Is NXT’s Brand Integration Becoming Too Much?

People like Joe Hendry and the Vanity Project have gotten over with the Performance Center crowd. That wouldn’t have happened without NXT’s brand integration giving television time to wrestlers from other promotions and developmental prospects.

However, with so many people now on the brand and only two hours of TV time, are things getting too chaotic?

NXT’s Brand Strategy Has Helped It Become Great TV

For the past few months, NXT has been home to many wrestlers looking to showcase their talents. In addition to Joe Hendry and the Vanity Project, we’ve seen others like Kali Armstrong, Masha Slamovich, Mike Santana, and WWE LFG competitors pop up on Tuesday nights. That has made the brand unpredictable, with many things happening at once.

That’s a good thing in professional wrestling, as unpredictability means excitement and things happening that no one saw coming. Joe Hendry challenged Randy Orton at WrestleMania 41, introducing himself to the main roster audience. Natalya fought Kali Armstrong for the Evolve Women’s Championship, giving her a chance to work with a legend.

Trick Williams winning the TNA Championship has brought new eyes to TNA, giving people another company to watch. Everyone in NXT has greatly benefited from that strategy, as dream matches and shocking twists can happen at any time.

Fans Won’t Have Time to Keep Track of Everything

The one drawback of having TNA, WWE LFG, and Evolve wrestlers on NXT is that there is really never any introduction to anyone. It’s expected that people watch those programs to know who they are. This is a common criticism directed towards the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Everything is tied so tightly that you have to watch all the movies and TV shows to understand what’s happening. There may be callbacks, but the casual viewer might be confused.

Including Raw, SmackDown, and TNA, there is WWE-affiliated programming every day of the week except for Saturday. That is a lot of wrestling every week.

There should be some background information readily available for those wrestlers crossing over, such as video clips to explain who they are. That way, fans won’t have to go out of their way to watch more wrestling than they’re used to watching weekly.

Their Booking Style Has Both Positive and Negative Effects

There’s no doubt that a lot of great things have happened on NXT over the past couple of months. We’ve seen surprise title changes, great debuts, wrestlers returning through TNA’s partnership, and amazing rookies that have made a name for themselves on WWE LFG and Evolve. However, all the integration can become overwhelming for some fans who just don’t have time to watch those shows.

TNA, WWE LFG, and Evolve all have their own championships and storylines that don’t necessarily line up with NXT’s booking. Having their champions come over can create moments, but they have their own journeys and contenders on their own respective shows.

Expecting people to already have knowledge of those things can be a problem for people who don’t watch. If there were a simple recap or more information about them said by commentary, it would be easier for fans to follow what’s going on.