Watch: Triple H Talks Ending NXT's Call-up System, Challenges of Sending Stars to WWE Raw and SmackDown
The system of NXT wrestlers getting 'called up' to Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown has [...]
The system of NXT wrestlers getting "called up" to Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown has been in place for several years, but there's never been a set standard on how it works. Sometimes wrestlers get called up right after WrestleMania, sometimes one or two make the jump after SummerSlam, sometimes four can get randomly brought up for an episode of Raw in February. But now that NXT is on the USA Network every week, Triple H is looking to stop that pipeline from the Yellow Brand to the other shows. On the premiere episode of Corey Graves' After The Bell podcast, "The Game" explained how he was forced to scramble when Vince McMahon wanted most of his top female stars on Raw for the "Women's Revolution" storyline in 2015.
"It was before where it was just like, 'Hey this is what we need, this is the moment we needed it.' When Vince [McMahon] called and basically said, 'I need your entire women's division from NXT,' and I was like 'Oh my god, the whole thing?' And he goes, 'Well not the whole thing,' and he listed the talent. I'm like, 'Well, that's everyone!'" he said.
And what I had said then was, 'Can you leave me Asuka? I can tent pole her and build the rest of it around her, no problem.' All those women kind of went at the same time, and there was a plan for more to come right after that where I was like, 'Man that's tough,'" he added. "But now you put yourself in a position where you sort of can't do that. You have to give some considerations to the other brand, so there needs to be longer-term plans laid out."
Hunter then described NXT as being its own territory within the WWE similar to how wrestlers hopped from one territory to another to freshen things up during the territory days. He said Finn Balor's move to NXT set the blueprint for how that could work.
"I think this is sort of the template of whatever is on the table," he said. "If you look at the roster, there's going to be times where they're like, 'Look until the next draft this talent is here but they've kind of worked with everybody. And we're going to finish up this program with them,' and then we almost inherently need to sit them down for three months, six months, whatever that is just to clear this up, so we can get to the other side. Then when we do the switch it's all new again.
"I'll take them," Hunter added. "Here's the window and here's what I'm going to do with you in that window, barring all the other things that can happen. It's a cool opportunity."
This week's NXT will feature Balor's explanation for his sudden heel turn and a WWE Women's Tag Team Championship match.
