WWE NXT

WWE NXT is a professional wrestling television program for developmental talent produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) which debuted on February 23, 2010. The original format was described as a hybrid between reality television and WWE's scripted live event shows, the premise of the show follows select talent contracted to WWE's developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling (FCW) in a competition to become WWE's next breakout star with the help of mentors from WWE's Raw and SmackDown brands. In its current form it is no different than any of the WWE's other scripted live event shows other than it primarily features developmental talent.

The show originally made its debut on Syfy in February 2010, replacing ECW. Less than a month after its premiere, it was announced that WWE SmackDown would move from MyNetworkTV to Syfy in October. NXT aired its final episode on Syfy on September 28 to make way for SmackDown, and began airing as a webcast at WWE.com for visitors from the United States on October 5. Outside of the United States, the show is still televised.

History
On February 2, 2010, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon announced that ECW would be going off the air and would be replaced with a new weekly program in its slot that McMahon called "the next evolution of WWE; the next evolution of television history." It was later announced that ECW would air its final episode on February 16, 2010, and on the February 9, 2010 episode of ECW, the successor show's name was announced as WWE NXT.

NXT began as a reality competition. From 2010–2012, the show consisted of pairing "Rookies" with WWE Superstars (known as "Pros"), with the pairs competing in challenges until there was one sole winner. The winners of the show were Wade Barrett (Season 1), Kaval (Season 2), Kaitlyn (Season 3) and Johnny Curtis (Season 4). Before season five ended, WWE revamped the show to make it a sports entertainment show, moved the tapings permanently to Florida, and changed the show's roster to feature more developmental wrestlers.

Production
NXT was taped in large venues before the WWE Smackdown tapings and used the universal WWE HD set from 2010–2012. When WWE revamped the show, they moved the tapings to Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida, with the venue known as Full Sail Live. WWE started taping NXT in Florida on May 17, 2012. NXT aired on Syfy from 2010-2011. In 2011, when SmackDown moved to Syfy, NXT moved to WWE.COM, and after Season 5, NXT stopped broadcasting in the US until September 2012 when WWE reached a deal with Hulu Plus, on which new episodes of NXT began airing September 26, 2012. From February 27, 2014, to January 7, WWE NXT streamed over the WWE Network every Thursday night at 9:00 ET/ 8:00 CT. On January 14, 2015, WWE NXT was moved to Wednesday nights at 8:00 ET/ 7:00 CT.

WWE NXT Championship
The WWE NXT Championship is a professional wrestling heavyweight championship owned by the developmental territory of WWE, NXT Wrestling; it is contested for in their heavyweight division.

WWE NXT Tag Team Championship
The NXT Tag Team Championship is a professional wrestling tag team championship owned by the developmental territory of WWE, NXT Wrestling; it is contested for in their tag team division.

WWE NXT Women's Championship
The NXT Women's Championship is a professional wrestling women's championship owned by the developmental territory of WWE, NXT Wrestling; it is contested for in their women's division.

Authority Figures
(*) On August 24, Maryse underwent surgery for an abdominal hernia and was on medical leave from WWE, therefore Maryse's role as co-host ended. She would later be released from WWE on October 28, 2011 and would not return to NXT. As of November 2011, there is no official co-host.

Commentators

 * Notes
 * 1)  Jim Ross only called the main event.
 * 2)  The pairings of Dawson and Regal and Phillips and Maddox commentate on alternate shows. Riley replaced Maddox in August 2013 after Maddox became General Manager of Monday Night Raw. Scott Stanford serves as narrator.