During an interview with PWMania.com, former WWE commentator Matt Striker went into great detail about what he thought of WWE’s developmental system that has really taken WWE by storm. That system is of course, NXT.
Down below is an excerpt from that interview in which he talks about NXT and his time there:
I remember sitting in LaGuardia Airport and the executive producer of WWE television, who normally files privately and I don’t know why he was flying commercially but I don’t know why he would sit and talk to me, but he told me of this concept and it was given the green light.
It was his brainchild and to this day. You can say whatever you want about WWE producers but the man is a television genius. Every single Cole vignette or video or any entrance that you see and love it comes from the mind of that man. So what came to me and said it I thought it was awesome. So we got a list of all the development that he had envisioned I knew that I had wrestled with him down in Deep South and my trip to OVW so when they brought up a Wade Barrett or a Brodus Clay I knew that just right away that these guys were just going to be great. I was wrong about a few guys too. Oh, what was his name?
It wasn’t Eli Cottonwood. He looked like Bruce Prichard. He was very tall, Jacob something. I thought that kid was going to be a star. Tall blond, good looking and then 3 weeks later the kid was gone. But when they brought in Bryan Danielson/Daniel Bryan, it was let’s see what this guy can do? I would snicker in the corner. I had no idea who this guy was.
When they brought in Low Ki as Kaval and teamed him with Layla and Michelle, again it was like great for some of my buddies to show you guys how good they are. I came up with guys like American Dragon and Low Ki and stuff like so I was able to see who was going to be what and also able to see who wasn’t going to make it. He was in the Ascension. He isn’t a kid now but what do they call him? Was it Connor O’Brien?
I mean he’s been in the system for years but I there was always something missing there and he disappeared for a while and now God bless him and all do respect and he’s got this new Ascension thing going on and all but you got see what it takes but to answer your question to see who has it I was pretty on point with just the exception of a couple of guys. It wasn’t Jacob Goodnight that was Kane’s character.
You can read the entire interview here.
