The call-up process from NXT to WWE’s main roster has been a stumbling block for many of its wrestlers. Regardless of how popular they’d become on the developmental brand, a wrestler’s name, presentation and gimmick were almost always changed in some way when they got the call-up under the Vince McMahon regime. This led to frustration among vocal wrestling fans, but now that Paul “Triple H” Levesque is running WWE Creative there’s plenty of hope that the call-up process could be smoothed out. Shawn Michaels, who has overseen the brand since last year, seems to agree with that idea.
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“Someone who is someone in NXT can now move up to the main roster, be recognized as the same person, talk about coming from NXT, and perhaps blending immediately into a storyline with someone who was previously in NXT,” Michaels said in a recent interview with Graham Matthews. “I absolutely think that communication is clearly going to be there, those transitions should be more seamless and more comfortable, and also the readiness of the talent going up.”
Elsewhere in the same interview, Michaels revealed just how little oversight he had from Vince McMahon — “When Hunter first left, it became all me, and certainly from a television standpoint,” Michaels said. “Matt Bloom is the head coach and takes care of everything from the PC training standpoint, but when it came to NXT 2.0 television, that’s something myself and my team took over creatively. I know a lot of people thought Vince and Bruce were doing that. I can promise you, they did not have the time to do NXT television. If it’s good or if it’s bad, that’s on me.”
“It’s been a huge joy to run that show and work with these talents. Again, everyone was put in a real tough position, we all were, but that’s where you learn to do things in WWE,” he later added when talking about his role. “That, to me, is a form of talent development, which is understanding that things can always change … around here and you have to adjust to that. The show always goes on. It was trial by fire for a lot of us, but it’s been an absolutely fantastic experience.”
