If you want to find the reason why WWE does what they do, pay close attention to their overall marketing.

Marketing is what drives sales; and Vince McMahon is an all-time great at BOTH.

  • Vince McMahon has been able to reinvent WWE, seamlessly, time and time again without making any radical restructuring to the company.
  • NXT 2.0 is a brand new concept; destroying the black & gold brand that Triple H spent tens of thousands of hours building into an alternative to RAW & Smackdown.
  • Why did this happen? What is the real reason for firing dozens of wrestlers, shifting the presentation of the show & gutting the management team?
  • The reason? MARKETING.
  • Or maybe something a bit more sinister?

Marketing & Sales are the two staples of EVERY business model. They are the pathways to financial success.

In WWE, the best marketer and salesman the company has is Vince McMahon. In fact, he’s one of the greatest of ALL TIME at both. The proof is in the pudding.

In this article, without focusing too much on the various competitors Vince has faced in the wrestling business, I will showcase how he has pivoted seamlessly to various marketing strategies for WWE. I will also provide some clarity into potentially WHY he has handled the NXT 2.0 marketing campaign differently.

During mid 1980’s, Vincent K. McMahon went all in on the “Rock n Wrestling” marketing initiative; forming a partnership with MTV, which was used as a launch point to sell WrestleMania to entire country.

This served to be a brilliant business strategy that brought wrestling into the mainstream with the first all music television channel. MTV was still relatively new; starting just a few years earlier in 1981.

Along with WrestleMania came the monumental push of Hulk Hogan as a mainstream wrestling star that transcended the business. As the 1980s continued, and WrestleMania was dubbed an annual event built on the back of The Hulkster, WWF started their next marketing initiative:

“What The World is Watching”, which was an early marketing statement by Vince to tell the fans, “hey, we are taking over the world with this thing.” And he was not playing around. WWE saw a global expansion; reaching countries all over the world as WWE’s television presence continued to gain momentum.

From here, we moved to “The New Generation”, where the focus shifted to smaller, more athletic professional wrestlers in the midst of “The Steroid Scandal.” Again, the marketing changed.

We saw the invention of Monday Night RAW, which was a live wrestling show every Monday Night in New York City. This was innovative and started to push the creative boundaries; which foreshadowed the next major marketing change to the company.

While they still tried to maintain their ‘family friendly’ vibe by featuring Bret Hart, Diesel and Shawn Michaels as WWF Champions, it was only a matter of time before the wacky 1990s pulled the WWF into some of the controversies that defined the decade.

Again, I could write for hours about how WCW & ECW pushed the limits creatively, but I don’t want to go down that rabbit hole.

The Attitude Era featured a variety of slogans, catchphrases and marketing initiatives all rolled into one wild good time. “Get It?”

The wrestling business had never been more popular than is was during The Attitude Era, where the creative envelope was pushed to the limits & character development became the focal point of the company.

WWF became grittier, more realistic and had a financial boom that led to unprecedented licensing deals and eventually, going public. There were a magnitude of reasons why Vince McMahon wanted to transition away from The Attitude Era, and once again, the company was able to move to a new era…but not without challenges.

Often times, it takes a massive event to force Vince’s hand into shifting the marketing direction of the company.

For example: when The World Wildlife Fund successfully won a lawsuit to claim ownership of the acronym “WWF”, Vince immediately changed the name of the company to World Wrestling Entertainment (it was already listed as WWFE on the stock market.)

Vince swiftly launched the “GET THE F OUT!” campaign to tell the world, “hey, we are WWE now!”

The company still had the same basic formula that drove success throughout “The Attitude Era”, but they had to move on without Stone Cold Steve Austin & The Rock as they pushed forward into the mid-2000s.

Fast forwarding, WWE started to shift again towards a more ‘family friendly’ format following many untimely deaths revolving around the wrestling industry; most notably the tragedy of the Chris Benoit “Double Murder-Suicide.”

