Yeah honestly most of these could realistically end like 10 seconds after the intro. >B Roll for the intro finishes "Its Vince, the Answer is Vince." >Rolls credits
Anyone else remember how Kaval was ganged up on when he won, and a couple of the pros tried to help him fight off the rookies, and then the pros just walked off randomly? I always thought that was so weird.
@@UltimateFarmer007sure, you can defend Vince, but you can't deny that Vince never wanted NXT to do well. He made it into a game show that humiliated rookies.
it's a hot take but i like the daniel bryan vs wwe system nxt story idk if i was intended to or not but I did It would of been better if there was a "golden child" rookie who got all the easiest challenges and everything handed to them. And having Cole talk him up the whole show.
17:28 So... They replaced a tall, buff girl, whose explicit pics were leaked to the internet with a tall, buff girl, whose explicit pics and videos were leaked to the internet. Oh, the irony.
It was a slow process, but to me the thing that sealed the fate was the guys who were the scaffold of the show ending up BECOMING the show: Gargano, Ciampa and the Undisputed Era. They are all fantastic wrestlers and were brilliant in the forging and development of the brand in facilitating its purpose: a tune up for the returning and major guys like McIntyre, Almas, Roode and Nakamura and a developmental for the newer and indy stars like Zayn, Owens, Corbin, Woods, Crews. But slowly those guys became the ACTUAL main event and at that point it had - perhaps inadvertantly - lost all elements of being a developmental brand and was just an indy show. If I was to choose a specific moment it would be Cole becoming the champ. Of course Vince came along and killed it completely. And it was eventually reborn under HBK after a messy start as the thing it was actually meant to be and the near-perfect blend it is now. But the Black and Gold diehards are - IMO - a little in denial that it was already terminally wounded by around 2017-18 when it became the Undisputed Era show - a group that were always going to have limited mileage if they ever even came t the main roster.
The limbo joke by Michael Cole was the funniest line of the entire run he had there... A few memorable moments was when Aksana left Goldust and Cole quipped "Well I guess Goldust have to go back on the internet tonight"
My fantasy booking of naming him Derrick “The Master” Bateman and pushing him immediately as a mid card champ is still one of my favorite ones I did back in the day
they gave Michael Cole a gong to hit when he'd had enough of something? Did WWE rip off Hey Hey It's Saturday's Red Faces segment?! On Hey Hey the guy with the gong was Red Symons... the lead guitarist of Skyhooks.
Vince didn’t have Cena go over nexus. Cena has openly admitted that his most regrettable action he’s done in wwe was use his creative control to not put over nexus and Barrett.
You ignored Johnny Wrestling as a security guard behind Michael Cole 6:19 lol Side note I thought Otunga was with Halle Berry not Jennifer Hudson lmao no idea why 😂
As far as the "Talk the Talk" challenge goes, can't really blame those guys for fumbling most of those promos, just getting a random word like that. Which is why it's so inpressive that Wade's promos during the challenge were actually really good. Shame he never won the wwe title as the nexus leader.
I always thought Bryan was kind of the main character on season 1 of the show. There were probably folks there who wanted to legit bury him, but he survived it cause he was probably a pro backstage, and he got over when he was in front of an audience, which is something a lot of indy guys at the time likely struggled with.
Honestly, I think DBry’s NXT story probably was intended to get him over. If WWE didn’t see anything in Bryan, I don’t think they would have hired him back after the firing, nor would they have immediately pushed him as the guy to end Miz’s US title run.
As far as Nexus losing at Summer Slam, I believe Cena didn't want to lose that match. He was the guy. He could've talked Vince into changing the finish. At that time, Cena wanted to stay on top, and not put anyone over.
yeah I wish we got a proper Wade/Jericho feud at some point. For that matter a Wade/Punk feud too. Basically what I'm saying is I wanted more Wade. At least we get to see him on WWE as a commentator/pre-and-post show host now
I was possibly 13 years old when NXT first was on air. And everything about how the show was presented lead me to be Bryan Danielson's biggest supporter. Maybe if it was live now that wouldn't have been the case.
