1 year later, TakeOver: Brooklyn has redefined NXT — and WWE

This weekend, NXT returns to the Barclays Center as part of WWE’s SummerSlam weekend, with a huge card for TakeOver: Brooklyn at hand. As much deserved hype as there is for this show, though, you cannot lose sight of just how incredibly important and game-changing last year’s TakeOver: Brooklyn was, both for NXT and WWE as a whole.

From top to bottom, the first NXT live special in Brooklyn was an absolutely outstanding event. From the one-night appearance of the legendary Jushin “Thunder” Liger, to Apollo Crews’ electric debut, to Finn Balor defending his NXT Championship in an incredible ladder match with Kevin Owens, to Bayley and Sasha Banks putting on the best match of the weekend — and maybe the year — NXT proved that it has the ability to put on a performance that stands alongside the best any other wrestling brand can produce.

NXT proved that it’s more than just a “developmental” brand -- NXT is one of the best wrestling shows you can watch, period, and while that was hinted at many times prior to Brooklyn, this TakeOver event, and what followed, settled it.

Brooklyn set the stage for what became the biggest 12 months in the history of the NXT brand. Balor and Bayley both had incredible title reigns, but were both dethroned by even better performances from Samoa Joe and Asuka, respectively, who are set to defend their titles in fierce challenges this Saturday. The tag team division has been revitalized after years as an afterthought. The women’s division is deeper and more inspiring than ever, and new faces constantly come in to replace the old as women are promoted to the main roster.

The brand is attracting legitimate superstars of wrestling outside of the WWE universe, from Asuka to Shinsuke Nakamura, from Austin Aries to Bobby Roode. These are people who would be major main-event stars for any other promotion, but they’re in NXT because that is how good it has become.

But it’s more than just about the wrestlers and people involved. NXT has spent the last year trying to revolutionize the industry and succeeding, especially on the women’s side of things. Bayley and Banks went on to blow off their feud in an incredible 30-minute Iron Man match at TakeOver: Respect in October, the first of its kind in women’s wrestling in WWE. It was a match that was built up and executed to perfection, exceeding even the sky-high standards Bayley and Banks set at Brooklyn just two months before.

That same show saw the culmination of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic, a tournament set up to honor the memory of a wrestling icon and a major part of the development and progress of NXT and its wrestlers. The Classic saw some amazing matches and was won by the team of Balor and Samoa Joe, setting the stage for what would become a months-long war between the two men, with Joe chasing Balor and seeking to end his title reign — which he did in shocking fashion at a non-televised live event in Lowell, Massachusetts, before officially ending their rivalry in a steel cage at TakeOver: The End in June.

The Dusty Rhodes Classic did more than set up a championship feud, however. The success of the tournament, along with the more wrestling-focused style of NXT, encouraged WWE to set up the Cruiserweight Classic, which has seen some absolutely jaw-dropping matches between stars from all around the world, bringing talent to WWE programming that most fans never would have expected to see. And make no mistake: if not for the show-stealing success of NXT, the CWC never would have happened. And without the CWC, maybe WWE doesn’t reintroduce a Cruiserweight division to their RAW brand, as was recently announced.

NXT’s success has had a huge impact on the main roster in ways other than divisions, and we’ll get a huge taste of that at SummerSlam itself the day after TakeOver: Brooklyn. Finn Balor could become the first WWE Universal Champion. Sasha Banks is the reigning WWE Women’s Champion, defending her title against another former NXT Women’s Champion in Charlotte. Apollo Crews could end the weekend as Intercontinental Champion a year after debuting for NXT. All throughout the rosters of both RAW and SmackDown, you can find talents who first became beloved in NXT, and who have made their presence felt in a major way since becoming part of the main brand.

With everything NXT has created and accomplished in the last year since the inaugural TakeOver in Brooklyn, what’s next? It’s an exciting time for fans of NXT and wrestling in general, and if the last year was any indication, we could just be seeing the tip of the iceberg and more major changes for NXT and WWE ahead.