CHAPTER 13

Spell It Out for Ya

In FCW, the real competition was to get out of development hell the quickest. In NXT, it’s about making development better, one-upping the match before you, and even trying to one-up the main roster.

“It’s very competitive, but it’s not competitive to the point where people will take immoral measures to get ahead,” says Big Cass. “Everybody wants to go out there and put on the best match. You return through the curtain, and it’s like, ‘Follow that!’ But deep down, we are all rooting for each other, especially when we see one of us debuting on the main roster. When Neville debuted and when Kevin debuted, we were happy for them, but at the same time, we wanted to be in that same position. It’s like a brotherhood and sisterhood at NXT. It really is a family atmosphere. Everybody wants to be the best, but when it comes down to it, only one person can be the very best.”

“This is a competitive business,” agrees Baron Corbin. “In anything athletic and performance based, you have to be a little selfish and competitive. It’s good for the business to have the best guys bring their best game every time; so you want to out-do people, you want to out-shine people, but there’s no malice to it. It’s a very competitive environment, and we’re grown men who are doing something that not a lot of people in this world are able to do. It’s a very small funnel to get to that next level, and we’re all fighting and scratching our way through that. Everybody here has a lot of pride for what NXT has become, and I think that’s where the family atmosphere has come from. We built this and this is my home, and I’m not going to let anything happen to my home. But at the end of the day, I want to be WWE Champion. We’re protective and competitive.

Baron Corbin applies a nerve hold on Austin Aries.

“You have young, hungry kids here with the intent, written or unwritten, to take those top spots on the main roster,” explains Terry Taylor, who on a daily basis drills into his students that they need to be competitive in order to survive the business. “Competition is good for everybody. I tell them all the time, ‘There’s going to be a main event in WrestleMania next year and the year after that and the year after that. Somebody is going to be in that spot. Why not you?’ If they don’t come out of here and ask, ‘Why not me?’ I’m not doing my job.”

“At the end of the day, we all want to be on the WWE screen” adds Enzo Amore. “To have the opportunity to work at WrestleMania is why we are in this business. I try not to think too far ahead and only concern myself with today. We have work to do, and you never stop learning in this business. Fortunately for us, the Performance Center helps us learn at a pace that’s never been possible before. What we’re doing in this business has never been done before. The opportunity to learn at NXT is greater than it has ever been in the history of this industry. So I just try to embrace the day and the work and the time that we get to put in. I was once told by a guy on the main roster, ‘Never let this place use you; learn to use it.’ Sometimes, when you walk through the doors of the Performance Center, it’s like Groundhog Day—you get into the ring and you get your butt kicked and you get thrown around, and you lift weights and it’s the same workout as last Monday and your hips hurt, and now you’re cutting a promo and you’re standing in the mirror—and it becomes monotonous. But that’s what we live to do. So taking it day by day and using it to your advantage is the ultimate way to embrace your dreams. If you want to be on the WWE main roster, there’s more opportunity to do it now than there’s ever been before. In the next five years, I think that you will see a better product than you’ve ever seen before. NXT became a brand for a reason; it’s not merely developmental. In the years to come, everyone that you see in WWE will have come from NXT and will have trained under the watchful eye of WWE trainers who want their product to be a certain way and who want the WWE Universe to enjoy it. On a grander scale, what we’re doing is going to be monumental in the history of sports-entertainment. What we do is going to be revolutionary.”

Enzo Amore gains notoriety for his gift of gab.

Sami Zayn loves the competition, but he’s competing to be the best he can be. He doesn’t worry about other people on the roster. “Maybe it’s for my own sanity, but I’m of the belief that the competition within NXT is more with yourself than the guy next to you,” Zayn explains. “As far as I’m concerned, there’s only one of me, and there’s only one of you, so we’re not both competing for the Sami Zayn spot. Only I can have the Sami Zayn spot, because I’m Sami Zayn. Just like I can’t compete for the Finn Bálor spot, because he’s Finn Bálor. So the best thing you can do is be the best you and create your own spot and leave a void when you’re gone. There is a certain level of competition because there are a couple of people in that bullpen position who are ready to go up any day now, they’re just waiting for the right time. I’m a big believer that things will happen when they’re supposed to happen, and to get there is more of a competition with myself than with the guys sitting next to me.”