The Wellness Policy was instituted, John Cena was being pushed to the forefront of the company as their main attraction and overall, the show was focused towards the traditional American family.

They were no longer as interested in the rebellious ‘early 20s’ fan. They wanted Mom, Dad and the kids back in attendance. They always did, but now, that’s where the focus lied.

You may remember a few years ago when Stephanie McMahon tweeted from a WWE Brand Positioning Conference: “philanthropy is the future of marketing, it’s the way brands r going 2 win”.

And if you have watched WWE over the last few years, they relentlessly shove their philanthropic marketing efforts down our throats. I’m not saying there isn’t a place for philanthropy; most giant conglomerates do it. WWE has been a partner with Make-A-Wish for many years.

But since this tweet from Stephanie McMahon, they have taken it a step further. No question.

They go heavy with Susan G. Komen Foundation for breast cancer every October, as well as a focus on their own charities like Conor’s Cure.

WWE took this marketing strategy seriously, and still do.

Ultimately, this leads us to a completely different shift in how Vince McMahon handles branding, marketing and sales pertaining to the NXT side of the business.

NXT was a Triple H project from 2012 until 2021; with the idea being to cultivate talent from within, building the future of the business within the confines of the WWE umbrella.

The WWE Performance Center was founded in July 2013, which was quickly described as a utopia for young professional wrestlers to train, practice and prepare for a future on WWE television.

For years, this was considered a monumental success with many WrestleMania main event caliber wrestlers coming out of the program. They were able to reinvent their Women’s division, with the likes of Sasha Banks, Paige, Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, Alexa Bliss, Bayley, Bianca Belair and countless others coming through NXT.

Triple H took the NXT brand, which essentially was his vision creatively, to new heights with a series of successfully branded “Takeover” event. In my mind, “Takeover” was always a metaphor for what Triple H planned to eventually do with the entire company someday.

This is why, as the current Executive Vice President of Global Talent Strategy & Development, and the son-in-law to Vince McMahon, he believed that to be true.

Triple H put his management team in place, coaches, trainers and talent roster. The stage was being set to not only position NXT as a viable alternative to RAW & Smackdown, but it was also positioned as a brand to win MAJOR matches on WWE Pay-Per-View events…against main roster stars!

Shayna Baszler wins the Main Event of Survivor Series 2019

Over the past few years, WWE started to move NXT into a position to compete directly with the emerging All Elite Wrestling.

They moved the brand to the USA Network, extended the show to 2 hours and aired it directly in opposition to AEW. Anyone with a functioning brain knew why this was being done, but it served as being counter productive.

Ultimately, NXT continued to do what they’ve always done: excellent professional wrestling, showcasing new wrestlers, fresh concepts and emotionally driven stories.

At some point or another in 2021, something changed.

Vince McMahon has essentially gutted the NXT roster, staff and management; changing the name of the brand to NXT 2.0. He shifted the marketing strategy, to closely align with that of RAW and Smackdown as of late.

What I mean by “more closely align” is that WWE focuses heavily on their marketing strategy by utilizing music, photography, merchandising and featuring specific WWE superstars.

Normally, WWE tries to move with society, as I mentioned earlier with their marketing efforts in “The Rock n Wrestling Connection” and “The Attitude Era.” If heavy metal music is hot for the specific demographic WWE is targeting, you will hear a lot of heavy metal music behind WWE marketing efforts.

Always pay attention to how WWE tries to sell you merchandise. Music is used as a way to monetize demographics. Many businesses in the entertainment industry do this. It’s subliminal, and it is proven to work.

They shift marketing to one demographic, to another, and you don’t even know it. Very smart strategy that WWE has always used.

Right now, our society has a major focus on ‘diversity & inclusion’, which is pushed by state governments, major corporations, mainstream legacy media and pop culture in general.

With that, you see WWE naturally move in this direction. I’m not saying this is a bad thing; it is simply what is happening and what I believe is a reason behind the complete teardown of NXT as it stood. (But is it THE reason?)

