When NXT first replaced WWECW on SyFy, it had a somewhat interesting premise of being a wrestling related game show starring wrestlers that already were familiar with the business. As the first season dragged on it was extremely clear that the show wasn't going to work out. Putting on lame contests in front of a packed audience didn't create an exciting live product, and didn't create for an exciting TV product. It took three seasons before WWE tried to change the product by placing it on their website, and eventually the show was allowed to drop the game show concept by Season 5. While I personally fell in love with the show during Season 3 for all the wrong reasons, I'm also happy that the show has evolved into something that wrestling fans don't get from anywhere else any more.

Everyone on the show has something to do.

Like most people in the world, I despise just about everything that Vince Russo stands for in the wrestling business. If there is one thing that I can attribute to Russo as a positive writing skill, it would be that he tried his hardest to give every single wrestler on his shows something to do. Have you noticed that for the past six months, around 75% of the WWE roster is just there and is given zero time to show any kind of skills inside or outside the ring? On NXT, every single character on the roster is intertwined with each other in some sort of storyline. Hell, even one of the commentators is involved with 1/2 of the wrestlers. Hawkins & Reks try to sabotage Regal every week, McGillicutty and Kidd has been after each other for the past few months, Curtis & Maxine's development is always fun to watch, the list goes on. The show is given one hour every week (that has to be shared with Raw/Smackdown highlights) and the writers of NXT use every moment to put over one of their wrestlers.

Very solid collection of matches every week.

Yes, the matches on the show might as well be known as glorified dark matches. But over the time that NXT Season 5 has been on the air, we are seeing matches that easily top the matches on Raw and Smackdown. Tyson Kidd has perfected his craft. McGillicutty is developing extremely well. There are divas matches that last longer than two minutes. There are actual tag team matches that are given time.

You probably won't see any match of the year contenders on NXT, but it's a good place to look at the WWE's undercard and be able to see some good quality wrestling from week to week.

Complicated relationships

If there is one thing I hate about wrestling, it's when someone is painted as a face or a heel. I don't think there is one person over 13 years old that actually only cheers for the good guys and boos for the bad guys. That's why I don't think that just because you're a heel wrestler, you should be best buds with every other heel wrestling in the company. As ridiculous as the show gets, every heel has some kind of love/hate relationship with each other. When Johnny Curtis and Maxine accidentally chloroformed Matt Striker, Hawkins and Reks blackmailed the two to their advantage, which also resulted in Curtis and Maxine being handcuffed to each other to punish themselves. On the other side, every face is on Percy Watson's ass because every time someone gets mysteriously beat up, there's some kind of attire from Percy Watson at the scene of the crime.

The best commentary team on television.

The commentary on the two main shows needs serious change, and the general mix of humor, story, and match commentary given by William Regal and Josh Matthews is excellent. It's a very laid back approach to wrestling commentary, one that has Josh calling most of the holds and Regal explaining holds and giving general back story to what is taking place in the ring. It's believable because Regal is one of the smartest people in the sport, and everything coming out of his mouth is the absolute truth. Another thing that the commentary team does is that they don't take sides in a match. Sure, Regal might be against the actions of Johnny Curtis, but he puts Curtis over in the ring by continuing to compliment his in ring ability and talks about his own past as a heel and how it compares to Curtis today.

Last but not least, Maxine's Attire.

Seriously.