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September 1, 2021
Main Roster WWE Producer Spotted More Often At WWE NXT Tapings
Rumor Mill - Vince McMahon And Bruce Prichard Reportedly Producing The WWE NXT Brand With Revamp
WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon and Senior Vice President & Executive Director Bruce Prichard are set to produce the WWE NXT brand moving forward.
As we’ve noted, NXT will return to airing live weekly shows on the USA Network beginning with the September 14 episode, which will feature the wedding of Dexter Lumis and Indi Hartwell. This will mark a reset for the brand, with a new logo, new theme song, a new look for the weekly show, and a new creative direction.
It was noted by Bryan Alvarez on today’s edition of Wrestling Observer Live that McMahon and Prichard will be producing the weekly NXT TV show when the brand returns to live TV later this month.
Furthermore, Dave Meltzer adds that McMahon and Prichard will be behind the big decisions for the NXT brand, but not the smaller ones. They will also be responsible for marketing, promotion and direction of the NXT brand.
Regarding NXT creative, it was noted that McMahon and Prichard may be only be booking the wrestlers at the top of the brand.
Word is that NXT will be like “the old NXT” moving forward, which appears to be a reference to how the brand was at its peak, around 2015-2018 or so.
There’s no word yet on what the changes will mean for Triple H and his team, which includes WWE Hall of Famers Shawn Michaels and “Road Dogg” BG James, but we will keep you updated.
WWE President & Chief Revenue Officer Nick Khan recently confirmed that there will be a complete revamp for the NXT brand coming soon. You can click here to read his comments.
As noted, rapper Wale recently revealed a bright new color-changing logo for the NXT brand, and a snippet of the new NXT theme song, which includes several familiar hip-hop samples. That same teaser has aired on WWE TV and social media this week. You can see those teasers below.
August 28, 2021
New WWE NXT Logo Revealed Ahead Of Major Revamp
The new logo and branding for WWE NXT has been revealed.
We reported recently that the yellow and black brand is set to undergo a major revamp, with reports of a new logo, stage, and format, it appears as if that change is almost ready to launch, with Wale revealing the updated NXT logo on his official Twitter page.
NXT is dropping the trademark yellow and black for a more bold and colorful design, with some likening it to AEW Dynamite's colorful graphics.
WWE is in the process of revamping the CWC (Performance Center) with the new look for the show expected to be revealed on September 7, 2021.
WWE is reportedly not looking to sign anymore indy talent going forward as they have done in the past for the NXT brand.
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Labels: Capitol Wrestling Center, Triple H, Wrestling News, WWE NXT, WWE Performance Center
August 22, 2021
WWE'S Nick Khan Promises Imminent NXT Revamp
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August 20, 2021
Triple H On If WWE Has Changed Their Philosophy On NXT
At the end of WWE’s open tryouts yesterday in Las Vegas, WWE’s own Triple H held a media call. Wrestling Inc.’s own Nick Hausman was invited and asked Triple H if WWE had changed their policy in recruiting following rumors of WWE overhauling NXT and their developmental system. According to Triple H, there isn’t a shift because things have never shifted to begin with.
“It’s a funny thing, people talk about the shifting if what it is. It never really shifted,” Triple H said. “So if you go back and look at the hiring process, not the hiring process of a television show, the hiring process of who we’re looking to train and make WWE Superstars. Long term. If you go back and look at it, it hasn’t shifted. It’s been the same process. I don’t negate anybody. From a standpoint of ‘I wrestled some independent stuff. ”Well all right, you’re out!’ That’s not a factor to me, but it’s also not the factor that makes me go ‘okay, you’re in.’ When they get in here today, if somebody goes in and hits the ropes perfectly every time, has every roll perfect, does all the stuff, (makes) it look easy because they’ve been training, that’s not really showing me anything. You should be able to, if you’ve been training, if you’ve been working indies you should be able to do all of that.
“To me, what is the potential long-term? What is that potential? And are they willing to do the work to live up to that potential. Vince used to always say ‘we’re a variety show. We are. In some manner, you need a little bit of everything. That’s the key to all of this. But people hear one statement and then make one (assumption). ‘Now it’s that. No, now it’s this.’ It always has been.”
Later Triple H was asked how many talents WWE signed at this tryout? While he didn’t have an exact number, he was able to give a pretty decent estimate.
