What if NXT was around in the early 1990s?

[GhettoV1]

Since NXT has been an success for WWE in terms of bringing many former TNA/Impact Wrestling/GFW, ROH, Indy and international talent to the main roster I wonder if in the early 1990s there was a NXT (let alone the WWE Performance Center) would've aided the WWF in bringing new stars and giving alot of Indy talent a better showcase to show their skills before going to the main roster.

 

[Psykohurricane55]

i don't think that i would have change a think because back then, it was a more family own company and the Mcmahon's while still having made a lot of money from the 80's still didn't have the type of money that they have today. Plus, i was more of a live event company then a tv company at the time so they would bring in just the guys they needed instead of signing pretty much everybody that's popular on the indy's. The other thing was that nobody had contract back then, it was pretty much all on a handshake type deal were they would pay their talent a certain amount every shows plus a percentage of the gate for the main eventers so again, they wouldn't bring in talent they don'T need.

The tv product wasn't what it was today so having a NXT type brand wouldn't have work. The fact is when you look the NXT show right now, it's pretty much what tv was in the early 90'S and those show aren't setting the world on fire with fans the way the NXT live events or Specials are, so do i think it would have worked back then, i don't think i would have change anything back then because fans didn'T see wrestling the same way they do today.

 

[shooter_mcgavin]

I am thinking maybe it would have been for the worst?

Remember Vince McMahon didn't see anything from Steve Austin besides being a worker. I have a feeling he might have been placed on NXT for a year or two perhaps either delaying the attitude era or it's possible it may never happened.

Imagine Austin working in NXT Takeovers during WM13 instead of being actually at WM13 in that submission match.

 

[Tripleb2k1]

How can we truly answer this as NXT is a 20-25 year evolution of the WWE Developmental System

 

[Wildcat66]

First off: It wouldn't even be NXT, it would be another name entirely. I don't know what, but it's something different.

Second: NXT would be absolutely huge, maybe even a rival to WWF and possibly WCW if it made it pass the early 90s.

And finally: NXT would likely be the most cutting edge promotion in the world. Ever.

 

[Garak]

Since NXT has been an success for WWE in terms of bringing many former TNA/Impact Wrestling/GFW, ROH, Indy and international talent to the main roster I wonder if in the early 1990s there was a NXT (let alone the WWE Performance Center) would've aided the WWF in bringing new stars and giving alot of Indy talent a better showcase to show their skills before going to the main roster.

These type of people were used as jobbers at the time until they built up their skill set and impressed management, if that ever happened. Think of the Hardys back in the day.

 

[Goldie]

People were often made to wait for this pushes back then.

I agree that young unproven talent yet to establish themselves would be treated like the Hardys in 1996- treated as jobbers until they had the experience and developed their personalities to move on to the next level.

I don't think Vince would suddenly expose a bunch of rookies and push them in this era.
If anything in 2011/2012 you still have stars like Cena, Orton, Punk etc ... but the general roster was not as established as say 1992: Hogan, Flair, Taker, Savage, Hart, Piper, Shawn, Perfect, Warrior, Jake, Razor, LOD... were all huge names
Because the roster was already rich with talent there would be fewer openings for new guys to break through.
In the current era there isn't the same depth of big names (yes there are stars but how many legendary names??) and with 2 rosters (Raw and Smackdown) there is more opportunity to make a name for yourself

 

[Garak]

I don't think Vince would suddenly expose a bunch of rookies and push them in this era.

Agreed. If, somehow, NXT were magically able to command a bigger audience than Raw and Smackdown, you could be rest assured that there would be a very quick talent shakeup, and people such as Reigns or Cena would migrate there almost immediately.

 

[Mighty NorCal]

This could literally be one the most stupid threads in the history of this forum.

NXT exists to try and recreate a small portion of the feeder system they DID have back in the early 90s/late 80s. Not the other way around. Back then, guys didn't "showcase their talent" on a steaming service seen by 10% of the audience, they learned their craft working in other full-fledged wrestling companies.

Also early 90s? Are we getting more star power than Warrior, Flair, Hogan, Sid Justice, The Undertaker, Jake the Snake , The Road Warriors, Randy Savage, and Bret Hart? All of whom worked in full fledged major companies for years before they touched the WWE ?

 

[FromGlasgow]

I don't think it would have worked the same as wrestlers in the WWF during the 90's where mainly already big established stars from other companies such as Flair, Luger and Road Warriors, Austin, Vader and Cactus etc, With the exception of a few who werent that well known but I enjoyed finding out about them and what they were going to do next on the main shows.
With todays era everyone is pretty much unknown before joining the WWE so NXT kind of gets their name out there.

 

[JoeMallard]

It would look like a less hardcore version of ECW.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

This WAS around in the early 90's just not a "brand" of WWE.

WWE worked with USWA in Memphis and Smokey Mountain primarily in those days and a LOT of talent came through both.

The Rock, Papa Shango, Men on A Mission, Undertaker, Jeff Jarrett, Brian Christopher were some of the more successful USWA talents but there were many others who failed like Brakus, Tekno Team 2000, Skinner/Steve Keirn, Spellbinder/Phantasio and the original Doink were among the failures, Jerry Jarrett and Jerry Lawler owned it... Jarrett was even gonna take over for Vince if he went to jail so that relationship was as close to WWE as possible.

From the Smokey Mountain side you had Glen Jacobs/Unabomb/Kane, Al Snow, Tom Prichard, Tony Anthony/TL Hopper, Lance Storm, Chris Jericho, Candido and Sunny, The Hardyz and of course their owner Jim Cornette.

The WWF sent their people to both places in return for being able to use theirs and from 1991 onwards you regularly saw guys coming up from USWA and shortly after for SMW... Most of the "new talent" that came into the WWF in that era came through one of those companies until they started picking up WCW cast offs in late 95.

To answer the question though, both fed talents to WCW as well... as they weren't exclusive it meant some talents invariably went to WCW or ECW first. If NXT had been around in the 90's as an exclusive feeder territory, it probably wouldn't have been able to survive. While both Lawler and Cornette had business relationships with Vince, they'd also get commissions from the other companies for talents Vince didn't want... they wouldn't have been able to do that in a WWE owned NXT and as Vince wasn't offering guaranteed money... they wouldn't have been able to get the talent in to begin with. It was only because Lawler and Cornette could make money to cover "bigger names" like a Terry Funk or even The Undertaker in SMW for a few shots...or even see their teams like The Heavenly Bodies go to Summerslam etc. that the younger talents were getting the chance. It was symbiotic, Vince needed new faces and Cornette and USWA needed big names coming in to draw.

NXT is all about WWE...and that wouldn't have flown in the 90's...