Retired professional wrestler and the current NXT live commentator Wade Barrett who is a former 5 times WWE Intercontinental Champion and the winner of the WWE King of the Ring tournament 2015 recently talked about the rebranding of NXT 2.0 and explained why it was necessary.
WWE has changed the style of the NXT for a month and it is going quite well so far. A lot of NXT fans did not like the idea of a repackaging. A number of fans were even saying rest in peace NXT. Actually nobody knew what was coming. But the negativity of the fans were quite high as the show was being taken over by Vince McMahon, and he did not have a very good reputation of booking good matches or shows recently.
Wade Barrett Explains Why NXT 2.0 Was Necessary
But the product got cleared after the very first episode of the NXT 2.0. It was pretty much cleared that WWE would focus on home grown talents more than big names coming from the independent promotions. The whole product of WWE is quite same right now. They are going to take the same product that they used during the Monday Night Wars and that is focusing on the home grown talents more.
A lot of fans and critics were saying that the WWE is scared with the growth of their latest competition the AEW. The promotion has signed some of the biggest names in sports entertainment today including the likes of Bryan Danielson and CM Punk. Really there in the pole position to give competition to WWE. After the takeover of Triple, the promotion is doing quite good and seems like NXT 2.0 would soon beat AEW in ratings.
Wade Barrett who is a former five times WWE Intercontinental Champion recently spoke to Busted Open Radio where he talked about the rebranding of NXT 2.0 and explained why it was necessary. He said;
“I would say it was a seismic shift when we went from the Black and Gold brand to NXT 2.0 about a year ago. I know it turned off a lot of our viewers. A lot of people who were fans of The Black and Gold era kind of felt slapped in the face maybe and there was such a jarring change to what we went to.
“I felt previously the Black and Gold era wasn’t really serving that traditional developmental show that we once had when I went through OVW or Florida Championship Wrestling. It was all about these young guys coming through, okay 12-18 months at most, and then you’re on your way.
“You’re gonna be off and running. I feel like Black and Gold, great TV show in its own right, great wrestling show, but it kind of morphed away from that. There was an element of the younger talent who were trying to break through not able to get those opportunities on the show and perhaps the roster at times was starting to get a little stale.
“It was the same faces for many years. Great competitors in their own right, but I think the change was necessary, and now opened up a ton of opportunity for people like Carmelo Hayes, Tiffany Stratton, Bron Breakker to go out, develop, grow, and show what they can do and be the next generation of WWE stars who are going to be on Raw and SmackDown.”
H/T to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription