NXT: It’s not enough for WWE to offer their idea of an alternative

Triple H recently made comments about WWE NXT that may illustrate just how oblivious he is to how much professional wrestling and its fans have changed.

In a few weeks “The Wednesday Night War,” will officially be underway when All Elite Wrestling (AEW) makes their network television debut on TNT. Ahead of it, WWE developmental brand, NXT, will also make the jump to the USA Network next week. As many would expect, individuals from both companies have seemingly taken shots at each other,  and this week Triple H didn’t disappoint.

In a recent interview with Anthony Sulla-Heffinger of Yahoo! Sports, he reiterated that NXT is a legitimate alternative to WWE’s usual programming. Then, he went on to claim NXT made a lane for AEW.

"“If you talk about the upstart, what they’re going out and saying is that they’re an alternative,” he said “We were that alternative five years ago. We opened the door for being an alternative, we opened the door to show people that it can be done on a bigger level and on a different basis. As far as being the alternative, great, go put on the best show you can put out, and we’ll put out the best one we can put out.”"

As a fan, it’s hard not to get a little frustrated with this statement. After all, it’s dubious to tell consumers if they want an alternative to their product that they already made that possible. That feels a tad patronizing, but for the sake of this article let’s try to be objective as possible.

In truth, a good deal of NXT’s appeal is that it re-creates the feel of independent wrestling under a corporate umbrella. It has all the benefits of a smaller crowd and barebones style with some of the production value of a big company like WWE.

Admittedly, it’s a great selling point, especially when they’ve managed to assemble a roster full of notable indie names.

However, it would be entirely dishonest to ignore the fact that NXT garners a lot of its acclaim and buzz from the indie scene that it regularly raids. That’s important here because Triple H’s comments make it seem like WWE created a new alternative from scratch when they actually just gave independent wrestlers a bigger platform to perform on. Some of their biggest names and marquee matchups were already established at other promotions.

This all begs the question: does NXT present a good alternative?

Sort of, it operates as a version of WWE programming with less filler. On the other hand, it suffers from some of the constraints of the company’s house style for better or worse. Even more, it’s hard to ignore that it isn’t nearly as separate from the main roster and their other programming as they would like their viewers to think.

The fact that the brand acts as a talent pool for their more well-known shows hinders its growth. This is what makes these comments so audacious. NXT doesn’t exist in a vacuum. It’s undeniably attached to WWE goals, so it will never stray far enough from them to be a real alternative.

Admittedly, Triple H’s thoughts on this should be taken with a grain of salt. What he said certainly won’t be the worst thing said in light of new competition when all is said and done. It does illuminate that he, and by extension WWE, seemingly don’t understand why there is a need for more options for mainstream wrestling fans though.

To be honest, it’s understandable. WWE has been on top and safe in their bubble for so long that they don’t have to recognize what fans may or may not want. Nevertheless, they’ve positioned themselves to appeal to everyone, so Triple H wouldn’t possibly see anything wrong with divvying out their version of an alternative.

Furthermore, claiming the smarky crowd that NXT appeals to as their own proves he doesn’t understand the indie scene as much as he would like us to think. He definitely doesn’t seem to see that that very crowd is excited about AEW for totally different reasons.

In short, NXT didn’t open the door for AEW; independent wrestling and its fans did. More importantly, that very wrestling scene opened the door for NXT. If Triple H and WWE don’t want to acknowledge that, then it will continue to be lost on them why AEW has picked up so much steam this year.

That may sound dramatic but ask yourself: How can they properly respond to something when they can’t discern how much wrestling has changed outside of their reach?