By Colin McGuire, ProWrestling.net Staffer
The most antiquated thing you can do in pro wrestling media in 2026 is write about pro wrestling once a month. The landscape changes by the tweet (or … um … X post). Everyone and their best friend’s best friend’s aunt’s nephew has a podcast ready to dissect the latest rumor, angle, program, television show, and passive-aggressive social media post that just happened 30 seconds from now. Offering something up at the beginning of each month is an exercise in idiocy, a lesson in pointlessness and an assurance that your *thoughts* will quickly be forgotten.
So, all right. Let’s write about pro wrestling once a month.
RE-TAKE THE TakeoverS
Remember about, oh, let’s say a decade ago, when this thing called NXT started to really take hold of a very specific set of pro wrestling fans? Its colors were black and gold, and when it came to America’s tired and stale take on what became known as “sports entertainment,” this was the place where mainstream fans could feel like they were dining out at a Michelin-star restaurant after spending years of being force-fed Burger King.
Included in this was a thing called Takeover. It served as the namesake of NXT’s biggest shows of the year. Takeover: Brooklyn. Takeover: Chicago. Takeover: Duluth (OK, maybe not). If you didn’t care to dive into Japanese wrestling, never understood lucha libre, or could never seem to find the right independent promotion for you, NXT Takeover turned out to be the cream of the crop.
The final installment came in August 2021, exactly five years ago this month. By September, NXT 2.0 took hold and Takeovers, as we knew them, ceased to exist.
I say this, why? Because mainstream American pro wrestling has a PPV (or PLE) problem. AEW reminded us last weekend that there’s just no world in which that company runs concise, digestible pay-per-views, all early start times be damned. WWE, meanwhile, gives us five or six matches (two of which always seem like they could easily be on one of the weekly television shows), 100 minutes worth of commercials and a pat on the ass for our troubles.
AEW is too much. WWE is too little. NXT Takeovers, however, were perfect.
Think about how it worked. At its most indulgent, the events had eight or nine matches. By the time it wrapped up, Paul Levesque’s now-traditional five- or six-match card emerged. And here’s something crazy: It had success.
Takeover 36 went down Aug. 22, 2021, from WWE’s Performance Center (a strong enough sign that NXT was about to be awfully different awfully soon). It had six matches. The longest was a two-out-of-three falls match between Adam Cole and Kyle O’Reilly that went a little more than 25 minutes. Outside of a Ridge Holland Squash, the two shortest matches came in at about 12-and-a-half minutes. It wasn’t the best Takeover, but it outlines a formula that both AEW and WWE should reconsider as they seem to piss down their own legs when it comes time to put on a Very Important Show these days.
NXT Black and Gold got it right. Really good-to-great wrestling. In and out, usually in two or two-and-a-half hours. Never, ever overstayed its welcome. And, perhaps most importantly, felt pure. We’re only five years removed from the final Takeover, but what people forget is how much those productions were taken for granted. Some of those Brooklyn shows felt like the best pro wrestling in the world, if only for a minute. There was a string of these things that forced us all to want more consistently, a stark contrast between where both major companies are today. And where are they today?
“Oh, it’s over? Finally? Whew. Thank God.”
Or.
“Oh, it’s over? Wait? That’s it? Where can I find some Dude Wipes again?”
Looking back on NXT Black and Gold as merely a super indie shouldn’t be held in as much disregard as I sometimes see. If nothing else, that product gave us a template for The Perfect Big Pro Wrestling Shows (or something like that, at least — nothing’s perfect, you know). Have five or six really strong stories with really strong wrestlers involved. Give them time. Let them have every inch of spotlight they want. Never overstay your welcome.
When AEW came along and one-upped this version of NXT, I don’t think anyone could predict how it would bastardize the “This is great wrestling” formula. AEW felt like NXT-But-More, which was good at the time. These days, it feels like it blew past Too Much a year ago and is heading towards That’s Enough at warped speed. WWE main roster shows, meanwhile, are so buried in corporate greed (and Danhausen), that it’s nearly impossible to find a welcoming flow to any of its offerings.