WWE used to feature music by Metallica for major events; that has now been replaced by Cardi B and Bad Bunny (props to his WrestleMania match, though).

WWE used to bring their wrestlers to music festivals like OzzFest. That has now been replaced by an appearance at Rolling Loud in 2021, which clearly featured black athletes defeating their white counterparts. Diversity, baby! (I kid, I kid.)

Again, I want to clarify that I have no issue with this, but it’s a clear marketing directive pushed forward by WWE.

I don’t believe that Triple H was going to willfully change that aspect of their brand, even when featuring emerging talents like HIT ROW (released) and Carmelo Hayes. They still featured heavy metal music, like Slipknot, as the background for marketing efforts.

Their logo transformed to an even MORE METAL version, featuring a skull w/ wings attached to it.

If you pay any attention to Triple H, if you’re a fan, you understand that NXT was an extension of what he wanted his vision of WWE to be.

Enter Nick Khan, WWE President and Chief Revenue Officer, who many now expect to be the heir to the Vince McMahon throne…not Triple H.

Why did Vince McMahon decide to completely tear down everything that Triple H built up with NXT?

Unlike the way he shifted marketing in past years, NXT 2.0 has seen mass firings.

Unlike “The New Generation” to “The Attitude Era”, where the focus was on reestablishing the stars that have been built up for years. Not emptying the entire roster.

Here is a list of some theories, events and changes to NXT as it continues to push the NXT 2.0 era:

  • As mentioned above, a major change to marketing. Was this a Nick Khan pushed effort? Here are some glaring changes to the brand.
    • Goodbye to the BLACK & GOLD and hello to the color splash.
    • Goodbye to Slipknot, hello to “down south slangin’ rollin’ with these hustlas”
    • Goodbye to Adam Cole, Keith Lee, Karrion Kross, Kyle O’Reilly, Bobby Fish, Johnny Gargano and countless other professional wrestlers who were being positioned as the future of WWE.
      • (I won’t throw shade to the wrestlers that are being positioned in the NXT 2.0 brand. All respect to them.)
    • Goodbye to William Regal, Road Dogg, Samoa Joe and other members of Triple H’s team. Hello to…Bruce Prichard and someone named Christine Lubrano?
    • Goodbye to Triple H’s badass “Capitol Wrestling Center” and hello to whatever this new soundstage looking thing is.
    • A lockstep approach to national ‘diversity & inclusion’ initiatives. All good, just clearly evident by overall WWE marketing plans.
    • The brand has become more “pop culture” friendly. Clearly.
  • Vince McMahon deemed the brand a failure for not CRUSHING All Elite Wrestling the way HE HIMSELF crushed WCW.
  • Moving away from signing seasoned independent professional wrestlers and moving back towards signing athletes out of college and converting them to WWE Superstars. WWE has always done this, but now the focus is fully on that recruiting effort.
    • With college athletes now being able to monetize their name, likeness and image, WWE is taking full advantage of this. Hence the launch of their new “Next In line” initiative. WWE can now sign college athletes while they are still in school. SMART BUSINESS.
    • We know Triple H built the NXT brand around wrestlers who made a name for themselves in smaller wrestling promotions.
    • Former NXT Champions include Seth Rollins, Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, Finn Balor, Bobby Roode, Shinsuke Nakamura, Samoa Joe, Johnny Garagno, Adam Cole and a who’s who list of other top wrestlers from ROH, NJPW, Impact and other promotions.
    • The rumor is that WWE will SCALE BACK on looking to the independent scene to recruit wrestlers. This is already evident.
  • Triple H suffered a mysterious ‘cardiac event‘ right in the middle of this ‘complete revamp‘ on NXT, as described by WWE President and Chief Revenue Officer Nick Khan.
    • While private medical matters are essentially none of our business, I found WWE’s statement regarding the matter to be intentionally vague.
    • The lack of transparency & timing of this ‘cardiac event’ leads me to believe that there may be more to it than meets the eye.
    • Is Triple H ok? Where has he been? Normally, we are consistently hearing from Triple H in a variety of ways; social media, WWE television, NXT and on and on. He’s been GONE for months; without a peep.
    • I’m hopeful everything is good and he’s just relaxing, recovering and taking some much needed time off.
      • But is it suspicious? The timing? The circumstances? All of the dismantling of his roster & team without any comment? Maybe I’m barking up the wrong tree here, but something seems odd. That’s all.
  • Clear messages sent to Triple H & the NXT brand.
    • WWE made it clear that NXT as we know it is over and done with. Wrestlers from the black & gold were put in positions to lose; especially on PPV and in big matches.
    • Of course, they needed to transition, so it made sense for a wrestler like Tommaso Ciampa to win here and there, or Roderick Strong to get the occasional victory. Everyone knew where this was heading. It just took a number of months to get there.
  • Push new stars, new champions and literally destroy the black & gold logo. I get it, his name is “BRON BREAKKER” so it makes sense in that respect to “BREAK” something, but the logo?
    • This was a clear message sent to anyone who loved, appreciated and admired the former NXT. WWE is aware that the core group of fans are diehard; they loved NXT the way it was.
    • Was this a direct message to Triple H? Was this Vince’s way of putting the final nail in the coffin of the previous regime?
    • Even when WWE brought back ECW and then ended the show, they did not destroy the ECW logo, likeness or brand. In fact, it was replaced by the initial ‘reality game show’ style version of NXT.
  • As briefly mentioned above, I believe that WWE wants to monetize a more pop culture friendly demographic with the new marketing agenda with NXT 2.0. I believe that Nick Khan is heading this charge. Without going into further detail, you can see they are gearing towards a younger, more diverse audience.
    • A cavalcade of “never before seen” pro wrestlers with new gimmicks and presentations, some of which are very early into learning the fundamentals of the wrestling business. Many of these wrestlers are being put on TV to ‘sink or swim’ and we will see how that plays out in the coming months.