I mean there is a simple answer. Demographics getting older combined with the rise of alternative outlets of entertainment. Also booking getting worse, a lack of genuine competition and Vince increasingly being surrounded by Yes Men
NXT was great, but it got stale for me when Undisputed Era were the dominant faction. Also when they went on the USA network to go head to head with AEW.
@WrestleTalk Your Playlist Needs fine tuning and stronger Distinction of different Playlists. Many Videos are missing from related Playlist Like First Original about WWE screwing with AEW is missing from the original playlist.
I actually didn't mind NXT Redemption when it basically became a low tier usual brand product, and always felt it just needed a title, and it'd be an alright product. Then they killed it, and it became NXT. Close enough lol.
Ironically it's that first season of NXT that made me dislike Daniel Brian/Brian Danielson, as I felt that whole antagonizing schtick by Michael Cole was a foreshadowing for him getting pushed by management lol
I don’t know what series of NXT this occurred on, but Derrick Bateman and Daniel Bryan had a very funny segment about guessing what the pro would say as they pre arranged answers before the segment. A classic Bryan piss take
I hope you guys don't sue Vice Media for "borrowing" your video and making it their own. Who Killed WCW? was good, but had some flaws, unlike your video about who really killed WCW! Someone should do Herb Abrams' Universal Wrestling Federation BEFORE Vice does a similar idea with familiar talking heads from Dark Side of the Ring AND the author of the biography of Abrams and the UWF: Jonathan Plombon, who did a great job on Tortured Ambition: The Story of Herb Abrams and the UWF.
Sat himself would jokingly say he killed it off since it seems like a bunch of things he's touched have died But we all know the real answer is that awful period of The Bloodline making SmackDown feel like a drag post SummerSlam 2023
Can you imagine New Jack doing the original season of NXT? He would stab Matt Stryker. Hell, can you imagine Steve Austin doing season one of NXT? Vince McMahon, for all his success, was an absolute moron a good chunk of the time.
So I've been watching season 1 of NXT on my lunch break this past week. Just got nostalgia reasons. It's not great but there is some off points here. For one thing the miz doesn't run down the rookies as the first thing on the show. Not sure where that line has come from
@@TJ_CrXss yeah vince and laurinatis basically run the original nxt over with a mac truck multiple times triple h just pulled the plug once it got to the hospital
I love how long these videos dance around Vince being responsible, as like the WWEECW video in this series, there is no question his stupid ideas and erratic booking were the unifying force that tanked them. Seriously, around this time Vince was so aggressively bad at everything that his absolute control of the company guaranteed his would be the name to attach to virtually every awful thing that would happen.
Next video in the series should be what all fans want: who really is Byron Saxton
Lmao, how have we still not answered that question after all these years??
Lol I thought this was going to say “who really killed Byron Saxon?”
Like, Byron’s dead? Who massacred my boy?!
Literally was going to make this comment 😂😂😂…also who really threw the pie in Kevin Owens’ face??
WHAT really is Byron Saxton?!
@@williamtoccijr9579 this is the million dollar question
Vince.
It was Vince.
Yeah honestly most of these could realistically end like 10 seconds after the intro.
>B Roll for the intro finishes
"Its Vince, the Answer is Vince."
>Rolls credits
I got two for you Luke: The OG Cruiserweight Division and 205 Live. Both deserve a discussion cause had WWE cared, they could’ve had something.
FACTS I’m surprised no one has done a retrospective on the 205 live brand.
Oh they 100% cared about 205 Live. They tried everything to make sure fans cared but nobody did.
no one cares about 205 lol no one needs to make a video
@@CulEdz No they didn't.
205 Live was their best program when it launched, and then it became some weird high school romance drama show.
The irony of Dave meltzer saying a .8 isn’t valuable. Times have changed.
Do y'all remember how Skip Sheffields catchphrase was "Yep yep yep... what it do"?
I hope we have a part 2 of the rise and fall of Black and Gold and the weird take over of 2.0
Anyone else remember how Kaval was ganged up on when he won, and a couple of the pros tried to help him fight off the rookies, and then the pros just walked off randomly? I always thought that was so weird.
Really enjoying these Saturday video essays. Keep them coming!
I blame vince mcmahon for killing black and gold
I blame Vince for killing most things
Yeah all bad vince yeah wwe fans always been that way lmao
FACTS.
