WWE NXT (TV series)

Original format (2010–2012)

NXT was formed in 2010 when they paired up wrestlers from WWE's developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling (dubbed "Rookies") with wrestlers from WWE's existing Raw and SmackDown brands (dubbed "Pros"). Each episode featured the rookies being mentored by the pros as they develop their characters and performance skills in front of a live audience. The pairings also enabled the show to crossover into WWE's Raw and SmackDown programs. As the length of each season differed, features of the competition occur at different times accordingly. In addition to matches, weekly challenges were held during the competition to further test the Rookies' physical and mental skills. Past physical challenges include a keg carrying contest, an assault course contest and a "Rock 'Em Sock 'Em" tournament. Past non-physical challenges include making 30-second promos on a given topic and selling programs within a time limit. During the first two seasons, the winner of the weekly challenge receives a special prize such as a main event match, a talk show segment or a feature on WWE's official website. One of the more frequent prizes given out to the winner is an "Immunity Pass," which gives the holder immunity from elimination in the next round of polls. During the last three seasons, a greater emphasis on challenges was placed on the show. Instead of awarding prizes to the winner of the challenges, points are instead awarded to the winner with a cumulative tally of points recorded before each of the first three polls. The Rookie with the most points before the next upcoming poll is awarded immunity. In season three, one point is awarded for winning the challenge. In season four, the number of points vary on the difficulty of the challenge. In the result of a tie-break, the audience is then asked to vote for the Rookie they want to get immunity. Season four also saw the introduction of challenge matches involving the entire roster of Pros or Rookies where the winner would be given the chance to swap their respective Rookie or Pro for another. In various weeks, polls were held to evaluate the success of each Rookie and determine the winner of the competition. The poll rankings are entirely determined by votes from the Pros and starting from season 2, votes from fans via WWE's official website. In the Pros' votes, each of the Pros vote for their favorite Rookie, but cannot vote for their own Rookie. Their votes are based on the following four criteria:

Win-loss record within the show

Strength of opponents

Work ethic

"It" factor

Initially in the first two seasons, the full results and rankings from the poll were revealed. However, since August 17, 2010, only the elimination is revealed. The first poll, usually held a third of the way through the competition, determines the Rookies' rankings. Subsequent polls are held several weeks later near the end of the season, where the lowest ranked Rookie without immunity is eliminated. Season 2 was set to use this format, but was changed to have the first poll an elimination poll. Season three also used the second season's format. The show continued until the season finale, where the final two or three Rookies appear. One or two final polls were then held to determine the winner of the competition. The prize for the winner is a WWE contract as well as a championship match at any pay-per-view. Outside of the polls, Rookies could still be eliminated via an executive decision from WWE management, as the first season saw both Michael Tarver and Daniel Bryan eliminated by management for a lack of self-confidence. Starting in 2012, the all-rookie competition was abandoned with the show now featuring past and present rookies alongside lower card members of the main WWE roster. William Regal would also take over as the authority figure and match coordinator, with Matt Striker being retained as the show's host.

Revised format (2012–present)

In May 2012, the show's format was revamped. The show began using more talent from FCW, as well as talent from the main roster. The first four episodes under the new format were taped at Full Sail University on May 17. WWE continued to air NXT Redemption, hoping a new television deal for NXT could be made. WWE.com revealed on June 13, 2012 that the new version of NXT would be made available online via WWE.com and YouTube beginning on Wednesday, June 20 when WWE would begin airing the episodes they taped at Full Sail University on May 17. On June 19, however, WWE removed all of the NXT material from their website. NXT was then aired exclusively on Hulu and Hulu Plus in the US, while continuing to be broadcast internationally. NXT began airing on the new WWE Network on February 27, 2014, starting with a live event called NXT Arrival.

