WWE NXT Right Now Is Better Than The "Black & Gold" Era (2024)

WWE in the 2010s was a rough time for the company as, without any competition, Vince McMahon put little effort into his product, focusing on John Cena and Roman Reigns as dull babyfaces, while bringing back over-the-hill part-timers and having Brock Lesnar as a champion who was never around. WWE was boring, and you had to seek out the indies to find fun wrestling, but thanks to Triple H's NXT, that passion was reignited with stars like Finn Balor, Samoa Joe, Kevin Owens, and the Four Horsewomen. As AEW came to be and Triple H took a hiatus from WWE, the "Black & Gold" era of NXT ended. Fans were angry at NXT's new direction, but 2024 has proven to be the best year in the brand's history.

NXT's "Black & Gold Era" Made Wrestling Cool Again

Many NXT Stars Failed To Get Over On WWE's Main Roster

• NXT started out as a reality game show
• NXT became a destination for popular indie wrestlers
• Women's NXT stars got over better on WWE's main roster than the men

Although WWE never talks about it, NXT means "next", with the brand being all about developing the next generation of WWE superstars. After a disastrous start as a bad reality game show (hey, it did give us Daniel Bryan!), NXT became its own show. It was about creating new stars, and while it built up talent with no wrestling experience like Roman Reigns, it soon became a destination for top indie talent looking to make it big. Seth Rollins, who was Tyler Black in Ring of Honor, becoming the first NXT Champion was a catalyst for that, but then every big name you could think of was in NXT. Samoa Joe, Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Finn Balor, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Adam Cole all found glory in NXT, while Triple H and company also built up the women's division around the Four Horsewomen of Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, Bayley, and Sasha Banks.

There was just one problem with . The male stars weren't WWE creations but wrestlers who had made their name elsewhere. Vince McMahon didn't care about that, which is why many went from champions in NXT to midcard nobodies on Raw and SmackDown. The women's division didn't have those stars, who were mostly molded by WWE, which is why the women's division took off on the main roster in the 2010s and the men's division floundered. All of those big indie names in NXT might have been very exciting, but it's not what the brand was for.

With Triple H Out, Vince McMahon Created NXT 2.0

AEW Took NXT's Place As The Spot For Great Wrestling

• AEW was created in 2019 due to WWE's failures
• NXT 2.0 was used to create new talent like Bronn Breakker and Tiffany Stratton
• Fans initially hated NXT 2.0

In 2019, the wrestling world changed with Tony Khan's creation of All Elite Wrestling. AEW suddenly became the cool destination for hardcore wrestling fans, leaving NXT in the dust as second place. It had served its purpose, but now the "Black & Gold era" had no reason to exist. That became more clear as its biggest stars, like Adam Cole, left for AEW, and then Triple H had to step away due to a serious heart issue. That resulted in Vince McMahon stepping in with the new NXT 2.0, a flashy, brightly lit production where all the names we loved were phased out and replaced with non-wrestlers we'd never heard of.

Fans understandably hated the change. We might have had AEW now, but that didn't mean we wanted to lose the NXT we loved. The new talent in NXT were very green and a bit boring, a vast difference from the place where the best wrestlers competed. Slowly, however, new stars began to emerge. The men's division was quickly taken over by Bronn Breakker in a passing of the torch moment from one of the past era's remaining stars, Tommaso Ciampa. The women's division was led by a revamped Mandy Rose and athletic newbies like Tiffany Stratton. NXT was finally becoming what it was always meant to be, a place to craft new stars and fix potential stars who had the talent but hadn't been used right elsewhere.

2024 Has Been NXT's Best Year Yet

WWE Is Building New Superstars For The Future

• NXT has been cool again with the likes of Trick Williams and Roxanne Perez
• WWE is fixing talent from elsewhere like Ethan Page and Lexis King
• WWE working with TNA makes NXT feel like an exciting destination again

The last few years of NXT has seen everything click. The ugly colors and name of NXT 2.0 are gone, with the black and gold colors back, making the Tuesday night brand something that felt both like the future and a nod to what worked in the past. Carmelo Hayes, Trick Williams, Lyra Valkyria, and Roxanne Perez became the faces of the show, and while many of these stars had previous experience, they weren't such huge stars somewhere else that it overshadowed their new home. Better yet, under Triple H, these stars had a future beyond NXT. It used to be that fans groaned when their favorite NXT wrestler was called up to Raw or SmackDown because we knew their run was done, but now NXT is a true launching pad. Just look at the immediate success that Carmelo Hayes and Lyra Valkyria have had, or look at the massive reaction Trick Williams got when he showed up on an episode of SmackDown. There was a time when fans didn't react to NXT stars on the main roster, but now they do because even the casual ones are watching.

WWE isn't so focused on the future to ignore the present either. Triple H is a wrestling fan and it shows. Bringing in the likes of Lexis King, Shawn Spears, and Ethan Page from AEW proves that. These are three men with tremendous talent who weren't used right in AEW, but who can now be given a second chance with Shawn Michaels as their boss. Then there's WWE's working with TNA. WWE collaborating with another company is huge because it's so rare, and it makes NXT a destination, rather than a demotion. NXT used to be a bubble, but now it's the popular path forward. 2024 has seen every aspect of NXT work and become everything it was supposed to be, all to its full potential.