I can\u2019t watch half of my favorite WWE programming anymore; and the half that I can watch is undoubtedly going to consistently be the weaker one, because there\u2019s little reason for NXT to really try once it goes onto the network.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Lora; font-size: 12pt;\">My knee-jerk reaction is to snidely state that with the loss of half of NXT, the network has nothing left other than NXT UK and 205 Live, but then I remembered that they also have every single PPV, but the importance of that fact in my head kind of goes to show just how mediocre they\u2019ve been for quite a long time, really making me wonder why I still watch professional wrestling sometimes in the first place.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Lora; font-size: 12pt;\">If I\u2019m a betting man, I\u2019d wager it\u2019s only a matter of time before NXT goes 100% onto cable television, leaving the WWE Network outright.\u00a0 In the end, advertising dollars will be too much to resist, and national sponsors are going to pony up way more money than TapouT Available at Aeropostale will, and it\u2019ll be the end of NXT on the network.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Lora; font-size: 12pt;\">It makes me wonder what, if at all, will fill the void for NXT on the Network?\u00a0 Will they introduce a new developmental program?\u00a0 Funnel everyone into NXT UK?\u00a0 Straight up acquire Evolve and make them their developmental property?\u00a0 Go back to Ohio Valley Wrestling?\u00a0 There are lots of possibilities, but in the end, I\u2019m kind of sad about the idea that the NXT that I\u2019d grown to really love and enjoy is pretty much a finished ride.\u00a0 My weekly routine of finding a night to watch NXT and NXT UK is going to have to be changed, and probably not for the better.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Lora; font-size: 12pt;\">Ironic, because the arrival of competition and the Wednesday Night Wars, were supposed to be making \u201cthe only winners, the fans.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When it was announced that NXT was going national, I was most definitely in the camp that met the news with a feeling of dread.\u00a0 Not just because I\u2019m a cheapskate that doesn\u2019t have access to the USA Network, much less cable television in general, but also because I was very puzzled and dubious about &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=46695\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Not a fan of split NXT<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[45,83,69,54,49,55],"class_list":["post-46695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-fail","tag-observations","tag-television","tag-wrestling","tag-wtf","tag-wwe"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46695"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46695\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46697,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46695\/revisions\/46697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}