Johnny Gargano has made his position in WWE NXT well established as he started out as an undercard talent who only had a per appearance deal while working on the independent scene to where he’s at now as one of the top stars featured on the yellow brand.
Gargano, who is slated to team up with Adam Cole and Tommaso Ciampa to take on Aleister Black, Velveteen Dream, and Ricochet in a six-man tag team match at Halftime Heat this Sunday during the halftime of the Super Bowl, spoke about NXT and the importance of it.
This is where he stated that he doesn’t consider the yellow brand a developmental system but rather a third brand alongside Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live. Gargano also stated that he thinks main roster talent want to be in NXT.
“I definitely don’t think it is (a developmental brand). If you look at our shows, Takeovers, live events it’s definitely not a downgrade, ok? People want to be in NXT, people on the main roster want to be in NXT. NXT is the hottest thing going today,” Gargano told Newsweek. “In some circumstances there is still a developmental side of the Performance Center. We do sign people from different backgrounds who are learning how to wrestle, and learn to do what we do. But you look at the TV show, those guys on television are TV stars. They are main event players and that’s where the developmental kind of goes away. In a way, you’re constantly changing and evolving.”
Gargano continued, “Even the main roster is developmental because you’re learning all the time. NXT is looked upon as ‘a lower brand,’ but it should be like how when you move to RAW or Smackdown. Instead of ‘moving up’ it’s moving over to a different brand. You never know, guys can come back here, things can obviously change in the future. But how I see it, RAW, SmackDown, NXT. Those are the big three.”
