5 Lessons WWE Can Learn from NXT TakeOver: New Orleans

4. Give more time to less matches…

Unlike a 14 bout scramble that can cause you to miss most of a match on a bathroom break, WWE could take another valuable lesson from NXT…

Give your best  in-ring storytellers more time to tell their tales.

Only two matches on the WrestleMania 34 bill barely broke the 20 minute mark: Rousey/Angle vs. McMahon/Triple H, and the dream match of Styles vs. Nakamura.

Conversely, NXT TakeOver: New Orleans bookended their show with a highlight-heavy 31 minute ladder match, and closed out the night with an ultimately dramatic 37 minute unsanctioned grudge match between Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa.

The running length of a match doesn’t always dictate quality, but when top performers are inadequately provided with the ring time they require to put on the best performance necessary, it becomes vital that you trim the fat in favour of giving the fans an ultimate experience.

While 12 minutes was a perfect length for the superb storytelling of Shayna Baszler struggling through a shoulder injury to gain the NXT Women’s Championship in a technical submission win over Ember Moon, the climactic 11 month build-up to the Gargano/Ciampa clash would have suffered immensely by even shaving off mere minutes.

Gargano and Ciampa got the time they deserved. Unfortunately for WrestleMania fans, AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura did not.

If a mid-card match or two had to take a cut to give Styles and Nakamura their necessary time at WM34, then it would have been a sacrifice well worth taking.