What’s so odd is that both sides have major ties to the rise of Takeovers and NXT Black and Gold. AEW might not exist if those Takeovers and NXT didn’t popularize really good wrestling and make it palatable and cool for a mainstream audience. WWE, meanwhile, has the guy who ran NXT Black and Gold then running its biggest shows now, and yet somehow he’s seemingly forgotten how to put together these things (beyond sticking to a five/six match format, which doesn’t always work on main roster WWE because main roster WWE doesn’t have enough compelling stories to successfully pull off the same tricks he pulled off in WWE’s minor league).
So, what gives? It seems like an easy fix. Remove two or three matches from your cards, AEW. Add one or two to yours, WWE. Cut the shit. Make it happen. Get back to a product that doesn’t antagonize and/or test your fans. It doesn’t seem like rocket science …
… Does it?
Either way, cheers to NXT Takeovers. You’ve been gone for half a decade, but your success deserves a second examination as those who’ve come after you refuse to learn from your winning formula. Where’s 30 minutes of Bayley vs. Sasha Banks when you need them?
RADIO KILLED THE … ER, WAIT
So, why are we all mad at WWE Radio again?
For those who missed it, SiriusXM launched WWE Radio at the end of last month. It effectively took over Busted Open Radio (though everyone promises nothing will change!) and will sprinkle in some of these phony baloney podcasts WWE has produced over the last year or two, along with some simulcasts of the company’s biggest shows (which I sort of like; imagine listening to “Brock Lesnar vs. Oba Femi” over the radio just like grandpa did “Babe Ruth” some 100 years ago).
As a wrestling fan, I don’t understand why anyone wouldn’t think this is (or, well, at least could be) very fun. It’s not like all the Busted Open people are going away (sans Thunder Rosa … damn AEW contracts). My guess is that people like Dave LaGreca and Bully Ray hearing any sellout-related blowback related to the move will only make them look for more reasons to criticize WWE anyway. Either way, it’s not the end of the world if they don’t.
My point is: what did you expect? We are in the Very Corporate Very Evil era of WWE, and for that company to expand its footprint into the wild world of radio only makes sense. I mean, if Dave Matthews can have his own SiriusXM channel, why wouldn’t you think Sam Roberts would one day be given the liberty to opine on Dragon Lee over those same airwaves?
It’s fine, people. You don’t like it, you don’t have to listen to it. Let’s all settle down.
RESILIENT REBEL
This final spot is reserved for Tanea Brooks, who we wrestling fans know as Rebel (or Reba!).
She was diagnosed with ALS earlier this year, and it’s been lovely to see the pro wrestling world come together to support her. Wrestlers across all companies have stepped up, and the more her message can be spread, the better.
So, add this column as the tiniest contribution to that. To you, Ms. Brooks, I am sending all the good vibes and well wishes that someone with a monthly pro wrestling column possibly can.
For those who don’t already know, AEW will hold a special Dynamite in her honor in September. To learn more about donating to I AM ALS, the leading community movement dedicated to ending ALS, visit AEWTogether.org/RebelHeart.
PREDICTIONS ARE LIKE WHAT AGAIN?
We could have gone undefeated last month, depending on how one categorizes CM Punk and Cody Rhodes vaguely referencing AEW during their SummerSlam build — and if Tony Khan would have just waited until Redemption to switch his most important title to Kenny Omega. But rules are rules, and I finished July 3-2 for an overall record now of 26-23. Onto August, where the predictions are many:
– For SummerSlam winners, let’s go with CM Punk, Oba Femi, Iyo Sky, Gunther, Jacob Fatu and the Usos, the Bellas and Paige, Roman Reigns, Charlotte Flair, Chad Gable, Trick Williams, Sami Zayn, and Danhausen.
– All In might only have three matches announced as of this writing, but let’s go with Will Ospreay, Willow Nightingale, and the team of Adam Copeland and Christian Cage as winners.
– Nic Nemeth is currently advertised for a tag team match at TNA’s Lockdown later this month. If he defends his title, he will walk out of that event still as TNA World Champion.
– Gabe Kidd will win NJPW’s G1 Climax 36.
– Grayson Waller will be involved with at least one NXT Championship match sometime this month.
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