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Too much credit laying at the feet of only Hunter, and not enough on the package of NXT as a whole. Yes, the guys are "inexperienced indy darlings", but they get to find a place. The talent doesn't get pushed/depushed, or suddenly devalued*, the setting is more intimate- so the fans that attend the shows are more into the world itself and not trying to chant anything just to chant shit... on that front, the main roster has gotten bigger than itself.
Speaking of "bigger than itself", drave's summary of RAW is pretty spot on. Back when the show was just an hour, that wouldn't be so bad. But that exact format is padded into three hours, and they act like they still don't have enough time. To be a wrestling show, it's like wrestling has become merely a tertiary objective. Primary is selling ad time and seats; secondary is trying to build the next breakout star insofar as he fits their mold of what that star should be. For example, they're building Reigns. They're building Rusev... and seemingly at everyone else's (save Cena) expense.
NXT kinda builds everyone. They don't need to shoehorn everything in that hour, nor do they have to put their really over talent (even their champion) on EVERY show. Enzo Amore and Big Cass aren't on every episode. Women's matches are treated as a match and not a pissbreak or a in-ring commercial for Total Divas. The show is allowed to be a wrestling show! Its booked like a wrestling show. The talent have feuds, build rivalries and history, and put on consistently good to great matches. The main roster product seems to have gotten far away from what made them the global company they are today, and NXT seems to have gone back to that.
In short, it isn't just the talent that needs to be called up or simply HHH running shit. There needs to be an overhaul to how RAW and Smackdown are booked and written, as NXT has gotten back to basics and even as smarky as I've become over the years, the disbelief is TOTALLY suspended while watching. Makes me feel like I'm 5 again watching All-American or Superstars of Wrestling.
*except maybe Chris Hero. As such, I kinda wonder- Punk's comments about The Shield supposedly originally containing him instead of RR. Did that snub trigger his "fuck this" spiral, or did that little bit of spare tire (which realistically would have been covered with tactical gear, so who cares) get him passed on. Chicken or egg?
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