Season 1

The first season of NXT began airing on Syfy on February 23, 2010 and ended on June 1, 2010. The majority of the season one cast was revealed a week before the premiere on the series finale of ECW. However, before the season's premiere aired, Skip Sheffield's Pro was changed with William Regal replacing the announced Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP). Near the end of the season, several changes were made to the original plan of the format. The season was shortened from the planned 17 episodes to 15 episodes. In the first elimination episode that aired on May 11, 2010, both Michael Tarver and Daniel Bryan were eliminated by WWE Management and removed from that night's Pros' Poll after both made comments about wanting to be voted off. The show ended with three eliminations, with Sheffield ranked last in the Poll. Carlito was released on May 21 for refusing rehab after violating WWE's Wellness Program. Subsequent Pros' Polls were held without him for the rest of the season. The winner of season one was Wade Barrett. Immediately after the conclusion of season one, the Rookies were used in a storyline that had them forming an alliance called The Nexus. Led by Barrett, the group invaded the first Raw following the conclusion of season one in an attempt to gain WWE contracts for the losers of NXT. The invasion consisted of the group attacking John Cena as well as other wrestlers and WWE personnel. Barrett announced that he would invoke his title shot at Night of Champions for the WWE Championship in a Six-Pack Challenge. At the event, Barrett lost in his title match to Randy Orton.

Poll results

     – Winner of competition      – Safe in competition      – Eliminated from competition by Pros' Poll      – Eliminated from competition by WWE management      – Won immunity prior to that particular poll and is ineligible to be eliminated

Season 2

The second season of NXT started on June 8, 2010 and ended on August 31, 2010. The season 2 cast was revealed on the first season finale on June 1, 2010. The season was originally planned to last 12 weeks. However, it was later extended to 13 weeks. In this season, the polls were different as rankings were based half on Pro votes and half on votes from fans via WWE's official website. The first poll was shown on July 6, 2010. Originally, the polls format was set to match the previous season, with a non-elimination poll followed by weekly elimination polls on July 27, 2010. However, the first poll was made a surprise elimination round on the night with a second elimination poll held on August 3, 2010 instead. In addition, a double elimination stipulation was added to the fourth NXT poll on August 17, 2010. The winner of the season was Kaval. Along with Kaval, Alex Riley was immediately promoted to aid his Pro, The Miz, on Raw. Kaval invoked his title shot at Survivor Series for the WWE Intercontinental Championship against the reigning champion Dolph Ziggler where he was defeated. Kaval was released from his contract in December 2010.

Poll results

     – Winner of competition      – Safe in competition      – Eliminated from competition by NXT Poll      – Won immunity prior to that particular poll and is ineligible to be eliminated

Season 3

The third season of NXT started on September 7, 2010 and ended on November 30, 2010. The season was exclusive to female wrestlers and was the second different contest produced by WWE to find new female wrestlers, the first being the Diva Searches held from 2003-2007. The first four episodes of season three were aired on Syfy. Due to the debut of SmackDown on Syfy on October 1, 2010, NXT left the channel and became a webcast at WWE.com for visitors from the United States from October 5, 2010 onwards. A new interactive website for NXT was also launched at the beginning of the season to accommodate the move. The reward to the victor was changed in contrast to the previous seasons. Unlike the first two male victors, the female victor of season three would not get a shot at a title of her choice (the only title being the WWE Divas Championship), but rather, a WWE contract. Other changes in the third season include a greater emphasis on challenges for the first three polls where the winner of the most challenges before the next upcoming poll would be awarded immunity. The first elimination poll took place five weeks into the competition. The majority of the season three cast was revealed on the second-season finale on August 31, 2010. However, before the season's premiere aired, prospective rookie wrestler Aloisia was dropped from the show. On screen, Aloisia's exit stemmed from an argument between Aloisia and her pro, Vickie Guerrero, forcing Guerrero to fire her. In reality, it was reported that Aloisia was allegedly dropped from the show after pornographic photos of her were leaked onto the Internet. However, in an interview, Aloisia herself was unsure whether this was the reason for her exit or not. Guerrero later revealed her new rookie in the season three premiere to be Kaitlyn, who would ultimately win the season.

Contestants

^†originally slated to be Lindsay Kay Hayward as "Aloisia," who had previously wrestled as "Isis the Amazon"

Poll results

     – Winner of competition      – Safe in competition      – Eliminated from competition by NXT Poll      – Won immunity prior to that particular poll and is ineligible to be eliminated

¹ As the result of a tie break between A.J. and Kaitlyn before the poll, Kaitlyn won immunity through a crowd reaction vote.

