Development Hell: The NXT Story

by Michael Sidgwick

Development The NXT Story, penned by former Power Slam scribe and WhatCulture.com’s own Michael Sidgwick, chronicles the history of WWE’s NXT brand. NXT has drew universal critical acclaim for its fan service fusion of old-school booking philosophies and progressive body of in-ring work - but the road to critical acclaim was arduous. When WWE destroyed its territorial and mainstream competition, the monolith had also annihilated the talent pool. Replenishing it was an unenviable task made all the more difficult by a blasé and counterproductive attitude and a curiously myopic direction. All of which is documented in a book covering the inauspicious beginnings of the dusty Stamford Farm warehouse and the murmurings of Memphis Power Pro, the halcyon days of Ohio Valley Wrestling, the infamous disaster of Deep South Wrestling and the literal lunacy that was Florida Championship Wrestling. The roots of the triumph that was NXT were toxic…

Genres: Nonfiction, Sports

282 pages, Paperback

Published March 8, 2017

Reviews

[Alexis Hall]

So, um. Cementing my status as a huge dork, this is a book about the, err, development of the WWE’s developmental division, NXT. You probably know right now whether this book is of any interest to you at all, and the answer for probably 98% of my readers is ‘uh no’ so I’ll keep my comments brief: if you’re interested in the development of the WWE’s developmental division, this is quite good. It’s smoothly written, engaging, knowledgeable and passionate about its subject. I would say, it’s more about the creation of NXT as a brand, than about NXT itself, if that distinction makes sense. While it does focus on some of the most significant NXT milestones (the emergence of a credible women’s division among them) I was honestly expecting a bit more about NXT itself, and bit less about the wrestling landscape that created the need for it. But, y’know, I was still interested. In short: if this book is the sort of thing that seems like the sort of thing you’d like then … it probably is the sort of thing that you’d like.

[Lucas · Rating 2 out of 5]

There’s some good information and writing here, but unfortunately it is clouded by a nonlinear timeline, and an unnecessary amount of tangents about the territory days, the Monday Night Wars, the Montreal screw job, Chris Benoit, etc. There’s a lot of stories here that have been over-covered, and I’d suspect 90+% of people reading this book would already know about them.

I would have preferred the author to stick more to the NXT theme, but I think it was published too early in NXT’s existence for there to be sufficient subject matter, so the resulting work is sort of an all over the place series of stories about WWE history that very, very loosely relate to NXT. And then at the end there’s some more specific NXT stuff and pages of memos about Bill Demott, but it’s just too much context setting and not enough actual content.

[April · Rating 3 out of 5]

Author didn’t seem to like his subject very much, which made for a weird and also disorganized book that didn’t seem to go anywhere but did recount the painful history of every fuck up. Would be interesting to see it updated to reflect 2.0

[M A Shuttle · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting look at WWE's developmental system

For the most part this boom is well written and researched and takes a fascinating look at WWE's developmental system all the way back to the early 90's.

It sadly falls down when we get to NXT. The author spends far too much time going in detail on the matches themselves as opposed to quickly explaining why they were different, why they were important, and the lasting impact of those contests.

It's also sadly without any kind of conclusion, which leaves me feeling a bit flat after reading it. But its well worth taking a look at.

[Tmison89 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this.

I'm a massive fan of the What culture wrestling podcasts and Sidgwick is a legend. Great insights.

I hoped this would be more of the same but it didn't work from me. I didn't expect the non linear approach, it felt like it was all over the place, jumping from NXT to 90s wwe to specific examples from WCW as well.

I get that this is about development but it didn't work for me at all. Need more NXT!

[Eddie Meier · Rating 1 out of 5]

Also was der Autor hiermit erreichen wollte, ist mir schleierhaft. Um die Development Ligen geht es häufig sehr kurz, bevor er wieder in ein "schaut mal, was ich alles weiß" übergeht. Er hält sich auf in Erzählungen von Matchverläufen, die mit dem Thema nichts zu tun haben. Ich glaube einfach, das Wissen über die Entwicklungsligen wäre dann doch eher knapp, daher füllt man es mit Randthemen, die alle keinerlei Zusammenhänge haben. Hat dies niemand gegen gelesen bevor es erschienen ist?

[Chester Swann-Auger · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really nicely written book about the highs and lows (and there are definitely some lows) of the WWE Developmental system. You already know if you're in the target audience for this, but if you enjoy wrestling and want to learn some more about the behind the scenes life, this is the book for you.

[Richard Luck · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cracking stuff - detail galore *and* incredibly readable. Promotions all round!

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, but

Unfortunately ended too soon, but it's tricky to write and publish an up to date account of a show that runs every week of the year!

[Ollie Pawsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this... But it ends rather suddenly and optimistically.
Knowing how NXT would go in the following years makes it very bittersweet.

[Mat · Rating 3 out of 5]

This should be a good book. It has a lot of interesting information and entertaining anecdotes; however, it's nonlinear timeline makes it very hard to follow.

[Vidya · Rating 5 out of 5]

They say never meet your heroes - not that any of the McMahons are hero material in any way shape or form - but I used to enjoy pro wrestling before I read this. But that is no way is on the author who shines a light into the toxic backstage culture that seems to pervade WWE.

On the contrary this book is extremely well written and is a must-read for any fan of the pro-wrestling industry