Triple H's run as the new creative head of WWE has been a big success so far, but he'd be wise to not forget the mistakes made in NXT.

Triple H is the new Head of Creative of Raw and SmackDown in a change of command that fans thought would never come. Vince McMahon finally stepped away into retirement, leaving someone else to book weekly WWE television. So far, it has been a very positive change, with fans clearly enjoying a fresher product with a different focus and a faster pace. However, it may run close to falling into the same traps as the Black & Gold version of NXT, which was one of Triple H’s first failures in terms of being a Head Booker of a brand.

For many years, NXT was the shining light of WWE, with the developmental brand stealing PPV weekends with their tremendous Takeover events, and the stars of NXT feeling like some of the biggest in the entire world. With a conveyor belt system of sorts, NXT brought in the best free agents, turned them into stars, and then readied them for the main roster, before doing the same over and over, whilst also building up homegrown talent too.

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With a keen focus on in-ring quality, longer-term stories, and a grittier atmosphere, it felt like the variety that WWE needed to keep fresh, and it gave WWE fans an alternative. Then AEW cropped up, taking up the mantle of being the ‘alternative’ but with bigger stars, and NXT went on a decline. With them no longer able to draw the top independent wrestling stars, losing viewers, and becoming more of a ‘WWE’ style of developmental in their makeover into NXT 2.0, the successful era of the brand was over. If Triple H isn’t careful, he could well fall into the same traps on Raw and SmackDown.

In NXT, there was often a reliance on that aforementioned conveyor belt system. NXT would constantly bring in the biggest and hottest free agents, giving them focus and building them up to the point in which they were championship material, and upon the end of that journey, whether it be one, two, or three years, they would then move up to the main roster. In the meantime, they had been building the next star to take their place, and below them, there was the next star, and so on.

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With names constantly coming and going, it meant that for several years NXT was always fresh, and the same sorts of stories and journeys could be rehashed due to it being different characters and individuals filling those roles. However, when NXT became its own televised show, many of the roster members were retained. When stuck with a consistent roster, the show suffered creatively, with many individuals going around in circles with nothing to do. For example, Adam Cole could never really escape the NXT Title scene, which became tiresome, and NXT was forced into returning to Johnny Gargano vs Tommaso Ciampa for the upteenth time.

On Raw and SmackDown, Triple H won’t have a constantly changing roster, which will certainly test his creativity much more than NXT ever did, and that didn’t turn out too well in the end. Of course, with more input from talent and a bigger creative team, hopefully this can be handled. Another issue comes with the debuting names. Much like he did in NXT, Triple H is currently using the draw of new or returning names popping up at any time and anywhere, with the likes of Karrion Kross and Johnny Gargano making big returns. However, eventually this too will run out, as weekly or even monthly returns and debuts can’t happen forever.

Raw and SmackDown is currently seeing a renewed focus on wrestling, with the term formerly being banned for several years. Longer matches, better finishes, and telling stories inside the ring have certainly made Raw and SmackDown more palatable. The same happened in NXT, however, this didn’t come without its issues. Towards the end of the Black & Gold era, it felt as though NXT had run out of compelling storylines, and instead relied on putting on great matches.

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With the lack of a hot crowd due to the pandemic, this reliance on match quality turned into a detriment, as fans at home wanted to see more creativity and more storylines. If Raw and SmackDown lean too heavily on putting on good matches at the expense of story, then people will get bored due to a lack of a need to tune in the next week. Right now, things are back to basics, with very simple stories, strong matches, and a sense of something fresh, but there is still a long way to go, many hurdles to jump over, and a lot of mistakes that Triple H cannot afford to make.

Andrew Kelly is a writer from The Wirral, England. He is an MA Graduate from the University of Manchester, and a BA Graduate from Liverpool John Moores University, both in Creative Writing. Can be found on Twitter @andrew_kelly0