Season 4

The fourth season of NXT started on December 7, 2010 and ended on March 1, 2011. Returning to the male-orientated format of the first two seasons, the season four cast was revealed on the third-season finale on November 30, 2010. In a change from the third season, "immunity points" are now rewarded to the winner of each challenge, which vary depending on the challenge's difficulty. The person with the most points before the next upcoming poll is then awarded immunity from that poll. On the January 4, 2011 edition of NXT, it was announced that the winner would earn a WWE Tag Team Championship match with their respective Pro as their partner. That same night, Dolph Ziggler who won a battle royal consisting of each of the Pros and, as a result, was able to trade off his Rookie Jacob Novak for Byron Saxton, who was originally mentored by Chris Masters. Similarly, on the February 1, 2011 edition of NXT, a Fatal Four-Way elimination match was held between the remaining four Rookies. Brodus Clay won and, as a result, was able to trade off his Pros The Million Dollar Couple (Ted DiBiase and Maryse) for Alberto Del Rio, who was originally mentoring Conor O'Brian before O'Brian's elimination on January 25. The winner of the season was Johnny Curtis, earning himself and his pro R-Truth a shot at the WWE Tag Team titles. On April 18, 2011, R-Truth turned heel by attacking John Morrison and subsequently R-Truth and Curtis never invoked their shot at the titles. Curtis would eventually debut on the main roster in June when he stated that he won't be challenging for the Tag Team titles with R-Truth. Instead, he used his title shot with season two runner-up Michael McGillicutty on October 11, 2012, in NXT against Team Hell No for the Tag Team Championship, but was defeated.

Poll results

     – Winner of competition      – Safe in competition      – Eliminated from competition by NXT Poll      – Won immunity prior to that particular poll and is ineligible to be eliminated

¹ As the result of a tie break between Brodus Clay and Johnny Curtis before the poll, Curtis won immunity through a crowd reaction vote.

NXT Redemption (Season 5)

