WWE Needs to Mirror NXT's Streamlined Booking Approach

WWE needs to start learning lessons from its little brother; NXT is outshining it when it comes to booking.

While feuds on the main roster often meander, end abruptly or take sharp right turns, NXT continues to showcase effective, direct dramas. The emotional resonance that NXT TakeOver: R Evolution had compared to WWE's recent pay-per-views speaks to the power of simpler storytelling and a scaled-down writing team.

As the Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports (h/t Wrestling Inc), Ryan Ward led the creative direction for NXT's most recent live special. Triple H then had final say.

There was no unwieldy writing team working behind the scenes. There was no mass of men and women sitting around a table.

A single storyteller led the way.

That shows up in the anchored nature of NXT's rivalries. Overall, it's a more focused product.

That's the way WWE used to be as well. During an interview with Vince McMahon on his podcast, Steve Austin recalled (subscription required) a time when it was just McMahon and Pat Patterson sitting at a swimming pool coming up with the company's plots. It was a two-man process for the most part, as he describes it.

After seeing that WWE now employs a phalanx of writers, Austin then asked McMahon, "How did it get so complicated? Did the world of sports entertainment get that much harder when I left?"

McMahon talked about how much the company has grown and changed. That growth, though, doesn't mean WWE can't rein in the size of its creative team.

More is not always better when it come to writers. Austin's description of the WWE writing staff brings to mind the old "too many hands in the kitchen" saying.

When you're watching a particular disjointed movie that seems to have no central thread, you can nearly always count on it having a lot of names under the screenwriter category.

Trying to stay true to multiple visions and multiple styles is like having two people driving the same car.

NXT's tremendous showing at the latest TakeOver event shows what happens when you employ the opposite strategy. Take Sami Zayn's story, for example.

After losing to a series of opponents, including Adrian Neville, Zayn promised to earn his way to the NXT Championship on what he called his "road to redemption." That road never veered in any strange direction. It didn't suffer from start-and-stop booking.

Zayn battled toward Adrian Neville in a taut, compelling narrative.

He defeated all the men who had bested him in the past: Tyson Kidd, Titus O'Neil, Tyler Breeze. Desperation wafting off of him, he put his career on the line for a shot at Neville. If he lost, he would have to quit NXT. Instead, he overcame his failures and dethroned Neville at R Evolution.

It was a beautiful story that hearkened back to pro wrestling's earlier days of more grounded stories playing out between the ropes.

The main roster stars haven't had that same kind of treatment.

Cesaro has gone from yodeling strongman to skulking cartoon villain. Ryback went through a number of minor incarnations before his injury. He briefly did a gimmick where he trolled Internet fans and also played a bully who beat up on employees backstage.

None of those things stuck.

One has to wonder how much of that is a result of arguments in the conference room. One writer sees Ryback going one way, while another sees him going another direction. 

That's seemingly been the case for Bray Wyatt's feud with Dean Ambrose.

At first, Wyatt sought to destroy Ambrose because they were so similar. Later, he talked about wanting to cure him. The story quickly moved somewhere else after that.

If the WWE writing team had fewer ideas battling backstage, Wyatt's goals would be far clearer. As it stands, his hunt is inspired by so many things that it's hard to invest as a fan.

Consider what has happened with Nikki Bella, Brie Bella and AJ Lee as well. Nikki demanded that Brie stop calling herself a Bella, as she didn't serve the honor. That part of the story was quickly dropped.

Brie served as Nikki's butler for a month, as dictated by the stipulation of their match at Hell in a Cell. Nikki abused her sister throughout those 30 days while in charge of her. Brie grew increasingly frustrated until one day she started working with her sister by choice.

Brie was now a heel as well with no clear motivation. Wherever this ends up, it's clear that the writing team is pulling the narrative in different directions.

NXT hasn't had these kind of issues. Of course, it's a smaller product with less personalities to plug in, but it's not as if WWE hasn't had a simpler creative model in the past. 

During the Attitude Era, Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara headed the writing team. McMahon oversaw them. That sounds a lot like the Ward and Triple H arrangement at NXT.

In the past few months, we have seen a number of stories that moved from A to B in logical fashion.

Bayley looked to prove herself against Charlotte to show that she's not just a lovable softie. The Vaudevillains have played mind games with The Lucha Dragons to gain an edge. They have made fun of their smaller opponents through old-timey short films featuring little people.

Baron Corbin and Bull Dempsey have been engaged in an ongoing game of one-upmanship.

Corbin has looked to destroy his low-level opponents faster than Dempsey can steamroll his own foes. It's clearly leading to an eventual titan-on-titan clash between them.

NXT fans know that the writing team isn't going to steer that story in another direction at the last minute. Ward's vision isn't thrown into a room where it gets drowned out. He's captaining the ship with Triple H watching him.

With as fun as NXT's journey has been of late, WWE would be wise to approach things the same way.