In recent years, WWE has often been criticized for the consistent lack of success NXT stars enjoy upon their arrival on the main roster.
Competitors who stood out on the black-and-gold brand, ranging from EC3 and Sanity to Emma and Neville, ultimately failed to thrive on WWE. The list goes on; The Revival, Tye Dillinger, and Lars Sullivan suffered similar fates. To be fair, some recent call-ups have been exceptions; Riddle, Rhea Ripley and Bianca Belair have shined on the main roster. But again and again, numerous popular acts on NXT flounder on the main roster.
In the NXT TakeOver: In Your House media call, Triple H compared the jump from NXT to the main roster to the progression of college football players to the NFL. He noted that any number of factors can explain why even the best college players don’t always find success in the big leagues; from coaching to scheme fit, there are several reasons that explain this pattern.
“One way of looking at it is misused, another way of looking at it is, things don’t always pan out,” said Triple H. “Like look, there are players that play in the NFL, there are players that play in college football, and people cannot wait for them to get to the NFL. And they get to the NFL and it doesn’t work, it doesn’t pan out. And you can say, ‘Well the team misused them or mismanaged them, or the coach of the team they played for didn’t put them in the right role or do whatever.’ But there can be a million reasons.”
Triple H also explained that the talents themselves are sometimes at fault, at least partially, either because they don’y mesh with a certain team or they stop growing.
“It can also be that sometimes talent don’t fit in a particular place, or talent got to a particular place and then thought, ‘Alright I made it,’ and that was the end of their growth curve,” Triple H added. “Sometimes it just doesn’t work. There’s a lot of factors.”