NXT Redemption, the fifth season of NXT, started on March 8, 2011. The season consisted of six rookies chosen from all previous male-only seasons returning to compete for a spot in the sixth season of NXT alongside a WWE main roster wrestler of their choice as their pro for that season. Immunity and the immunity points system were replaced in this season with a "redemption point" system, where, in the result of a tie at the bottom place between the pros' poll and the fan vote, the person with the most redemption points would avoid elimination. On June 25, 2011, Chavo Guerrero was granted a release from the WWE, leaving Darren Young without a pro, unlike Carlito of season one where he was released after his rookie, Michael Tarver, was already eliminated on May 11, 2010. On June 28, after Conor O'Brian was eliminated, Derrick Bateman was brought back. Daniel Bryan also returned as Bateman's pro, but weeks after not appearing with Bateman after he turned heel, Bryan said he was disowning Bateman due to the rookie's actions. On August 5, Vladimir Kozlov was also released from the WWE but, similar to Carlito, his rookie was already eliminated. While no female wrestlers from season three were part of the competition, since the end of regular eliminations June 28, both AJ Lee and Maxine returned as the girlfriends of Hornswoggle and Bateman respectively. In later episodes, NXT Redemption was devoid of the typical challenges and eliminations while pros have feuded with each other, Young (later joined by JTG) with host Matt Striker and announcer William Regal, Yoshi Tatsu with Tyson Kidd and Bateman/Maxine with O'Neil/Hornswoggle/AJ. On September 27, Hornswoggle delivered a letter to AJ and Titus O'Neil claiming he was being anchored to the dead NXT ship and needing to set sail to SmackDown, leaving Titus (the last rookie being mentored) without a pro. On October 5, NXT moved to its new day and time, Wednesday at 4:00pm EST. NXT Redemption also featured lower card superstars signed to the Raw or SmackDown brands, competing as neither pros nor rookies, like Yoshi Tatsu, Trent Baretta, The Usos, Tyler Reks, and Curt Hawkins, as well as former NXT contestants Michael McGillicutty (who had previously been on the Raw roster), Percy Watson, Maxine as well as previous winners Kaitlyn and Johnny Curtis. It was announced on October 6, 2011 that Young had been suspended by WWE for 30 days for violating the company's wellness policy. On the October 12 edition of NXT, O'Neil and Bateman were referred to as the final two rookies in the competition with no mention whatsoever of Young, implying that he was eliminated from the competition due to his suspension. However, Young's suspension ended on November 5, and despite speculation that he would be removed from the competition, Young returned on the November 16th edition of NXT and was once again referred to as a rookie. The following week, in his return match, Young teamed with Tyler Reks to defeat the team of O'Neil and Watson. On January 11, 2012, NXT debuted a new intro which replaced the intro containing only the remaining finalists. The new intro now included WWE main roster wrestlers from Raw and SmackDown. This arguably marked the official end of the rookie competition format. In the weeks leading up to the show's 100th episode, stars from Raw and SmackDown who got their start on NXT, including Justin Gabriel, Michael McGillicutty, Alex Riley, and Heath Slater, made special appearances. NXT celebrated its 100th episode special on January 18, 2012 in Las Vegas with O'Neil decisively defeating Young in a No Disqualification Match, before going on an anger-fueled tirade in which he insulted his former pro Hornswoggle and berated the fans in attendance, turning heel in the process. Bateman interrupted the wedding between Maxine and Johnny Curtis with footage of Curtis hacking Bateman's iPad to send an email to SmackDown General Manager Theodore Long. The email, sent through Bateman's address, contained disparaging remarks about Maxine and ultimately drove her into Curtis' arms. Upon this revelation, Maxine slapped Curtis in the face and kissed Bateman. The following week, O'Neil furthered his heel turn by assaulting his former friend and tag team partner, Watson, after O'Neil defeated Watson. On the February 1, 2012 edition of NXT, O'Neil even further solidified his transformation by aligning himself with his former rival, Darren Young, as they competed in a tag team match against Watson and Alex Riley. On February 29, 2012, on the "one year anniversary" of season five (actually over a full week prior to its March 8 anniversary), Striker announced that Regal would take over as the authority figure and match coordinator, with Striker being retained as the show's host. On March 14, 2012, Regal put together a special episode featuring "the lost art" of tag teaming, as the Usos defeated Young and O'Neil, Hawkins and Reks defeated Riley and Watson and Bateman and Kaitlyn defeated Curtis and Maxine in a mixed tag team match. On April 18, 2012, it was announced that Young and O'Neil would also compete on SmackDown under orders of the show's General Manager, John Laurinaitis. On April 25, 2012, it was announced by Striker that new wrestlers will appear on NXT due to O'Neil and Young leaving the show to go compete on SmackDown. On May 17, 2012, NXT began taping episodes from its new home, Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida. This roster of the new version of NXT was reported incorporate wrestlers from WWE's developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling in a different manner from previous seasons. Despite this, NXT Redemption continued to be taped on Tuesdays until its final episode was taped on June 12, 2012 to air on June 13. The new version of NXT aired in NXT Redemption's place the next week on June 20; and by August 2012, WWE had re-branded Florida Championship Wrestling to WWE NXT. However, after the end of NXT Redemption, WWE removed all of the NXT material from its website and season six would not be available anywhere on the site. However, when WWE joined Hulu Plus, the program began to be streamed there. NXT Redemption ran for over a year and 67 episodes were produced, exceeding the total number of episodes for all previous seasons combined. The first season was a distant second at 15 episodes.

Developmental territory (Season 6 onward)

After season five ended, WWE's developmental territory, Florida Championship Wrestling, changed its name to WWE NXT and the various FCW championships were replaced by corresponding NXT championships, including the NXT Championship and NXT Tag Team Championship. NXT thus ceased to become a seasonal competition between rookies and instead became a developmental territory. Starting with NXT Arrival in February 2014, NXT occasionally aired live two-hour episodes on the WWE Network, which effectively serve as the NXT equivalent of main roster pay per view shows.

Authority figures

On August 24, Maryse underwent surgery for an abdominal hernia and was on medical leave from WWE; therefore, Maryse's role as co-host ended. She would later be released from WWE on October 28, 2011 and would not return to NXT. As of November 2011, there is no official co-host. Dusty Rhodes was named Interim General Manager of NXT on June 20, 2012, which coincided with the rebranding of NXT into a full scale developmental promotion. On the August 29, 2012 episode (taped July 29, 2012) of NXT, Rhodes was noted as NXT Commissioner. On September 25, 2013, Triple H relieved Dusty Rhodes of his duties and replaced him with John "Bradshaw" Layfield. On November 25, 2015, the Raw lead commentator Michael Cole replaced William Regal as NXT General Manager while Regal was recovering from neck surgery.

