WWE NXT

On February 2, 2010, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon announced that a new weekly program would replace the canceled ECW in its time slot on Syfy. McMahon described the show as "the next evolution of WWE; the next evolution of television history".[11]

On the February 4 episode of Superstars, the new show's name was announced as NXT.[12] The name was later discovered to be trademark already in the United Kingdom by National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) affiliate Scottish Wrestling Alliance (SWA) which also used "NXT" as their brand for upcoming stars. Both parties ultimately reached an agreement that resulted in SWA releasing the "NXT" trademark in favor of a new one before the show's debut.[13][14]

The show's format was revealed in an article by Variety on February 16, with a press release from WWE made shortly later that day.[1][3] NXT is the second reality-based series produced by WWE, the first being WWE Tough Enough which aired between 2001 and 2004.[1] Due to WWE's nature of airing weekly shows without hiatus, the plan for NXT was to split the year's set of episodes into multiple seasons.[1]

NXT was formed in 2010 when they paired up wrestlers from WWE's developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling (dubbed "Rookies") with wrestlers from WWE's existing Raw and SmackDown brands (dubbed "Pros"). Each episode featured the rookies being mentored by the pros as they develop their gimmick and performance skills in front of a live audience. The pairings also enabled the show to crossover into WWE's Raw and SmackDown programs.[1][3] As the length of each season differed, features of the competition occur at different times accordingly. In addition to matches, weekly challenges were held during the competition to further test the Rookies' physical and mental skills.[15]

Past physical challenges include a keg carrying contest, an assault course contest and a "Rock 'Em Sock 'Em" tournament.[15][16][17] Past non-physical challenges include making 30-second promos on a given topic and selling programme within a time limit.[18][19]

During the first two seasons, the winner of the weekly challenge receives a special prize such as a main event match, a talk show segment or a feature on WWE's official website.[15][18][19] One of the more frequent prizes given out to the winner is an "Immunity Pass", which gives the holder immunity from elimination in the next round of polls.[20][21] During the last three seasons a greater emphasis on challenges was placed on the show. Instead of awarding prizes to the winner of the challenges, points are instead awarded to the winner with a cumulative tally of points recorded before each of the first three polls. The Rookie with the most points before the next upcoming poll is awarded immunity.[22] In season three, one point is awarded for winning the challenge.[22]

In March 2010, WWE announced that their show SmackDown would move to Syfy in October, with NXT leaving the network at the same time.[8] The show aired its final episode on Syfy on September 28.[10][23] Shortly after their March announcement, WWE also stated their intent of looking for another channel to broadcast the show.[9] Despite their initial comments, WWE began to air the show as a webcast on their official website for American visitors as of October 2010.

In season four, the number of points vary on the difficulty of the challenge.[24][25] In the result of a tie-break, the audience is then asked to vote for the Rookie they want to get immunity.[26] Season four also saw the introduction of challenge matches involving the entire roster of Pros or Rookies where the winner would be given the chance to swap their respective Rookie or Pro for another.[27][28] In various weeks, polls were held to evaluate the success of each Rookie and determine the winner of the competition.[29] The poll rankings are entirely determined by votes from the Pros and starting from season 2, votes from fans via WWE's official website.[30] In the Pros' votes, each of the Pros vote for their favorite Rookie, but cannot vote for their own Rookie.[29] Their votes are based on the following four criteria:[31]

• Win-loss record within the show
• Strength of opponents
• Work ethic
• "It" factor

Initially, in the first two seasons the full results and rankings from the poll were revealed.[32] However, since August 17, 2010 only the elimination is revealed.[33] The first poll, usually held a third of the way through the competition, determines the Rookies' rankings. Subsequent polls are held several weeks later near the end of the season, where the lowest ranked Rookie without immunity is eliminated.[32] Season 2 was set to use this format, but was changed to have the first poll an elimination poll.[21][34] Season three also used the second season's format.[22] The show continued until the season finale, where the final two or three Rookies appear. One or two final polls were then held to determine the winner of the competition.[32][35] The prize for the winner is a WWE contract as well as a championship match at any list of WWE pay-per-view and WWE Network events.[32][36] Outside of the polls, Rookies could still be eliminated via an executive decision from WWE management, as the first season saw both Daniel Bryan and Michael Tarver eliminated by management for a lack of self-confidence.[37]

Starting in 2012, the all-rookie competition was abandoned with the show now featuring past and present rookies alongside lower cardmembers of the main WWE roster. William Regal would also take over as the authority figure and match coordinator, with Matt Striker being retained as the show's host. On May 30, 2017, it was revealed that a sixth season of NXT under its original format was set to air. The season was supposed to star Big E, Seth Rollins, Damien Sandow, Sin Cara, Bo Dallas and Adam Rose as the season's rookies, but ultimately was cancelled before airing.[38][39]

In May 2012, the show's format was revamped. The show began using more talent from FCW as well as talent from the main roster. The first four episodes under the new format were taped at Full Sail University on May 17.[40] Starting with NXT Arrival in February 2014, NXT occasionally aired live episodes on the WWE Network, which effectively serve as the NXT equivalent of main roster pay-per-view shows. WWE continued to air NXT Redemption, hoping a new television deal could be made. WWE.com revealed on June 13 that the new version of NXT would be made available online via WWE.com and YouTube beginning on Wednesday, June 20, when WWE would begin airing the episodes they taped at Full Sail on May 17. However, WWE removed all of the NXT material from their website on June 19.[41] NXT was then aired exclusively on Hulu and Hulu Plus in the United States while continuing to be broadcast internationally.[42][43] NXT began airing on the WWE Network on February 27, 2014, with a live event called NXT Arrival.

