Add as a preferred source on Google WWE President Nick Khan revealed that Shawn Michaels played an important role in the decision for NXT to run more events outside the Performance Center.
During a recent appearance on The Bill Simmons Podcast, Khan explained that the discussion started after WrestleMania 41, when he and Triple H looked at the ages of names such as Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes, CM Punk, Seth Rollins, Brock Lesnar, and Drew McIntyre.
“We will never respond to social media criticism. If ratings are down, if revenue’s down, if relevancy’s down, it’s up to us. A year ago, we got together. Triple H, (Chris) Legentil, myself, a guy named Shawn Michaels who runs our developmental system, Hall of Fame wrestler.”
“We said, ‘Look, we have John Cena on his retirement tour, Rock came back and now he’s gonna be filming Jumanji and Smashing Machine at the time. Our other big stars – CM Punk‘s 46, we’ve got a number of men who are 40 years or older and they’re performing at the high level. We’ve got to accelerate the next generation of talent. So what do we need to do to accelerate it?’”
“Shawn Michaels said we need to take them on the road so they get the crowd response of a live crowd. That’s part of what makes wrestling unique. If you’re getting cheered, great. If you’re getting booed, great. If there’s no response, terrible.”
“So you need that live crowd to figure that out, so we made the investment in that. If you look at the acceleration of stars, even the opening match (at WrestleMania 42 night two) – a guy named Oba Femi, former shot putter at the University of Alabama, against Brock Lesnar, it’s probably the most talked about match, and Oba’s only been on our roster for six months.”
WWE is expected to continue using that strategy to gauge live crowd reactions before moving more talent up to the main roster.