credit: wwe.com

NXT's TakeOver: R Evolution took place on December 11, and fan reaction has been overwhelmingly positive thus far. WWE's developmental territory had a great opportunity to impress on the main event stage, and that is exactly what happened.

And while many fans are singing NXT's praises right now, the time has come for Vince McMahon's company to re-evaluate the Florida-based territory. Even though NXT's primary purpose was to develop talents for the future, it has blossomed into something much more.

NXT should become the third brand for WWE.

It's a proposition that at one point seemed highly unlikely. After all, NXT was to be just the proving ground, the place where new talents and veteran independent stars came to learn the WWE way. NXT was the perfect vehicle for those workers to adapt to the crowds and become accustomed to how the company wanted to do business.

It worked on every level.

Fans of both Raw and SmackDown either enjoyed or hated the mainstream product while the NXT crew pressed on week after week. Performing at Full Sail University in front of the usual audience, those stars continued working hard to establish themselves.

The whole point was to earn a spot on Monday or Friday night. For NXT talents who aspired to big things in WWE, that was all that mattered.

NXT actually flew under the radar for many of the casual WWE fans who were really not that familiar with it. Those fans may have heard of the talent in Florida, but they either did not care or did not know enough to become invested in it.

But that did not stop WWE from investing in NXT.

While much of that investment was financial, a great deal of it was in the form of characters and gimmicks. Bray Wyatt formed The Wyatt Family in NXT. Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns were bringing the house down in NXT (or its predecessor, FCW) long before they became The Shield. Cesaro was displaying superhuman feats of strength in Florida before he ever did on Raw.

Each man was new to the WWE machine, and each man wanted nothing more than to make an impact. That impact came in a big way on the main roster.

This was perhaps the first time many fans realized the benefits of NXT. After all, if it could produce The Shield and the Wyatts, then it was obviously worth a second look. And while many fans did not have the opportunity to actually follow NXT every week, they would soon find that WWE was going to remedy that situation.

When NXT was added to the WWE Network, it opened the doors for fans everywhere to get the full experience of the work being done in Florida.

Suddenly, NXT was no longer the territory that fans could only read about. It was now accessible. NXT has grown thanks to the network, and that growth has resulted in the program fans now see every week.

The reason for that lies with the Superstars on the roster, many of whom have had careers long before they set foot in WWE.

Sami Zayn, Adrian Neville, Kevin Owens, Hideo Itami and Finn Balor are the featured five. Each man brings something unique to the table, and each man entertains the audience in his own way.

Each man is ready for the main stage of WWE. So why not make it official?

Why not transition NXT from a developmental territory to the new third brand of WWE? The fact is that the program is already very solid, with stars who are eager to perform for the crowd. And the majority of those stars are already veterans of the business; they know what it takes to get over, and they do it every week on NXT.

And truth be told, how can NXT be a developmental territory when it's easily accessible every week on the network? Isn't the whole point of developmental to prep a guy for life on the main roster without showing him to the world beforehand?

How can a talent be readied, growing his character and establishing his routine with everyone watching? The farm system is in place so WWE can weed out those that have potential to actually succeed from those that are either not ready or cannot quite connect to fans. How fair is it to them for that process to be decided on the worldwide stage?

The time is now for WWE to transform NXT to a new brand. The days of the failed ECW revival are over; this is not the same sort of situation. It's a new day with new talent who do not need tomorrow. They are ready today.

Five top talents do not define an entire roster—that much is certain. The fact is that many of the NXT stars need time to evolve. But to imagine that NXT as a whole cannot entertain on a very high level as a third brand is just ridiculous at this point. Fans would watch for the top five guys, but they would continue watching for the potential that nearly every other talent on the program possesses.

NXT is exciting, it's dynamic, and it has set the tone for the rest of WWE. Both Raw and SmackDown have to follow a program that was meant to be the prep school for WWE's future leaders. Instead, that future is now, and those leaders are already leading the way.