NXT returned to cable on December 20, 2017, airing a 1-hour special on USA Network.[44]

In August 2019, WWE announced that NXT would permanently move to USA Network and be revamped as a live, two-hour program on Wednesday nights beginning September 18, with replays available the following day on WWE Network.[45][46] Due to scheduling overlap with the final episodes of Suits, the second hour of the program was aired on WWE Network until October 2, when it began airing in its entirety on USA. This would start the Wednesday Night Wars.[47]

Beginning with the March 11, 2020, episode of NXT, WWE began filming all of its programs without an audience at Full Sail University as a result of restrictions imposed to reduce the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for initiating the COVID-19 pandemic and from October 4, 2020, all shows of NXT, including NXT TakeOver specials, have been broadcast live from the WWE Performance Center, which was modified and is now known as Capitol Wrestling Center[48] with a capacity of nearly 100 members of the audience and few people appearing for the show through the virtual screen similar to the WWE ThunderDome.

On August 24, 2011, Maryse underwent surgery for an abdominal hernia and was on medical leave from WWE, therefore Maryse's role as co-host ended. She would later be released from WWE on October 28 and would not return to NXT. As of November 2011, there is no official co-host. Dusty Rhodes was named Interim NXT General Manager on June 20, 2012, which coincided with the rebranding of NXT into a full scale developmental promotion. On the August 29 episode (taped July 29) of NXT, Rhodes was noted as NXT Commissioner. On September 25, 2013, Triple H relieved Dusty Rhodes of his duties and replaced him with John Bradshaw Layfield. On November 25, 2015, the Raw lead commentator Michael Cole replaced William Regal as NXT General Manager while Regal was recovering from neck surgery.

Notes

1. ^ Matt Striker became the alternate color commentator on NXT beginning May 3, 2011 (2011-05-03) due to Regal's increased in-ring schedule (Regal would continue as commentator when he was not wrestling). This ended on the May 17, 2011 (2011-05-17) episode of NXT when Regal would return to the announce table as normal.
2. ^ ^ Michael Cole served as special guest color commentator on NXT for the May 31, 2011 (2011-05-31) broadcast substituting for an absent William Regal. Cole would also substitute for Regal again on commentary on the September 13, 2011 (2011-09-13) broadcast due to Regal and Striker competing in a match that night.
3. ^ Matt Striker and Josh Mathews were guest commentators on NXT for the November 9, 2011 (2011-11-09) broadcast substituting for the absent William Regal and Jack Korpela. Striker and Mathews returned to commentary the following two weeks because Jack Korpela's contract with the WWE had expired and he opted not to renew.
4. ^ Matt Striker and William Regal commentated the November 23, 2011 (2011-11-23) episode of NXT due to Mathews being absent.
5. ^ Following the absence of Josh Mathews from NXT after being attacked by Brock Lesnar on the April 23, 2012 (2012-04-23) episode of Raw, Matt Striker was joined by several guest commentators for one night on NXT: Hornswoggle, AJ Lee, and Michael McGillicutty.
6. ^ On the April 19, 2011 (2011-04-19) episode of NXT, Josh Mathews was substituting for an absent Todd Grisham. This repeated on November 16, 2011 (2011-11-16), but this time he was substituting for an absent Jack Korpela, who would later be released from his WWE contract.
7. ^ Jim Ross only called the main event.
8. ^ The pairings of Dawson/Luftman (Dawson and Luftman were the same man) and Regal and Phillips and Maddox commentate on alternate shows. Riley replaced Maddox in August 2013 after Maddox became the Raw General Manager. Scott Stanford serves as narrator.
9. ^ When McGuinness was feeling under the weather, so only Ranallo and Watson called the event.
10. ^ When McGuinness was absent for the birth of his daughter, so only Ranallo and Watson called the event.
11. ^ On the December 25, 2019 (2019-12-25) Christmas episode of NXT, Ranallo/McGuinness called some of the show from Full Sail, While Phillips/Phoenix called the other half from Brooklyn.

(*) If Chimel was absent from the NXT/SmackDown tapings, he would have been substituted as ring announcer by Raw’s Justin Roberts or Superstars’ Eden Stiles, who would also serve as SmackDown’s ring announcer for that week's episode. Effective December 8, 2011, Chimel has been replaced by Lilian Garcia on SmackDown and Eden Stiles has picked up Chimel's NXT announcing duties until December 13, 2011. On December 21 prior to NXT being uploaded on WWE.com, Stiles announced that she asked for her release from WWE a day after her final Superstars and NXT appearances had been recorded.