Domenic Marinelli on January 10, 2022
Steve Maclin has been wrestling since 2013. He has had a few ups and downs in this business, but has settled in quite nicely in his spot at Impact Wrestling. It was after a single year on the independents, that he started with WWE – specifically NXT and would spend 7 years with the company overall. He recently made a statement regarding the new direction of his old stomping grounds, NXT.
Of course, he wrestled as Steve Cutler during his NXT/WWE days. It was during his appearance on the Fightful Podcast, that Maclin let loose and spoke about the new direction of NXT…from the days of the Black & Gold brand, to the newer version, 2.0, that is currently being highly criticized by many pro wrestling fans, he had a few things to say.
“I’m very happy about what’s going on there. I’ve had this conversation with a lot of people, even those who were there in NXT during 2014 when I got there. That’s what the vision was supposed to be of all these athletes that it’s a product that gets pushed to the main roster.
It gets you ready. It changed where there was this influx of indie talent. It got so hot, and it was a bubble that needed to burst, and it worked. Then obviously after a while, it didn’t work. It’s just something that’s different. If it’s something you want to tune in to, go ahead.”
He recently faced Trey Miguel for the X-Division Championship at Hard To Kill and lost the match, but before he was set to take the ring, he made these statements regarding the fact that the X-Division is usually reserved for smaller talent – something that Maclin cannot be accused of being: small. He said:
“So originally when I was getting signed was before Slammiversary and I was told, ‘Hey, we want to bring you in as a tag team.’ I’m like, ‘Ok, well I have a partner who just let go as well.’ That’s kind of how it worked out with Wesley Blake. About a week later, they said we’re going to bring you in before Slammiversary and get the vignettes going. Blake and I sat down and we had a conversation.
We were obviously at a crossroads in our careers, but I was like, I need to do singles. I’ve never done that on my own. I’ve tried and it never worked with NXT at the time just because of the influx. That’s why we became a tag team, but the influx of talent, that’s just the way it worked, but you find a way to get on TV. So now here I am riding a roller coaster, and since it started, I’m having so much fun, especially X-Division because it’s such a clash of styles.”
Maclin has quite the future ahead of him. He has gotten quite a bit of TV time at Impact Wrestling and the X-Division seems to be just the tip of the iceberg for this great talent. He held his own against the smaller and seemingly faster Miguel, and he should be in a top storyline soon. We’ll keep you posted, dear readers.
January 10, 2022 12:41 pm
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