Latest Update on NXT Changes Coming After NXT TakeOver 36

Earlier this month multiple reports dropped about WWE changing up its approach to NXT, from its presentation to the kind of stars the brand will want to focus on in the future (hence the 13 releases that took place around the same time). In the last 24 hours both Bryan Alvarez of the Wrestling Observer and Mike Johnson of PWInsider reported that these changes will go one step further, with NXT reportedly going back to taping episodes in advance from the Capitol Wrestling Center following NXT TakeOver 36.

The next three episodes following the pay-per-view will be taped early next week, though Johnson noted the show will return to a live broadcast beginning on Sept. 14. Andrew Zarian of The Mat Men Podcast then tweeted out a conversation he had with someone from the USA Network.

Back when NXT took place inside Full Sail Arena the show would tape weeks’ worth of episodes (back then they were just one hour) over just a few short days. But once the show was moved from the WWE Network to USA in late 2019 it was extended to two hours and became a live event each week.

All of the reports regarding NXT changing its identity have left some fans online in a state of panic. However, Triple H addressed how NXT has undergone multiple identity changes in the past during a media conference call earlier this summer.

“A year or two in, three years in, four years in, that was a heavy knock on NXT (its identity as developmental),” he said. “I don’t know if you remember it that way but I do. For me doing the interviews at that time it was always said, ‘how can I get into this brand? Whenever I get excited about a talent they move on.’ It kills me for the brand and I don’t like it and it was a heavy criticism. That morphed into a different place where people got accustomed to that and it switched, the brand changed again. It’s changed into a place where yeah there are going to be some talent who are in a position for a long time. They might not fit in different places, they might not want to go different places. There are some talent that don’t want to leave and expand beyond. Maybe the schedule doesn’t work for them physically, whatever it is.”