Vince McMahon Never Saw WWE NXT As A Third Brand

Road Dogg is a veteran who has seen a lot during his whole career. He also attracts attention when he links WWE NXT with AEW. Recently, Road Dogg recalled how he used to joke that WWE NXT was developmental when AEW out-performed them in the ratings.

Road Dogg covered a wide range of issues in the most recent episode of Oh…You Didn’t Know. During the show, the former WWE wrestler discussed the 2019 head-to-head competition between WWE NXT and AEW Dynamite.

Road Dogg mentioned that Triple H viewed NXT as the third brand, but Vince McMahon used to see it as a developmental division. According to Road Dogg, McMahon labelling NXT as developmental may have been due to this rivalry.

“So this is up to me, this is a philosophical question [of whether NXT was a third brand or developmental in late 2019] and I can answer it anyway I want to, but it doesn’t matter what I say. I always saw it as a… I don’t know that I looked at it as either to be quite honest with you, but I’ll tell you who thought about [it], I felt like Hunter thought about it as a third brand and I think once we got that TV deal, that’s a legitimate argument, you know what I mean? This is a third revenue generator. So, is it a third brand? And so that’s definitely an argument to be made for that. I think Vince [McMahon] always saw it as developmental.”

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“Like oh, it’s small ball and look, I think to his dismay, he did that a little bit but I think there was some professional rivalry… because NXT was young and shiny and all the internet people were talking how great it was and so, I totally understand. For me, writing SmackDown, I used to get ticked off because they would bury my show and put over NXT and that was when it was the awesome black and gold and NXT was to be cherished at that time for a true wrestling fan and so, I don’t know. It’s a philosophical question and I think one guy’s philosophy was totally different than the other guy’s philosophy and for mine, I think it can be both.”

“I think it can be developmental but it also can generate revenue and some of the… it made room for some of the people to come in like Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn. Some of the people that are on top of the world now kind of came, filtered through that system, by design and hey, here’s how we do things. We do things a little differently here in WWE than you did at OVW, ROH, wherever you used to wrestle, you know? And so, I thought it was a bit of both. A little developmental and revenue generator so I don’t know. It’s up to you to see how you like it.”

Dogg even added that he believes NXT is both profitable as a third brand and as developmental. The brand opened up space for some of the individuals, including Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens, and so many more, who later saw huge success on the WWE main roster as well. For further updates, stay tuned to Ringside news.

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