Cool. Also incredibly obvious.
Not the subject of this video.
@@UltimateFarmer007sure, you can defend Vince, but you can't deny that Vince never wanted NXT to do well. He made it into a game show that humiliated rookies.
Fun fact; Bryan Danielson came up with his unused names 🙃
Lloyd Boner.
it's a hot take but i like the daniel bryan vs wwe system nxt story
idk if i was intended to or not but I
did
It would of been better if there was a "golden child" rookie who got all the easiest challenges and everything handed to them. And having Cole talk him up the whole show.
That was wade
I like the off=screen talking, but if there's going to be that much of it could you put in on-screen subtitles please?
Love this series Luke - great work by you and all involved
3:30 Ok, now I want to see a video all about how WWE crippled the UK Indy scene.
@@stylevstar253 It was a combination of multiple things. Whilst that was definitely the main thing, NXT UK did not help things.
Really love these videos and appreciate the time y'all put in to make them for us.
Mike Chase Kentucky, USA
17:28 So... They replaced a tall, buff girl, whose explicit pics were leaked to the internet with a tall, buff girl, whose explicit pics and videos were leaked to the internet. Oh, the irony.
+xerael4659
Huh?
It was a slower build for Kaitlyn’s nudes. Although, Isis didn’t even do nudes. Just giantess play.
Kaitlyn is 5'3".
@@thealjohnsonshow2188 What "huh"?
@@Undivided-X She is around 170 cm tall, which is roughly the same as Rhea Ripley and I'm pretty sure Kaitlyn is more buff.
What IS a moustache though?
Edit: 14:03 Thank you, mr Beau Brown.
Black and gold was so iconic it's almost forgettable to remember it started as a horrible game show.
FACTS.
Michael Cole, Josh Matthews and CM Punk are a GOATed announce team.
Why is there a 90 second long conversation off mic with no captioning? It was very frustrating trying to understand every 3rd word being said.
Honestly, if wwe took this more seriously. This version of NXT could have worked. But I’m glad NXT evolved into the black and gold era.
The sad thing is I think Vince was taking it seriously he just sucks
@@NancyBoi1984 nah, this was prime wwe not caring anymore
@TheKeven28900 cool it unfortunately doesn't seem to differ at all from times when wwe definitely did care
John Ace is the main reason that there are more ruthless aggression era stars still in wwe than guys from 2006-2012
I absolutely miss Smackdown reviews.
14:34, Kaval won? damn that left my memory cause of the genesis of the genesis of Michael McGillicutty.
Great Job Luke! You do awesome with these videos.
I think it’s safe to say we all know who kill NXT it was Vince and not Triple H
Yeah hhh was busy buring talent
FACTS.
@TribalChief9000 Lol, no that was also Vince.
@@davidparkes7741 yeah it was Vince
@@cliffordjackson3 thank you Jackson. I’m glad that you agree with me.
I didn't know they were doing a video on this...nice
It was a slow process, but to me the thing that sealed the fate was the guys who were the scaffold of the show ending up BECOMING the show: Gargano, Ciampa and the Undisputed Era. They are all fantastic wrestlers and were brilliant in the forging and development of the brand in facilitating its purpose: a tune up for the returning and major guys like McIntyre, Almas, Roode and Nakamura and a developmental for the newer and indy stars like Zayn, Owens, Corbin, Woods, Crews. But slowly those guys became the ACTUAL main event and at that point it had - perhaps inadvertantly - lost all elements of being a developmental brand and was just an indy show. If I was to choose a specific moment it would be Cole becoming the champ.
Of course Vince came along and killed it completely. And it was eventually reborn under HBK after a messy start as the thing it was actually meant to be and the near-perfect blend it is now. But the Black and Gold diehards are - IMO - a little in denial that it was already terminally wounded by around 2017-18 when it became the Undisputed Era show - a group that were always going to have limited mileage if they ever even came t the main roster.
Help I'm trying to watch a video on the gameshow era of NXT and all I get are Zenless Zone Zero ads
Join the club, man. At least it isn't Goddess of Victory Nikke.