Commentators

Notes

1. ^ Matt Striker became the alternate color commentator on NXT beginning May 3, 2011 (2011-05-03) due to Regal's increased in-ring schedule (Regal would continue as commentator when he wasn't wrestling). This ended on the May 17, 2011 (2011-05-17) edition of NXT when Regal would return to the announce table as normal.
2. ^ ^ Michael Cole served as special guest color commentator on NXT for the May 31, 2011 (2011-05-31) broadcast substituting for an absent William Regal. Cole would also substitute for Regal again on commentary on the September 13, 2011 (2011-09-13) broadcast due to Regal and Striker competing in a match that night.
3. ^ Matt Striker and Josh Mathews were guest commentators on NXT for the November 9, 2011 (2011-11-09) broadcast substituting for the absent William Regal and Jack Korpela. Striker and Mathews returned to commentary the following 2 weeks because Jack Korpela's contract with the WWE had expired and he opted not to renew.
4. ^ Matt Striker and William Regal commentated the November 23, 2011 (2011-11-23) edition of NXT, due to Mathews being absent.
5. ^ Following the absence of Josh Mathews from NXT after being attacked by Brock Lesnar on the April 23, 2012 (2012-04-23) episode of Raw, Matt Striker was joined by various guest commentators for one night on NXT. The following is a list of the guest commentators who joined Matt Striker on April 25, 2012 episode of NXT:

1. ^ On the April 19, 2011 (2011-04-19) edition of NXT, Josh Mathews was substituting for an absent Todd Grisham. This repeated on November 16, 2011 (2011-11-16), but this time, he was substituting for an absent Jack Korpela, who would later be released from his WWE contract.
2. ^ Jim Ross only called the main event.
3. ^ The pairings of Dawson and Regal and Phillips and Maddox commentate on alternate shows. Riley replaced Maddox in August 2013 after Maddox became General Manager of Raw. Scott Stanford serves as narrator.

Ring announcers

(*) If Chimel was absent from the NXT/SmackDown tapings, he would have been substituted as ring announcer by Raw’s Justin Roberts or Superstars’ Eden Stiles, who would also serve as SmackDown’s ring announcer for that week's episode. Effective December 8, 2011, Chimel has been replaced by Lilian Garcia on SmackDown and Eden Stiles has picked up Chimel's NXT announcing duties until December 13, 2011. On December 21, prior to NXT to be uploaded on WWE.com, Stiles would announce that she asked for her release from WWE a day after her final Superstars and NXT appearances have been recorded.

Production

On February 2, 2010, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon announced that a new weekly program would replace the canceled ECW in its time slot on Syfy. McMahon described the show as "the next evolution of WWE; the next evolution of television history."

On the February 4, 2010 episode of WWE Superstars, the new show's name was announced as WWE NXT. The name was later discovered to be trademarked already in the United Kingdom by National Wrestling Alliance affiliate Scottish Wrestling Alliance (SWA) which also used "NXT" as their brand for upcoming stars. Both parties ultimately reached an agreement that resulted in SWA releasing the "NXT" trademark in favor of a new one before the show's debut.

The show's format was revealed in an article by Variety on February 16, with a press release from WWE made shortly later that day. NXT is the second reality-based series produced by WWE, the first being WWE Tough Enough which aired between 2001 and 2004. Due to WWE's nature of airing weekly shows without hiatus, the current plan for NXT is to split the year's set of episodes into multiple seasons.

In March 2010, WWE announced that their show SmackDown would move to Syfy in October, with NXT leaving the network at the same time. The show aired its final episode on Syfy on September 28. Shortly after their March announcement, WWE also stated their intent of looking for another channel to broadcast the show. Despite their initial comments, WWE began to air the show as a webcast on their official website for American visitors as of October 2010.

The current opening theme song for the show is "Roar of the Crowd" by CFO$. "Welcome Home" by Coheed and Cambria was used from June 2012 - February 2014. The American Bang song "Wild and Young" had been used for each reality show season with the exception of the third season. During season three, the show's opening theme song was "You Make the Rain Fall" by Kevin Rudolf. Also promoting it as an "official theme song" for the show, WWE NXT used "Get Thru This" by Art of Dying as bumper music during the initial five seasons of the show.