Is there trouble brewing behind the scenes between the McMahon family empire? On a recent edition of the PWTorch Livecast, Wade Keller stated that Triple H has become frustrated with the way NXT stars have been booked on the main roster. Keller used Bayley, Sasha Banks, and the Cruiserweights as specific examples.
According to Keller, ‘The Game’ feels that much of the hard work done to build these talents in NXT goes to waste once they reach Vince McMahon on Raw or SmackDown, noting that this is a clear bone of contention, but one Triple H can’t really do anything about.
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It would not be surprising for Trips to be frustrated with the NXT stars treatment on the main roster. While Triple H has become the face of the WWE over the last few years, the main roster is still under the complete creative control of Vince McMahon. His track record with NXT stars is somewhat less than glowing.
Bayley was the hottest star on the roster in NXT and appeared to have John Cena level potential of printing money for the WWE once she hit the main roster. She’s certainly had a great run, winning the Women’s Championship from Charlotte, but her momentum has totally cooled off due to lack of a long term plan.
The Ascension were the most dominant team in NXT and became Road Warrior-lite jobbers once they made it to the main roster. American Alpha were built in the mode of WWE Hall of Famer, Kurt Angle, and haven’t been on SmackDown for weeks. There have been plenty of success stories too. Kevin Owens, Finn Balor and Sami Zayn have all been main event talents since making the jump.
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Triple H spoke about stars jumping from NXT to the main roster in a recent interview with FOX Sports, saying not all stars were meant to jump to the top.
“There are some guys and girls that I can tell you in NXT that I look at this person and say, ‘This is a perfect style and gimmick for NXT, not sure about the main roster.’ Or ‘this gimmick and this style is better suited for the main roster, less suited for NXT. Because there’s a difference in the style of the programming and in the product.
So I’m trying to give them the exposure and the reps to be experienced enough — no matter what level of experience they’re at — so they have an understanding to be able to swim when they get into the ocean of the main rosters.
There are some guys and girls you know you’re going to bring in and they’re going to do well. How well? We’ll see.
There’s others that you know: ‘This one is going right to the top. This one is special is going right to the top. There’s magic here.’ But that’s not going to be everybody.
And there are some that you think, ‘This one will go in the middle somewhere, it’ll be good,’ and then all of a sudden, the next thing you know they’re huge and it’s better than you ever thought.
So it really depends. It depends on how much effort they put into it and what they want to get out of it. The ones that really take advantage of everything at the PC and NXT and really use that time to hone their skills for television, they do much better. To me, that whole thing is just 101 for WWE. The time you spend there, the more you study, the better you get at it, the better your chances of making it.”