Very well done video guys! 💜
The limbo joke by Michael Cole was the funniest line of the entire run he had there... A few memorable moments was when Aksana left Goldust and Cole quipped "Well I guess Goldust have to go back on the internet tonight"
My fantasy booking of naming him Derrick “The Master” Bateman and pushing him immediately as a mid card champ is still one of my favorite ones I did back in the day
Vince: It was me Austin...
This was really cool remembering how NXT first came into existence for WWE! NXT back then had its good and bad moments.
they gave Michael Cole a gong to hit when he'd had enough of something?
Did WWE rip off Hey Hey It's Saturday's Red Faces segment?!
On Hey Hey the guy with the gong was Red Symons... the lead guitarist of Skyhooks.
Vince didn’t have Cena go over nexus. Cena has openly admitted that his most regrettable action he’s done in wwe was use his creative control to not put over nexus and Barrett.
16:02 Wyatt Sicks to WrestleTalk confirmed 💪
There was a time when NXT Redemption was my favourite show because it was where I got to watch Tyson Kidd and Trent Beretta regularly
NXT showed a different side of the Industry
But it turns out hazing isn't that popular
The flower promo challenge was deceptively easy. You put flowers on graves. The promo cuts itself from there.
You ignored Johnny Wrestling as a security guard behind Michael Cole 6:19 lol
Side note I thought Otunga was with Halle Berry not Jennifer Hudson lmao no idea why 😂
As far as the "Talk the Talk" challenge goes, can't really blame those guys for fumbling most of those promos, just getting a random word like that.
Which is why it's so inpressive that Wade's promos during the challenge were actually really good. Shame he never won the wwe title as the nexus leader.
Vince, and he did it when Triple H was almost certainly dying. That makes it worse
I did the improv promo thing in public speaking in high school, I had to improv a 1 minute speech on pockets
I always thought Bryan was kind of the main character on season 1 of the show. There were probably folks there who wanted to legit bury him, but he survived it cause he was probably a pro backstage, and he got over when he was in front of an audience, which is something a lot of indy guys at the time likely struggled with.
Great job as always guys.
I don't really care about the subject because I'm a casual but I love to listen to Luke's voice.
Honestly, I think DBry’s NXT story probably was intended to get him over. If WWE didn’t see anything in Bryan, I don’t think they would have hired him back after the firing, nor would they have immediately pushed him as the guy to end Miz’s US title run.
Johnny Gargano as a security guard at 6:17!!!
As far as Nexus losing at Summer Slam, I believe Cena didn't want to lose that match. He was the guy. He could've talked Vince into changing the finish. At that time, Cena wanted to stay on top, and not put anyone over.
The miz/daniel bryan team and the jericho/wade teams were the best for season 1. Those were actually interesting teams
yeah I wish we got a proper Wade/Jericho feud at some point. For that matter a Wade/Punk feud too.
Basically what I'm saying is I wanted more Wade. At least we get to see him on WWE as a commentator/pre-and-post show host now
Next ones gotta be a black and gold retrospective
As much as I absolutely love R-Truth as the lovable idiot, I miss him as a heal too. The mocking of 'Little Jimmy' lol
Barrett Cashed in his title match at Bragging rights not night of champions if memory serves me right.
Not only Vince killed NXT but did it twice.
It was clearly Vince, triple h made so many good stars in Nxt only for them to have their name, appearance, or theme song changed
I was possibly 13 years old when NXT first was on air. And everything about how the show was presented lead me to be Bryan Danielson's biggest supporter. Maybe if it was live now that wouldn't have been the case.
I loved the first season of NXT, the debut/birth of The Nexus, honestly D Bryan, Wade Barrett and Justin Gabriel was the best. PEAK Raw moments💛
How did wrestling went from 8.1M in 1999 to 2M today????
Should be a video on this
I mean there is a simple answer. Demographics getting older combined with the rise of alternative outlets of entertainment. Also booking getting worse, a lack of genuine competition and Vince increasingly being surrounded by Yes Men
Awesome vid!
NXT was great, but it got stale for me when Undisputed Era were the dominant faction. Also when they went on the USA network to go head to head with AEW.
@WrestleTalk Your Playlist Needs fine tuning and stronger Distinction of different Playlists.
