NXT Brand Extension?

4th June 2015 by Scott Keith

Hi Scott,
You recently commented on an NXT review that the difference between the Indy names (Owens/Zayn/Balor/Joe) and the Homegrowns (Rawley/Blake & Murphy/Corbin) has become pronounced. WWE is obviously looking to make NXT a touring show. Given that, would a "brand extension" work best for NXT? The touring roster could be the Indy and best Homegrown talents, while the Full Sail crew could be the Homegrowns that are still developing along with a few freshly signed Indy names who are learning the WWE style. This way WWE has another hour of programming for the Network, Triple H can still raise his "baby", developmental can continue on grooming future talent, and us indy fans would have something that we'd like to watch. Or would this just be stretching NXT too thin and cause quality problems? Any thoughts?
Wes

That's exactly what HHH has openly stated is his goal for the product. And it makes sense — look at the difference between, say, the Four Horsewomen and Carmella v. Bliss, for example. Bliss and Carmella work hard and raise the hotness level of the show 15 notches each, but no one expects them to hang with Sasha Banks yet. However, as the upper level of a lower-level touring brand, they'd be great. I mean, as wonderful as the Indy Five have been for the product, I was fine with NXT as a learning show when the biggest stars they had were Leo Kruger and Tyler Breeze. It's really interesting on a meta level, actually, in that NXT is a show about developing new talent and on a larger level it's a show about learning to develop a new brand and HHH learning how to run a wrestling promotion and learning what works and what doesn't.

For the lower level touring brand, I wouldn't even put it on TV. There's so many indy geeks floating around there that you could build an effective ROH-style brand with the Hideo/Balor crew, while someone like Baron Corbin could be the top star of a small-scale touring brand without the pressure of the Full Sail nerds turning on him all the time. I think it would be win-win.