“I didn’t count,” Triple H joked. “We had thirty eight talent here today, we had one drop out from yesterday to today. We had an injury and then we had another, not dropout, but we cut training short today. And I’d say somewhere, in the ballpark, of thirteen and sixteen I’d say. There’s a lot passion here in the last couple of days and a lot of drive. And clearly we’re looking for something different. You’ll hear Vince say it a lot. It’ll sound wrong to a lot of people, but it’s right. We’re not looking for professional wrestlers, we’re looking for superstars. We’re looking for somebody that can break through that. The rest of it takes care of itself.
“You’re looking for the diamond in the rough, you’re looking for the one in a million, you’re looking for those things. That’s the difficult part. The rest of it takes care of itself and it happens. And you go about that process. So to me, right now it’s about giving opportunities. And there was a lot of people here that have the tools to break through, that stood out when they walked through the room. You’re like ‘alright, who’s that?’ They had that some type of it factor, and then proved it to us here how much they wanted it. And I think, in this moment in time, to be able to go a little bit beyond and bring in these people give them that shot. Are they going to make it? No. It’s a long hard journey. But if everybody made it it wouldn’t be that special when you got there, right?”
Triple H also discussed the so called ‘it’ factor, and if there was any difference in identifying it between men and women. Triple H answered the question by focusing on the women aspect.
“People use that term it factor, x factor, charisma. It’s hard to put your finger on what it is,” Triple H said. “Sometimes I feel like, for women, there’s this emphasis on ‘oh man she looked like a million bucks when she walked in here.’ They’re dressed a certain way, make up is a certain way, hair’s a certain way, doing all those things. It’s important. At the end of the day though, it’s more personality to me. I don’t care, if somebody doesn’t have the money and they don’t wear make up? I mean present yourself well, but you don’t have to have high dollar hair extensions and a bunch of make up on and do all these other things in high dollar clothes to come in here and go ‘oh yeah, they’ve got it.’ To me it almost has nothing to do with it.
“It’s personality, it’s how they engage with you, it’s how they connect with you. Do they make you feel something when you them when they’re working? What’s that connection point that you have with these people? Do you feel something from them? Do they engage you in some manner? Some people you don’t see that when they’re here. Sometimes the red light goes on and they got it ‘boom.’ I’m sure you’ve heard people say ‘the camera loves them.’ Yeah they take great pictures. I’ve seen that a lot too. When you get to a tryout you’re like ‘this person looks great.’ Then they get there and you’re like ‘when do they get in?’ It’s not the same person. In person it doesn’t resonate. On camera it does. There’s factors that but it’s not an image thing. That’ll fade. I feel like that’s part of the process of the two day journey or the three day journey or the four day journey, depending on the tryout style that we’re doing.”
Triple H continued, emphasizing again how appearances can only take someone so far. Ultimately he concluded that there’s differences for every individual talent involved, regardless of whether they are male or female.
“Yes somebody walks in the room, those things might catch your eye for a minute,” Triple H said. “And then very quickly, that persons not really doing anything else, and this person is. And they don’t have any makeup on, they don’t have their hair done. So it’s never those other things. You can look past those. What’s really in here, that’s what it factor, charisma, all those things. Part of that is a passion and a connection to the person, and if you feel that, that person has charisma, that person has an it factor. It’s funny because I look at these tryouts sometimes totally differently. I find myself, catching myself, looking back at the same person in the first half of the first day.
“I find myself constantly looking back at that same person for some reason, or the same ten, fifteen whatever people. Like constantly find myself, catching myself interested in what they’re doing. And if I mentally see that, I put a check there. I check that person out ten times, I keep seeing that person do this. They might be terrible. But I keep going back to it. There’s a reason, they’re drawing my eye for whatever reason. I don’t have to figure that out, I don’t have to tell you what that reason is, I just have to know that it’s there. So I don’t know, I just look at it a little differently. But that’s a factor. Is it different for men and women? It’s different for every single person. It doesn’t matter, man, woman, it doesn’t matter. It’s different for everybody. You just got to open to it.”
credit: Wrestling Inc.
August 6, 2021
WWE Releases 12 NXT Superstars
While WWE aired the SmackDown on FOX broadcast, the following names were released – Bronson Reed, Tyler Rust, Bobby Fish, Leon Ruff, Mercedes Martinez, Jake Atlas, Ari Sterling, Asher Hale, Zechariah Smith, Giant Zanjeer, Kona Reeves, and referee Stephon Smith.
