Former WWE/TNA star Sean “X-Pac” Waltman has given his take on the latest batch of NXT stars to be called up to the main roster and work on Monday Night Raw and SmackDown Live.
Those stars are NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa, Johnny Gargano, Ricochet, and Aleister Black. During the latest episode of his podcast, Waltman made it known that he thinks some established WWE stars need to up their game or they will stand out in the wrong way as a result of these NXT call-ups.
“Aleister Black had Andrade the next night on SmackDown which was an opponent he had great matches within NXT, so it was a really really good matchup and they were able to work that style that they worked in NXT,” said Waltman. “Look, what I am trying to say is, it was like you can tell there was a big difference, to me, in the feel of those matches. Those guys with this cutting-edge style and with different ways of going into things… and then you go and you see the other guys on the roster that are just working that same kinda, you know, same routines, same way of shooting guys in, it felt all of a sudden very antiquated looking compared to what I saw from the NXT guys.”
As of this writing, whether WWE keeps Black, Ricochet, Gargano, and Ricochet permanently on the main roster remains to be seen. It’s always possible that they will stay in NXT. Either way, Waltman thinks that they bring energy and excitement to their matches which is something that some main roster stars are lacking.
“I think some of the other guys on the roster maybe need to step up and update their game,” stated Waltman. “We just get comfortable in our routines and that’s how it worked before, but now you can see wrestling from around the world and all the promotions and everyone has something online you could see. And many years ago you could do these routines and they weren’t routines to the fans because they didn’t see them as much. So yeah, I just think we get comfortable so it’s time to shake things up a little bit.”
You can listen to the entire podcast by clicking on the player below:
H/T to Wrestling Inc for the transcript