Many Videos are missing from related Playlist Like First Original about WWE screwing with AEW is missing from the original playlist.
I actually didn't mind NXT Redemption when it basically became a low tier usual brand product, and always felt it just needed a title, and it'd be an alright product. Then they killed it, and it became NXT. Close enough lol.
Ironically it's that first season of NXT that made me dislike Daniel Brian/Brian Danielson, as I felt that whole antagonizing schtick by Michael Cole was a foreshadowing for him getting pushed by management lol
I was one of the freaks who kept watching NXT Redemption 😂 I was really into Hawkins and Reks
I get strangely nostalgic for the Michael Cole Miz fetish era
Erm what the sigma?
The winds of change is actually a good name.
huh I actually didn't know that about the name but i'm not at all surprised
Maybe give Pete mic next time
Even if the NXT talent got over, it still wouldn't have mattered. Vince wasn't trying to make new stars. He didn't want new stars.
I don’t know what series of NXT this occurred on, but Derrick Bateman and Daniel Bryan had a very funny segment about guessing what the pro would say as they pre arranged answers before the segment. A classic Bryan piss take
"2 greatest words"= "default". lol . pretty sure its supposed to be "by default". just found this funny.
"Science Fiction Conspiracy show".. I want that lmao.
Really well put together video essay. Well done and thank you.
Season 5 was just a year long fever dream
I hope you guys don't sue Vice Media for "borrowing" your video and making it their own. Who Killed WCW? was good, but had some flaws, unlike your video about who really killed WCW! Someone should do Herb Abrams' Universal Wrestling Federation BEFORE Vice does a similar idea with familiar talking heads from Dark Side of the Ring AND the author of the biography of Abrams and the UWF: Jonathan Plombon, who did a great job on Tortured Ambition: The Story of Herb Abrams and the UWF.
When Vince take control NXT and making it 2.0 it wasn't the same black and gold NXT
Nxt black and gold is my favorite version of nxt to this day
10th week asking for the smackdown reviews back
Next video.
Who really killed SmackDown and NXT review?
Tempest - him?
Sat E - not him?
Pete - him?
Sat himself would jokingly say he killed it off since it seems like a bunch of things he's touched have died
But we all know the real answer is that awful period of The Bloodline making SmackDown feel like a drag post SummerSlam 2023
There's no smackdown review today. I missed sat.
Can you imagine New Jack doing the original season of NXT? He would stab Matt Stryker. Hell, can you imagine Steve Austin doing season one of NXT? Vince McMahon, for all his success, was an absolute moron a good chunk of the time.
Vince, it was always Vince. Everything that is wrong with WWE until he was pushed out was Vince's fault
Need a what happened to/ the rise and fall of the original black and gold
@5:15 the one next to DB . Every other time I was l seeing it all I see is olboy hair 🍘/🤼/
Nexus only beat up Jerry Lawler on commentary Michael Cole ran away
That moment when you realise Seth Rollins was THIS close to being an NXT gameshow stooge
That was when I quit watching😢
it's not even a question
So I've been watching season 1 of NXT on my lunch break this past week. Just got nostalgia reasons. It's not great but there is some off points here. For one thing the miz doesn't run down the rookies as the first thing on the show. Not sure where that line has come from
De-Fault!
Vince, because he had the final say.
Daniel Bryan = Buddy Peacock!?
Without watching, it’s Vince McMahon. Will reply after I finish watching
Edit: yep, it was Vince
This video talked about the game show version not black and gold
@@brokenregistrymy point still stands.
@@TJ_CrXss yeah vince and laurinatis basically run the original nxt over with a mac truck multiple times triple h just pulled the plug once it got to the hospital
FACTS.
Man Vince hurt his product so bad
Most definitely Vince.
Just gonna leave us hanging on that second "sweetest words in the English language" huh?
I love how long these videos dance around Vince being responsible, as like the WWEECW video in this series, there is no question his stupid ideas and erratic booking were the unifying force that tanked them. Seriously, around this time Vince was so aggressively bad at everything that his absolute control of the company guaranteed his would be the name to attach to virtually every awful thing that would happen.
16:03 What happened to QA?
6:19 is it jhonny gargano in security