Originally premiering in 2010 as an in-ring game show with reality competition-style eliminations, NXT relaunched as WWE’s developmental promotion in 2012. From there, it only took NXT a few years to evolve into a cult sensation, ultimately graduating into WWE’s “third brand” and moving its weekly show from the WWE Network to cable television, where it competes with the flagship show of rival All Elite Wrestling every Wednesday.

RELATED: NXT Vs. AEW: 5 Reasons Each Side Is Winning The War

While NXT is still relatively young by wrestling promotion standards, there are a number of wild backstage stories to talk about that include missed opportunities, dodged bullets, and some AEW-related drama.

10 The “Lost” Game Show Season

NXT's Lost Season: Seth Rollins, Big E, Damien Sandow, Leo Kruger, Bo Dallas, and Hunico

While NXT Redemption became Full Sail NXT within the span of a week, this clearly wasn’t always the plan. In fact, WWE had been preparing to produce a sixth season of the game show version, which only recently surfaced.

A look at the promo footage that was shot for this abortive season is like a look into an alternate universe, as the cast consists of Seth Rollins, Big E, Damien Sandow, Leo Kruger, Bo Dallas, and Hunico (wearing a mask!). The sixth season would never happen, but all those wrestlers would figure into the early days of the new NXT.

9 Triple H Is Always Watching

Triple H NXT

NXT is considered the pet project of Triple H, who tends to run the promotion without much input from WWE overlord Vince McMahon. But as a VP in WWE, Triple H can’t always be physically present at the WWE Performance Center, the establishment that trains NXT stars.

To account for this, the Performance Center runs a live video feed that goes straight to Triple H’s office at WWE’s corporate headquarters in Stamford CT. As a result, some wrestlers have been surprised to see themselves show up on a TV screen while watching video footage shot at Triple H’s office.

8 Bill DeMott

Hugh Morris aka Bill DeMott

Not everyone who works backstage at NXT is a former megastar. Throughout the 2000s and 2010s, Bill DeMott -- formerly known as jobber Hugh Morris in WCW -- was a frequent presence in WWE developmental. A former trainer in Deep South Wrestling as well as on Tough Enough, DeMott would become head coach of Florida Championship Wrestling and later NXT.

RELATED: 10 Wrestlers Who Were Jobbers In Both WWE & WCW

Eventually, former developmental talent like Ivelise, Kenny Omega, Curt Hawkins, and Luchasaurus would publicly speak out about DeMott’s history of misconduct, which included bullying, abusing, and hurling various slurs at his students, among other actions. DeMott would deny all allegations but would resign from WWE in 2015 nevertheless.

7 Paige’s Unique Call-Up

AJ v Paige

As a developmental promotion, many wrestlers work in NXT in the hopes that they get called to WWE’s main roster, but Paige’s story of being called up is one of the most unique in NXT history.

At WrestleMania XXX, the NXT Women’s Champion got a text that The Rock wanted to talk to her. Paige had never met The Rock before, so it was a surprise when they met and Rocky told her that he wanted to make a movie based on Fighting With My Family, the BBC documentary about her. Then he casually added that WWE was going to debut her on Raw the next day and have her win the Divas Championship.

6 The Female Shield

NXT's Female Shield: Summer Rae, Anya, and Paige

Speaking of Paige, at one point was apparently slated to be a part of a different NXT gimmick. A lot of experimentation happens behind the scenes at NXT as wrestlers try out characters and gimmicks that don’t always make it to TV.

After The Shield burst on the scene in 2012, Paige, Summer Rae, and Anya (a.k.a. Anna Bogomazova) tried to form a trio of their own. Some test footage surfaced in 2013 of the three cutting a short promo about wanting to take over the Divas Division, but this female counterpart to Shield would never come to fruition.

5 NXT Kids

NXT Kids

While WWE has generally tried to stay relatively kid-friendly over the years -- except when it didn’t -- they have offered specifically kid-focused shows like the short-lived Saturday Morning Slam.

In 2015, they actually shot a pilot for a show called NXT Kids which presented matches in Full Sail University for younger viewers, complete with wrestling-themed fun facts and color commentary from actual children during matches. While it has yet to surface on the WWE Network, the pilot episode occasionally gets uploaded on video streaming sites.

4 The Wrong Austin

Xavier Woods and Adam Cole

Undisputed Era’s Adam Cole would prove to be one of NXT’s biggest stars, but at one point WWE wasn’t always interested in him. In 2010 -- seven years before actually signing with NXT -- WWE offered Cole a tryout entirely by accident.

RELATED: 5 Times Adam Cole Was The Best Member Of The Undisputed Era (& 5 Times He Was The Worst)

It turned out the offer sent to Cole -- whose real name is Austin Jenkins -- was actually meant for Austin Watson, who would adopt the ring name Xavier Woods. WWE gave Cole a gig as an extra on an episode of SmackDown as an apology, and he and Woods would later become friends because of the mix-up. Hilariously, Jenkins took the ring name Adam Cole to avoid any comparisons to Steve Austin, but the name still caused him some grief.

3 The NXT vs. AEW Match That Never Was

Bea Priestley and Toni Storm

Some NXT stars -- particularly those in NXT UK -- weren’t signed to exclusive contracts, meaning they could wrestle outside of WWE. However, the rise of rival AEW meant new concerns. In 2019, Japanese women’s promotion Stardom wanted Toni Storm to challenge their then-current World of Stardom Champion Bea Priestley at their big Korakuen Hall Show, but there was a problem.

Because Storm was NXT UK Women’s Champion and Bea Priestley was signed to AEW, WWE didn’t want one of their champions losing to an AEW wrestler. Instead, Storm wrestled Kagetsu to a time limit draw elsewhere on the card, avoiding a sticky political situation entirely.

2 Johnny Gargano Turned Down A Call-Up

Johnny Gargano NXT Champion

While in prior years NXT wrestlers worked toward being given a spot on Raw or SmackDown, now that NXT has a prestigious reputation many wrestlers are perfectly happy performing in “developmental.”

One such star is Johnny Gargano, who became one of the performers to define the brand and ended up turning down a main roster call-up to stay in NXT. When a fan accused Gargano of being “scared” of moving to the main roster, Johnny Wrestling explained that he already feels successful considering he gets to work in a promotion with his wife and their friends.

1 Britt Baker Shows Up On NXT

Britt Baker on NXT

Given the Wednesday Night War, fans were surprised during 2019’s NXT TakeOver: WarGames when AEW’s Britt Baker was shown reacting to her real-life boyfriend Adam Cole taking a huge bump off the cage -- and was identified by name.

This sounds like a scandal, but she went backstage after the NXT show, Triple H and Stephanie McMahon apologized to Baker, explaining that the production crew didn’t know who she was when they put the camera on her. On the AEW side, the promotion was totally cool with Baker attending her boyfriend’s matches -- and relished the fact that the moment made headlines.

NEXT: 5 Ways That Bayley Has The Best Role Model Gimmick (& 5 Ways Britt Baker Does)