5 Lessons WWE Can Learn from NXT TakeOver: New Orleans

WrestleMania weekend is here and gone, and we’ve finally had some time to process all the overwhelming hours of high profile professional wrestling. While the enormous 7 hour WrestleMania spectacle on Sunday night stole the mainstream spotlight, it is worthwhile for WWE to look into the slight shadows of Saturday’s NXT TakeOver: New Orleans card for some tips and takeaways from what was a far superior wrestling show.

While WrestleMania 34 has garnered some luke warm reactions from fans due to an overall exhaustive length, questionable booking decisions, as well as highly anticipated matches that failed to meet expectations, NXT TakeOver: New Orleans has been subject to a widespread celebration as one of the best shows that the brand has ever delivered.

NXT may still technically be WWE’s developmental grounds, but it is undeniable that the division has continued to scratch an itch for the wrestling diehards in a way that the main roster shows still struggle to achieve. While WWE continue to poach the top talents that graduate from team yellow, it is as vitally important for the upper echelons to also take a few hints from the creative drive and fan engagement that has been established in the NXT universe.

Here are five lessons WWE can learn from NXT Takeover: New Orleans.

5. When less is more…

One of the most common complaints against WrestleMania 34 was its sluggish length. Whether in the arena, or in the comfort of your home, 7+ hours of live anything can be an absolute task for a fan to stay invested in. While booking 14 matches is already a bombardment on the senses, making 8 of the bouts multi-person contests adds to a bloated and overwhelming card.

Stacking battle royals, triple threats, fatal four-ways and tag team contests simply for the reason of getting more names on the bill gives the brightest of WWE stars less space to shine, and gives the big stories they’ve been building a lot less room to breathe.

WWE already overuse the multi-person match structure, with almost every big event being headlined by overstacked bouts ranging from triple threats to six pack challenges. Matches featuring more than 2 superstars should feel like a special attraction and less like indecisive booking decisions.

To combat the crushing weight of WrestleMania’s quantity-over-quality approach, WWE need to look no further than NXT TakeOver: New Orleans to learn what a lean cut wrestling show can do when it leaves no room for filler.

TakeOver: New Orleans featured 5 main card matches. Yes, the opening contest was a 6 person ladder match for the new NXT North American Championship, but within a brand that appropriately prioritizes singles competition, these matches still feel incredibly special.

The New Orleans crowd remained red hot, vocal and engaged right through to the storybook ending in what was a succinct and meaningful wrestling show. NXT fans cared greatly about the build up to these matches, and the perfectly paced event made sure to keep them on their toes, and leave them wanting more…

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.

3. Stop fighting with the fans…

Modern wrestling fans are smartened up to the business more than ever before, and it is about time that the WWE creative department embraces it.

It has been a long time since wrestling fans were blindly willing to accept direction on who to support and how to react. Despite this being an undeniable fact in the wrestling universe, WWE still make attempts to forcefully sway their fans in directions they are obviously unwilling to go.

As a wrestling booker, if you try too hard to bend a story in a way the audience outspokenly rejects, it is only a matter of time before it becomes broken.

All while WWE exhausts every miracle method to put Roman Reigns over with their fans, NXT has successfully found a way to keep their product open to interpretation, reaction and suggestion.

There is no better example of this in NXT than Adam Cole and the Undisputed Era.

While the cocky, self-serving and heelish actions of the hottest NXT faction have the perfect makings of a traditionally heated and villainous unit, the NXT fans have unapologetically approved the Undisputed Era as a common favourite within the brand.

This was exemplified by the deafening pop heard when Adam Cole came out victorious in the ladder match, as well as when Roderick Strong double-crossed his partner, Pete Dunne, to help The Undisputed Era retain the NXT Tag Team Championships. Strong’s actions would traditionally be that of a hotheaded heel turn, but instead he put himself and The Undisputed Era over even more with the delighted fans.

