Is Vince McMahon Pushing for an Edgier NXT 2.0?

Earlier this week it was reported by Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful that NXT 2.0 may be going in an edgier direction per Vince McMahon’s orders. This is quite an interesting development as it coincides with the show’s rebranding. John Alba of Living the Gimmick previously reported that NXT was going to be targeting a younger audience. Per Fightful, that target audience could be an 18 to 34 demographic.

When NXT went head-to-head with AEW on Wednesdays, it struggled to draw that key demo. It looks like this could be a move to grab a chunk of the audience that was missed.

This week’s episode opened with the new NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa cutting a promo about how NXT 2.0 was the A show. This led to a brawl between the NXT wrestlers which resulted in Ciampa and Bron Breakker clearing the ring. Interestingly, Breakker then took the mic and said some not-very-family-friendly things, so the seeds could already be planted for NXT 2.0 to try and capture a younger demographic with edgier language and storylines.

Speaking of Breakker, he sounded a lot like his uncle Scott Steiner when he was trash talking the other NXT wrestlers. He also looked pretty solid in the night’s main event, hitting offense from both his dad and uncle’s repertoires. It’s just a damn shame they didn’t let him keep the name Rex Steiner.

NXT 2.0 continues to be an interesting project, with the debut episode featuring a really snappy presentation but weak in-ring action. Unfortunately, this week’s episode was far weaker, featuring mostly short squash matches. That said, the TV ratings have been decent the past couple weeks, so this new direction could be the right move for the brand in terms of reaching a wider audience, even if it does alienate that pure wrestling crowd that gravitated toward the NXT of old in the first place.

We’ll be watching and waiting to see if NXT 2.0 finds its identity and is able to deliver a solid product in the coming weeks and months.