On the latest Figure Four Daily on WrestlingObserver.com, Bryan Alvarez and Lance Storm talked about the changes at NXT 2.0 and storm disputed the notion among some that Triple H was a failure.
Storm said, “I just I’ve heard it for a long time [people who say] ‘oh, Hunter’s really fallen from grace after you know, NXT failed.’ And I’m like, ‘what?'”
Alvarez responded, “Well we say that because [hurting AEW] was the goal from Vince and Dunne and everybody when the show was moved to Wednesdays…He was removed from power. I mean, that’s it. They saw that, that was the goal and that was the failure.”
Alvarez continued, “Listen, I’m on the same page as you dude. He was 1000 times better than what we’ve got now with NXT 2.0. But the reason I used the term failure is that was the task that he was responsible for. It’s not even his fault. He had all sorts of disadvantages in that war. But at the end of the day, they won.
Storm said, “But it’s the word again. If your job was to sell a million hamburgers and you didn’t so we fired you and replaced you. And then told the new guy, ‘yeah, if you sell three or four salads, you’re a success.’ It’s like, ‘what?!’ It’s like you move to Tuesday where they don’t have head to head anymore…Maybe the task was the unfair part, not any shortcomings from Hunter.”
Storm pointed out how NXT had a long stretch of excellent NXT TakeOver shows and how so many people on the main roster came from that brand when Triple H was running it. Storm said, “NXT takeovers was one of the greatest string of quality shows you’re ever gonna find. And as far as producing people from scratch, it’s like, sure, there wasn’t a ton. Now there’s a few. But again, it’s like, the goal is to put people on the roster that are good. And there was a point where almost every single person on the main roster came through NXT. He was succeeding at that.”
Alvarez added, “NXT was multiples far, far more successful than this NXT 2.0. And what drives me crazy is every now and then, I’ll hear someone say, ‘Well, you know it’s early to see if this NXT 2.0 will be [a succcess]’ and I’m like, no, it’s not early. I watched one AEW Dynamite and it was abundantly clear from the very first one, that this thing has tons of potential to make it. I see zero potential in NXT 2.0 growing beyond the level that it’s at right now. It’s going to be just the same group of green guys. They’re going to end up firing more people [and] it’s going to be the blind leading the blind. Maybe if they start running some house shows, the guys will get a little bit better, but there’s no watching this NXT 2.0 and going, ‘Oh, maybe, you know, soon the show be at 2 million viewers.’ No, I see zero in this. Am I wrong? Am I a bad guy?”
Storm said, “They should have left NXT on the [WWE] Network. They should have left Hunter in charge of it. They should have left AEW alone, they wouldn’t have a failure on the record. They would have the wonderful gold and black still happening [and] the great string of NXT TakeOvers. It would have been so much better.”
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