NXT make no obvious attempts to fight their fans on what some creative teams would consider oppositional reactions. While NXT may be forced to censor the rampant “f–k you Ciampa” chants  heard from the vocal audience in the main event, you can guarantee they wont be editing in “boos” during reruns of The Undisputed Era’s victories from TakeOver: New Orleans.

2. Stop insulting the intelligence of the fans… 

This next lesson rolls up aspects of the three sentiments that proceeded it.

Chants and reactions aside, WWE need to stop treating their audience as if we are only out for high spots, simple stories and short matches to suit our stunted attention spans.

It is obvious from the outpouring of love and admiration for the NXT product that the modern fan can adore the subtleties of in-ring wrestling, be drawn to intricate and compelling storytelling, and can absolutely stay engaged for as long as a quality wrestling match deserves.

The fact that a wrestling fan can stay glued to the ring for the near hour long epics produced by the likes of New Japan Pro Wrestling, but yet struggle to stay attentive for three hours of WWE Monday Night Raw every week proves that the problem is with the product, and not with the fans themselves.

From Shayna Baszler blasting herself into the ring post to try and put her dislocated shoulder back in socket (and then grasping her own hair to substitute for her injury when leveraging her submission hold) to every twist and turn and bump and welt we felt in the hyper emotional cinematic chronicle of Gargano/Ciampa, NXT TakeOver: New Orleans is a prime example of intelligent booking to appease an even smarter fanbase.

1. Long term investments earn bigger payoffs…

Spectacular in-ring performance aside, the sheer sentimental weight of the Gargano/Ciampa feud was the integral setup for a show-stealing main event at TakeOver: New Orleans.

The origins of this matchup trace back to the sudden dissolution of Team #DIY as Tommaso Ciampa brutally attacked his teammate, Johnny Gargano at TakeOver: Chicago in May of 2017. The 11 month build was a storied journey. The buildup thumbed through Gargano stealing our hearts with his rise as an underdog singles competitor, breaking our hearts with his near-falls and losses to the likes of Andrade “Cien” Almas , to the capstone boiling point of the cold attacks from a returning  Ciampa that temporarily cost Gargano his NXT contract. The program was executed so well that the fans were invested for the long run.

Roderick Strong joining the Undisputed Era also had seeds planted in 2017, when the Undisputed Era’s efforts to recruit Strong resulted in a subsequent feud. The surprise turn of Strong was a perfect callback to a patiently booked angle.

Even the clash of Shayna Baszler and Ember Moon had been ongoing since Baszler’s NXT debut in early January. Saturday night’s brutal fight was already a rematch to Moon’s perceived fluke retainment at TakeOver: Philadelphia three months ago.

Contrary to the time invested in the backbone of NXT’s big show, WrestleMania was built solely on programs that began following January’s Royal Rumble. With a rush to squeeze as much necessary storytelling as possible into the 5  weekly hours of Raw and Smackdown, a lot of building momentum felt like it got lost in the shuffle.

Besides Roman Reign’s repeated failed attempts at turning the audience against Brock Lesnar in the weeks leading up to WrestleMania, John Cena sponging up screen time to hype a 3 minute match with the Undertaker, and Shinsuke Nakamura telling AJ Styles he was going to knee him in the face, it only really felt like Ronda Rousey and Kurt Angle vs. Stephanie McMahon and Triple H generated sufficient heat for their grandest stage showdown.

Beneath the weight of the main card, the undercard of WrestleMania 34 suffered from clumsy overbooking. Most matches, including the Intercontinental and United States championship bouts, had seen the competitors redundantly square off in every possible combination in the weeks leading up to the big show. This watered down the end result when the attempted builds finally took the spotlight at WrestleMania. None of the undercard matches felt like something we hadn’t seen on television.

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Out of all the lessons WWE can learn from NXT’s elevated display of professional wrestling, this one might be the most important: improve the strategic foresight of successful long-term booking, and commit to seeing these stories through to a climactic finish. The end result is the ultimate payoff of making memorable matches that will last a lifetime, something NXT accomplished with their unforgettable Saturday night in New Orleans.