July 22, 2021
WWE NXT Scores Best Ratings In Months Despite NBA Finals Competition
June 28, 2021
Samoa Joe Says Triple H Contacted Him About NXT Return Hours After His Release, He’s Working In Talent Scouting Now
Samoa Joe‘s NXT return was put in motion just a few hours after he was initially released by WWE in April.
Samoa Joe was the latest guest on Out Of Character with Ryan Satin and he spoke about his return to NXT in a new “enforcer” role. Joe was released on April 15, but quickly returned to the company with the NXT brand on June 15. Speaking to Satin, Joe explained how John Laurinaitis called him and informed him of his release in April, and he was understanding due to his situation. He noted that the release was not expected, but he was relatively calm about it given the circumstances. He said a younger version of himself might have been worried, but you need to “roll, pivot” and move forward with his next projects.
“A few hours later, I get a call from Hunter and that all pretty much kinda changed.” [laughs]
Satin asked to clarify that the call from Triple H was only a few hours after being released by John Laurinaitis, Joe said it “essentially” happened that way.
“I had sent some company farewell texts to people to just say ‘it’s a pleasure working with you’, some people I genuinely enjoyed working with, some general thanks and ‘I’m sure we’ll talk down the road at some point’ [remarks] and then I got a text back [from Triple H]. [He said] ‘Give me a minute, I’m getting out of a meeting’ and we had a brief conversation, which was essentially ‘give us a little bit of time, I’ll work out a package and we’ll be talking soon,’” Joe said. “And that led to my return back to NXT.”
Asked if he had any reservations about coming back despite what had transpired, Joe said he didn’t before explaining what his new role will entail.
“No, and a lot of it was that me and Triple H had spoken about this transition in-depth, and it wasn’t just coming back to NXT and being an enforcer and having a role on the show. Now, I’m working in the talent scouting department, working with Canyon Ceman, a few more administrative things here and there behind the scenes,” Joe explained, “It’s a little bit of a transition for me into some of the other aspects of the business of WWE.
“It’s kind of an evolution of my journey, I’ve gone through the commentary production ranks and I’m working a little more on the behind-the-house type of things, so it was a really great, cool opportunity that Hunter offered me. And I’m still performing here within the bounds of WWE,” Joe noted, “so it was a very, very nice understanding that we have come to and I’m really excited about it.”
In regards to his new role, Joe said that he’s looking forward to giving looks to talent that might not otherwise get a chance in WWE. Joe was also asked about his potential in-ring return, and if it’s something he’s still pursuing. Joe said ‘absolutely’, adding that he’ll just say yes he’s working on it, and “we’ll leave it at that.”
credit: WrestleZone
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Labels: John Laurinaitis, Samoa Joe, Triple H, WWE, WWE NXT
June 27, 2021
WWE Releases Multiple Superstars
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Labels: 205 Live, Fandango, Tyler Breeze, WWE NXT, WWE Womens Division
June 16, 2021
Triple H Comments On AEW Ratings ‘Lie’
In a recent sitdown with Wrestling Inc. Daily, Wrestling Inc, Axel Tishcer, formerly known to WWE and NXT audiences as Alexander Wolfe discussed his relationship with Triple H and the recently ended ‘Wednesday Night War’ between WWE NXT and All Elite Wrestling. Here, the ex-Wolfe told managing editor Nick Hausman his thoughts on the competition between the two companies, that stated how allegedly Triple H relayed to talent that USA does not care about the ever-popular 18-49 demographic like AEW and their flagship show, Dynamite does – instead putting a core focus on viewership.
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Labels: All Elite Wrestling, Television Ratings, Triple H, WWE NXT
June 11, 2021
FROM MOTÖRHEAD TO POPPY: WWE'S TRIPLE H ON CREATING NXT HEAVY-METAL FAMILY
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Labels: Celebrity, Motorhead, Triple H, Wrestling News, WWE NXT
May 20, 2021
WWE NXT Viewership Up From Last Week With Steel Cage Main Event
WWE Releases Velveteen Dream
May 19, 2021
Several WWE NXT Releases
Several WWE NXT departures have been made today, according to PWInsider:
Former MMA Horsewomen member Jessamyn Duke is gone from the company. After a MMA career with the UFC and Invicta, Duke signed with WWE in 2018. She appeared on RAW Underground last year, picking up a win over Avery Taylor. She has not been in action since then.
