NXT Talent Reportedly Unhappy While Working as WWE Performance Center’s Crowd

Last week WWE started using NXT wrestlers and WWE Performance Center trainees as the crowds for the latest tapings of Raw, NXT and SmackDown. The change went over well with fans, but reports have since come out indicating the work wasn’t pleasant for the wrestlers in the crowd. Wrestling Inc. reports the talent has to arrive at Full Sail at 11 a.m. and wouldn’t be brought back from the PC until roughly 10 p.m. that night.

The talent was also not allowed to sit during matches, so they spent most of that roughly 12-hour work day on their feet.

Fightful Select then reported that the NXT TakeOver: In Your House match between Adam Cole and Velveteen Dream was taped as a cinematic match in the Full Sail Live parking lot. Due to rain, the match didn’t start filming after midnight and the wrestlers weren’t allowed to go home until early that following morning.

As of now WWE has this week’s Raw, NXT, SmackDown and the TakeOver event have all been pretaped. No spoilers for any of the shows have made their way online.

On the subject of NXT, Kurt Angle appeared on this week’s SmackDown to announce that, after losing his Fight Pit match against Timothy Thatcher, Matt Riddle would be joining the Blue Brand.

Based on reports, and his tweet on Monday afternoon, it looks like Dominik Dijakovic will follow suit by jumping to the Raw brand.

Here’s the lineup for this week’s Raw as of now:

• United States Championship: Apollo Crews vs. TBA
• Seth Rollins vs. Aleister Black
• Asuka vs. Charlotte Flair
• Rey Mysterio’s “Retirement Ceremony” (hosted by Seth Rollins)

And here’s the card for WWE’s Backlash pay-per-view as of now:

• WWE Championship: Drew McIntyre vs. Bobby Lashley
• WWE Universal Championship: Braun Strowman vs. The Miz and John Morrison
• Raw Women’s Championship: Asuka vs. Nia Jax
• Edge vs. Randy Orton