Quote:
Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame
The best guys in NXT's golden age were basically all in their 30's by the time they were champs:
Finn Balor
Samoa Joe
Bobby Roode
Sami Zayn
Kevin Owens
Shinsuke Nakamura
Drew McIntyre
Tommaso Ciampa
Johnny Gargano
Older indie guys had the experience and understanding of the business to craft their characters and have the wrestling chops to boot. Most talents under 30 just haven't left their impact on the brand the way these guys did.
If NXT wants to be used as development, fine - but your best stars are in their 30's and there's really no way around this. Maybe improve the booking on RAW and Smackdown to ensure these guys get maximum exposure while delivering the product they've crafted over all these years.
If not, then NXT would be where I want to stay too based on style of wrestling and storyline writing.
And clearly with AEW snapping up all of the talent (with most of the big names in their 30's and even into their 40's) people are hungry to see characters who can wrestle and deliver on the mic no matter what their ages are. Even then they let the 20-somethings get their feet wet with AEW on Dark and Elevation.
AEW has figured it out on how to utilize actual wrestlers. WWE seems to want to move away from that and go towards gymnasts, athletes, Olympians, and reality show contestants.
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Booking is hugely important....no doubt. Not arguing that at all. Its been terrible lately.
However, talent still has to get over. Some of the best, most legendary wrestlers had terrible gimmicks and were booked horribly early on too. Some wrestlers that were heavily pushed never amounted to much. Its not 100% on creative. It never is. It never was.
There's also a difference between being in your 30's and almost 40 (10 years if my math is correct) Kevin Owens is 37 NOW. Samoa Joe is 42 NOW. Robert Roode is 44 NOW. Sami Zayn is 37 NOW. Nakamura is 41 NOW. McIntyre is 36 NOW.
And...we're talking about the product being stale and that most of these guys arent over in terms of main event status.
So now, who do they have to come in and cycle these stars out with?
Keith Lee: 36
LA Knight: 38
Kross: 36
Matt Riddle: 35
Ciampa: 36
Gargano: 34
O'Reilly:34
Bronson Reed (cut): 33.
Who's coming onto RAW to take the show over for the next 10 years? All of these guys will be in their 40's (or close to) by the time they're ready to do that.
It's why we're seeing a shift in the direction of NXT.
WWE creative has been terrible....no doubt. But they won't be able to get out of this if they don't have anyone in their 20 ready take over.