I know some of this is a bit “crazy conspiracy” for some of people that don’t practice critical thinking, but there are some questions that just need to be asked.

And I am hopeful that some of them will be answered in Vince McMahon’s Q4 2021 conference call that is coming up in the beginning of February.

In conclusion, WWE took a completely different approach to NXT as they have in the past when it comes to marketing, branding and selling a product to their fan base. They have essentially erased years of brand recognition with NXT and have repackaged it to something completely different.

I’m not saying this is a bad thing or is destined to fail. I’m cool with it, but it just clearly isn’t geared towards someone who truly LOVED the original NXT, like myself.

I’ve been to a dozen or so NXT shows under the Triple H era and they were some of the best wrestling shows I have ever attended.

Will the atmosphere ever be the same? Will the NXT Takeover events have the same vibe? Doubtful. I wish the brand nothing but the best.

The glory days are over.

To me, from a marketing perspective, this is equivalent to heading out of the “What The World is Watching” era into “The New Generation” on a smaller scale. It has the same vibe. Hell, it even has some of the same wacky colors!

With the likes of Bruce Prichard & someone named Christine Lubrano reportedly in charge of NXT 2.0 creative, we are going to be seeing a pop culture friendly RAW lite. This could end up being a massive marketing success.

And what’s the worst that can happen? You structure a storyline to bring back the old NXT with Triple H heading the charge.

Or maybe that’s the best that can happen?

Thank you Triple H, the NXT roster and the staff that helped create memories that will last a lifetime for wrestling fans all over the world. We won’t forget it.

Written by: Jay Alletto
FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER @PWPNation

It started as a whisper. Until you screamed it at the top of your lungs. We gained momentum. You made us UNSTOPPABLE.
We had a vision for change. You made it a REVOLUTION. We told you…we are the future. Until you told us…THE FUTURE IS NOW!

Triple H
Thank You

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