AJ Styles has weighed in on the decision to have former IWGP Heavyweight Champion EVIL, now wrestling as Naraku, begin his WWE run in NXT rather than going directly to the main roster, telling Phenomenally Retro listeners that NXT is exactly where high-end international signings should learn the WWE television system before being asked to deliver on Raw or SmackDown.
The April 28 episode of WWE NXT saw Naraku make his WWE debut, confronting NXT Champion Tony D’Angelo as part of the mystery box storyline. He has since picked up an in-ring debut win over Lince Dorado on last week’s NXT and wrestled twice on the weekend NXT house show tour. Per reports, Naraku specifically requested to start his WWE run in NXT.
Speaking on his Phenomenally Retro podcast, Styles backed the call.
“Can I just say this? Shinsuke Nakamura was also in NXT. I’m just throwing that out there. Listen, I think there’s certain things that we all need to learn in NXT, that will prepare us for the main roster. Even I had to learn quick. It was a learning process and I had to learn quick because I was on there. I couldn’t afford to screw up or mess up or whatever it is you want to call it. I wanted to stay on the main roster and I had to impress the guy in charge. So, we don’t want anybody to go up to the main roster and have to learn like that.”
He singled out one specific television production habit that international signings have to be taught from scratch.
“It’s important. So we have to make sure that EVIL, as we’re gonna call him, doesn’t turn his back to the hard camera. That he knows where all of them are and how we film and everything and produce because you don’t do that in Japan. There’s no producers in Japan because it doesn’t matter where the cameras are. They just shoot.”
Styles framed the gap between the WWE and NJPW production styles as fundamental.
“They don’t know, at least when I was there, they didn’t know that it was entertainment. It was a sport. So the camera guys were not involved in the booking meetings, whatever, the meetings in general. So we need to know where all this stuff is. It’s important.”
He recalled the production-side coaching he himself received when he first arrived in WWE in 2016 after his own long New Japan run.
“Stu, our cameraman, was like, ‘Hey AJ, make sure you turn this way,’ instead of putting your back to the hard camera. It sounds silly, but it’s important.”
If you use quotes from this article, please credit Phenomenally Retro and include a h/t to WrestlingNews.co for the transcription.
