Should WWE Send Wrestlers Back To NXT?

On the December 13th episode of NXT, Ricochet fought a returning Tyler Breeze in a thrilling match for the NXT North American Championship. Should WWE consider putting superstars like Tyler Breeze, The Ascension, or Tye Dillinger back on NXT?

Over the past few months, WWE has played around with the idea of letting some wrestlers make one-off appearances in NXT.

From The Revival to Tye Dillinger, these returning stars have popped up at house shows around the country to put on special attraction matches for excited live crowds. So far, it seems like this new policy of letting former NXT stars make occasional live appearances once again on the brand has been a major success. Any time one of those appearances occurs, it always makes waves in the wrestling community and becomes one of the bigger news topics of the day.

Recently however, WWE decided to take that policy a step further. On the December 13th edition of NXT, we saw Tyler Breeze return to his old stomping grounds to accept Ricochet’s North American Championship open challenge.

The match was an exciting back-and-forth endeavor that really highlighted the wrestling abilities that we haven’t had much of a chance to see from ‘Prince Pretty’ on the main roster.

Although Ricochet would win the match, judging by the crowd reactions, it seemed like Tyler Breeze was almost the fan-favorite in the bout. The crowd erupted in dueling chants of “Ricochet” and “Tyler’s gorgeous” throughout the match, indicating that Breeze still has quite a vocal section of the NXT audience ready to cheer him on.

Given the success that this recent match had, would it be best if WWE started to send some wrestlers back to NXT?

It seems clear that there’s a number of wrestlers who were previously fan-favorites on NXT who now struggle to maintain a constant television presence on the main roster. Superstars like The Revival or Tyler Breeze clearly have a loyal following of fans who would love to see them back in prominent storylines. If those stories aren’t going to come on Raw or SmackDown, perhaps then NXT would make for a logical place to send those competitors.

We’ve seen through the recent live shows, and now on weekly NXT television, that fans would be more than ready to welcome those stars back with open arms. Why have them linger on the main roster when they could conceivably be such major players on NXT?

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I think the sticking point for most people when it comes to this kind of suggestions is the stigma that still erroneously hangs around the NXT brand. NXT is still viewed like a step-down from the flagship WWE shows like Raw and SmackDown. It’s still seen as the “developmental brand” rather than a stopping point in of itself.

That fact is evident in every conversation fans have about this subject. When a superstar moves from NXT to SmackDown or Raw we call it “moving to the main roster” or a “call-up”. Perhaps for a lack of better terms, all of us tend to use these phrases which indicate that somehow NXT is a lesser brand for WWE, even though many of the major players in NXT have become WWE’s most followed superstars.

Nobody would consider The Velveteen Dream or Tommaso Ciampa stars struggling to make it in WWE at this point. As others have suggested, perhaps its time then we start to consider NXT a true third brand for WWE.

If we did that, then what other factors would be left that could stop WWE from sending superstars back to NXT?

At the moment, I can only think of one other variable that may be a sticking point for this proposed plan to succeed: time. Right now, as we all know, the main NXT show is only on a hour a week. This fact alone is both a blessing and a curse for the brand.

One hour a week helps keep all of the competitors on the show feeling fresh. It’s hard to be tired of NXT’s stars when they don’t appear for the long segments WWE pushes on SmackDown and Raw each and every week.

Additionally, it helps make those eventual appearances by NXT’s big stars feel special. When the brand’s champions aren’t competing every week on TV, then their matches truly feel like the special attractions they ought to be.

On the other hand though, NXT’s one hour show means storylines can sometimes feel like they are moving at a snail’s pace. Some competitors get lost, or lose some of their impact, because the stories they are involved in don’t always get more than a minute or so on certain episodes.

Moving NXT to two hours, while being almost a separate debate in of itself, would be a simple solution to that problem. The problem then becomes how to keep the aforementioned positives of the one hour show when moving to the two hour format.

The answer is by sending these former NXT stars back to the brand. With a larger roster filled with competitors who already have built-in support from fans, then NXT could comfortably expand to two hours while still keeping the show feeling fresh. An expanded roster featuring all of the former stars who have been stifled on WWE’s flagship shows would easily allow the brand to still cycle what talents they feature prominently, while also giving everyone the proper time needed to keep their rivalries afloat on each week’s episode.

When its all said and done, I believe with just a few simple steps, WWE could easily begin to put former stars back on NXT. It’s clear these stars still have the support of fans everywhere, and It would only go to strengthen what is already the company’s most exciting weekly television show.