OVER a belated birthday lunch just this past Sunday, my younger brother, my two sons and I were glued to All-Elite Wrestling’s Full Gear as shown live on Premier Sports over Cignal (and Skycable).
In the main event of AEW Full Gear, “Hangman” Adam Page finally reached the mountaintop, winning the AEW world championship after a delirious back-and-forth match with friend-turned-rival Kenny Omega.
We all agreed it was one of the best events in the young professional wrestling outfit.
And of course, what followed was the requisite bashing of WWE that had caused major harm to its NXT.
For years now, WWE has raided the best that NXT (owned by the WWE) had to offer and more often than not, right in the middle of a promotion or storyline leading to unsatisfying endings, dangling plot threads, and well a roster bereft of its young talent.
Furthermore, some of those promoted to the Raw and Smackdown brands found themselves disgustingly misused. Karrion Kross and Bronson Reed come to mind.
But conversely, look at the NXT alumni who are now WWE stars—Alexa Bliss, Apollo Crews, Baron Corbin, Bayley, Becky Lynch, Bo Dallas, Bray Wyatt, Carmella, Charlotte Flair, Daniel Bryan, Kevon Owens, Roman Reigns, Sami Zayn, Sasha Banks, Seth Rollins, Titus O’Neil and Xavier Woods to name but a few.
Now, NXT has lost its steam. If history repeats itself, this great brand could be cast adrift like the late lamented WCW.
There is nothing wrong with sending NXT stars to the main WWE brands, but do it gradually. If you ask me, NXT saved the WWE.
What made NXT popular was the wrestling itself more than the storylines.
I have been a fan of professional wrestling since I was a kid. Back in the 1970s, it was shown locally on IBC-13 either at 10 or 10:30pm. It was extremely rare for me to be able to watch because it was shown on school nights. If I am not mistaken, Thursdays.
With the arrival of Betamax tapes, I would go to the Betamax rental kiosk inside Rustan’s Cubao where I would borrow tapes of WWE—then WWF—matches. While I immensely enjoyed the WWF, rival outfit WCW was more exciting in my opinion.
Then came WWE’s buyout of WCW and I thought it was a bloody shame. WWF raided the best of WCW and eventually killed off the latter.
Then came TNA or Total Non-stop Action that I totally enjoyed. I would go buy pirated DVDs of TNA events every week or so at the tiangge at Riverbanks in Marikina. And to this day, I still have quite a lot of those dvds.
Moving abroad, the first ever WWE event I got to see live was Wrestlemania XX. (and I have been to a few more ones since).
I am quite happy when there are strong independent circuits outside the WWE. Right now, AEW is fantastic (now that we have reports that Ring of Honor is shutting down and releasing their roster). Will they stay strong or will they go the way of TNA (which is now Impact Wrestling) that is far removed from its glory days?
That remains to be seen. In the meantime, what the WWE is doing with NXT is disgusting.
And you can compare then side by side as they are shown on Premier Sports on SkyCable and Cignal as well as the Tap Go app.