Vanessa Borne (Danielle Kamela) has also been released. She trained under WWE Hall of Famer Rikishi in 2016, and signed with WWE in April 2016. Borne was reportedly called to the main roster in January 2020 after re-signing with WWE, but never made her official debut. She worked as a NBA dancer, NFL cheerleader and FOX Sports presenter before signing with WWE.
Skyler Story (Brandi Lauren Pawalek) is also no longer with NXT. She was formerly known as Ava Storie and Brandi Lauren on the indies, and also spent about a year with Impact Wrestling from 2017-2018.
Ezra Judge (Ezekwesiri “EJ” Nduka Jr.) was also released. He was signed in August 2019 after multiple WWE tryouts. Judge previously played arena football and was a pro bodybuilder for the IFBB.
Fightful Select reports that Alexander Wolfe (Axel Tischer) has also been released. He just wrestled on last night’s NXT TV episode, losing to Killian Dain.
Kavita Devi (Kavita Dalal) was also cut today, per Fightful. The former TV presenter and powerlifter signed with WWE in October 2017, becoming the first female pro wrestler of Indian nationality to wrestle for the company.
It was noted that those being released today are told that their departures are due to budget cuts.
NXT referees Drake Wuertz and Jake Clemons were also released.
May 5, 2021
Chris Jericho Refutes Triple H Saying AEW vs. NXT Ratings War Was 'Imaginary'
EW star Chris Jericho fired back at WWE NXT founder Triple H on Tuesday regarding the Wednesday night ratings battle between AEW and NXT.
During a recent appearance on Cheap Heat with Peter Rosenberg, Triple H referred to the rivalry between AEW and NXT as an "imaginary war" on Wednesday nights:
"The promotional opportunity for us is much better on a Tuesday. And also then not having to have a narrative where it's just constantly about an imaginary war, or this imaginary battle. And, you know, people can say what they want, but the truth of the matter is you compete against everything. If you are creating a television product or content—that is the world we live in is content not television, not internet. It's everything. So you're constantly competing for eyeballs and time against everything under the sun, including sleep and time to do other things, and video games, and TikTok and everything else that's out there."
In an interview with Joseph Staszewski of the New York Post, Jericho suggested Triple H created the "imaginary war" narrative only because AEW had higher ratings the vast majority of the time:
"It will be there for the rest of time, it was an 'imaginary war,' and if it wasn't a war why did they take Wednesday night the exact same time that we had? It was there to take away our ratings and for us not to get re-signed. Three months after that started we were re-signed to a hundreds-of millions-of-dollars extension. They failed."
After more than a year of AEW and NXT going head-to-head on Wednesday nights, NXT moved to Tuesdays on April 13, marking the end of the Wednesday night wrestling war regardless of whether it was real or imagined.
Jericho added:
"That's typical WWE. It's typical rhetoric. Because I believe that they congratulated us the first week and said, if you remember, 'It's a marathon, not a sprint.' We won the marathon, right? So now it's an imaginary war. Well then why were they saying it's a marathon, not a sprint a year-and-a-half ago when our first rating came out?"
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Labels: All Elite Wrestling, Chris Jericho, Television Ratings, Triple H, WWE NXT
WWE NXT Viewership Rises, But Its Demographic Number Dips
WWE NXT suffered a decline in viewership last week, but the show somewhat bounced back on May 4.
According to ShowbuzzDaily, the viewership climbed up to 761,000 this week, a slight increase from last week’s 744,000.
As for the 18-49 demographic, WWE NXT drew a 0.18 rating, a notable drop compared to last week’s number of 0.22. Overall, the show ranked 21st among the top 150 original programs on cable.
The May 4 episode included an NXT Women’s Tag Team Championship Match, a Falls Count Anywhere Match between Leon Ruff and Isaiah “Swerve” Scott, and the return of Finn Balor.
NXT VIEWERSHIP YEAR-TO-DATE RANKINGS
Apr. 20: 841,000 – 2021 High
Jan. 14: 551,000 – 2021 Low
May 5: 761,000 – This Week
April 22, 2021
Triple H Calls NXT vs. AEW An Imaginary War
The competition between NXT and AEW Dynamite, dubbed the "Wednesday Night Wars," officially ended earlier this month when NXT moved to Tuesday. Both shows have benefited since then, with NXT's audience breaking 800,000 for the past two weeks while Dynamite brought in its second-biggest audience in the show's history by surpassing 1.2 million. Triple H was a guest on the Cheap Heat Podcast this week and discussed NXT's move to Tuesday, referring to their ratings battle with All Elite Wrestling as an "imaginary war."
