10 Reasons why 2018 was the best year in NXT history

8. Call-ups didn't hinder the product at all

A half dozen of NXT's recent graduates

When the time of Kevin Owens, Sami Zayn, Neville and 3 of the Four Horsewomen - NXT's first class of major stars, came to an end, many speculated that the brand wouldn't be able to recover from the losses of such high-level talent. Likewise, the aforementioned WWE Draft in 2016 has been credited with damaging the NXT product at a time when WWE's priorities lied with bringing back the brand split and the subsequent need to fill the individual Raw and Smackdown rosters. Seven different active members of the NXT rollcall were consequently called up, with Bayley and television writer Ryan Ward departing not long after, creating a void that seemed to take almost a year to fill. This recurring issue seemed to be inherent to NXT's revolving door policy of bringing talent in only to ship them off to the main stage after they get hot, leaving the brand itself in a self-perpetuating state of disarray.

This was not the case in 2018. With WWE in full sign-on mode, picking up every critically-acclaimed indie and international wrestler they could get their hands on, and homegrown talent stepping their game up dramatically by focusing on their training at the Performance Center, the losses of Ember Moon, the Iconic Duo (re-christened the IIconics on Smackdown), Andrade Cien Almas, No Way Jose and the Authors of Pain were only subtlety noticeable. Kairi Sane, Dakota Kai, Ricochet, Velveteen Dream and War Raiders were waiting in the wings, immediately ready to take their spots. With Lars Sullivan, Heavy Machinery, Lacey Evans, Nikki Cross and EC3 (all pictured above) going up more recently, Keith Lee, Dominik Dijakovic, Io Shirai, Mia Yim, Punishment Martinez and Matt Riddle are already set to replace them as well.

Main roster callups in 2018 came off more like seamless transitions than undesirable interruptions, and with the main roster practically bloated with underutilized talent these days, NXT runs for stars like Nikki Cross and Velveteen Dream have been naturally extended, allowing them to achieve a more complete tenure in Orlando.