"The promotional opportunity for us is much better on a Tuesday and also then not having to have a narrative where it's just constantly about an imaginary war or this imaginary battle," Triple H said (h/t Wrestling Inc.). "People can say what they want, but the truth of the matter is you compete against everything. If you are creating a television product or content and that is the world we live in is content not television, not internet. It's everything. You're constantly competing for eyeballs and time against everything under the sun, including sleep and time to do other things, and video games, and Tik Tok and everything else that's out there.
"So having your own space where you don't have to then have an added imaginary battle stacked up against it, it's kind of nice. The bigger fact is having a lead in from a Tuesday into a Wednesday. When we first started, NXT was on Wednesday's for viewers of The Network. The transition to USA and wanting to keep that consistency for those that were watching on The Network so they would know where to find it and not have confusion of SmackDown leaving Tuesday's and people joining in and finding something else. Time has gone by now, and this is a great opportunity for us to have that lead in for Monday Night Raw, get that promotional window for Monday Night RAW, get to Tuesday's and continue to deliver the product."
"Again, I'm thrilled with it, and I think the opportunity is the same as it was before, which is for talent to get out there live and show everything that they can do, and I'm a big believer that talent will shine through, and they'll get that opportunity and you'll make bigger and bigger stars as time goes by. It's about making stars and them having that opportunity not just the number every single week."
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Labels: All Elite Wrestling, Television Ratings, Triple H, WWE NXT
April 14, 2021
WWE NXT Viewership For First Tuesday Night Episode With Takeover Fallout
Tuesday’s live post-Takeover edition of WWE NXT on the USA Network drew 805,000 viewers on the USA Network, according to Nielsen via Showbuzz Daily.
It should be noted that this was the first NXT episode to air on Tuesday nights, with no head-to-head competition from AEW Dynamite. This show featured fallout from last week’s two-night “Takeover: Stand and Deliver” event.
This viewership is up 4.82% from last week’s show, which drew 768,000 viewers for the Takeover Night One episode that also aired on Peacock/WWE Network with no commercials, and up against AEW Dynamite.
NXT tied for #8 on the Cable Top 150 this week with a 0.22 rating in the 18-49 key demographic. This is in line with last week’s final Wednesday show, which ranked #11 with a 0.22 rating in the key demo.
This week’s NXT show ranked #60 in viewership, tying with Assembly Required and the 9am airing of CNN Newsroom. This is down from last week’s #59 ranking.
This is NXT’s biggest audience since October 28, which was the Halloween Havoc show that drew 876,000 viewers with a 0.25 rating in the 18-49 demographic. This week’s show tied with last week’s show for NXT’s biggest key demo rating since Halloween Havoc.
This week’s NXT viewership was up 16% from the same week in 2020, while this week’s key demo rating was up 29.4% from the same week in 2020.
April 8, 2021
Triple H Disputes Report About WWE NXT Talent Meeting
The original report stated that AEW was mentioned and how AEW came in and tried to bully them. However, a follow-up report retracted that, noting that the word “bully” was not mentioned at all. Triple H gave some details of the team meeting with NXT talent.
“If I wanted everybody to know what was in the meeting, I would have put out a memo, and you guys could have just got it from one of your sources firsthand and printed it,” Triple H said. “It was a conversation with our talent. That was exactly that. It was informational to tell them where we’re going. Meetings that we have all the time. Given COVID restrictions, we had a lot less than we normally would.
“As far as the content of the meeting that was reported by a lot of people and elsewhere, completely inaccurate. Never said. Never brought up. Nobody else was ever brought up. Wasn’t about other people. Wasn’t about other brands, or companies or anything else. It was a factual meeting to tell people where we’re going, where we’re headed and to motivate them going into the future. Nothing more, nothing less.”
April 4, 2021
Triple H Reflects On WWE NXT’s Wednesday Night Run Head-To-Head With AEW
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Labels: All Elite Wrestling, Television Ratings, Triple H, WWE, WWE NXT, WWE Peacock