At the same time, he does see the crowd starting to take sides between Raw and NXT. “It’s very funny how WWE is now running the hottest indie promotion. It’s kind of crazy because NXT feels like the old ECW,” says Zayn. “It has an anti-establishment feeling while actually being part of the establishment, so it’s a very unique promotion. It’s an alternative to the company within the company. When we did our first NXT shows outside of Florida, we were in Columbus and Cleveland. Unfortunately, I was injured at the time, so I went out there to cut a promo and do an interview, and the crowd was chanting, ‘Better than Raw! Better than Raw!’ It was almost like an outcry for something fresh, and that’s why they’ve gravitated toward NXT. There’s a little bit of angst in there, there’s hostility, but they’re supporting the same company, so it’s funny.

Kevin versus Sami Zayn at NXT Takeover: Arrival.

“I think any time anyone is on a different side of the fence than somebody else, there are going to be some weird battle lines that are drawn, even if they are not serious. I think a lot of us in NXT have the mentality that we’re just as good as anybody on the main roster, and once we get to the main roster, we’re going to prove it. At the same time, I’m sure everybody on the main roster hears all this buzz about the NXT roster, and they’re thinking, ‘We’ll show them.’ That’s a healthy level of competition, in my opinion, but again, we’re all pulling for the same company at the end of the day. Competition makes everyone better, and that’s what drives products forward. I don’t think it’s a bad thing.”

And according to Cesaro, the crowd chanting for NXT is not lost on the main roster.

“We are all going to try and one-up anything we see,” he says. “When NXT was at the Barclays Center with SummerSlam, there was a vibe from both rosters of ‘Let’s show them how it’s done.’”

Samoa Joe agrees, “The competition between NXT and the main roster is an absolutely conscious thing. When we do a special right before a major WWE pay-per-view, that’s a gauntlet being thrown. We’re telling the world—we’re telling the main roster—this is what we can do, now follow that. I think it’s a healthy challenge for guys on the main roster. It just gives them more motivation to go out and wreck it. I think all of the great grapplers, entertainers, and performers of our time always love a little competition on their heels, and if we can provide that and inject a little inspiration into their performance for the night, so be it. As long as NXT is pushing like that, all it’s going to do is make everybody better.”

Head Coach Matt Bloom understands that the competition inside the Performance Center also helps push talent to improve at a rapid rate. “We have three-day tryout camps, and there are some people who come in here who cannot do a somersault, and by day three, they are learning how to control their body and are a lot more agile than they were when they came in,” says Bloom. “When some of the talent first arrived, I was worried they might hurt themselves or someone else. But those guys are quality entertainers now, and some of them will be on the roster soon.

“People are developing into Superstars. When Baron Corbin came from the NFL, he was athletic, he could move and controlled his body well, but when he stepped into the ring, he just used to beat people and beat people. You need to have controlled aggression. He never had to control his aggression before; here’s the guy in front of you, knock off his helmet and take him out of the game because the guy behind him is a lot easier. That was Baron Corbin. He’s a big, aggressive guy, so learning how to do what we do was a little bit more difficult for him, but now he’s pretty damn good at what he does. Then there’s someone like Braun Strowman, a powerlifter who can lift the world for one rep. But he’s not in the ring for one or two minutes; he’s going to be in there for 10 or 15 minutes. So again, here is someone who couldn’t control his own body at first, but now he’s this big 6-foot-8, 385-pound man who’s pretty damn agile.

“If you ask me, the competition inside the Performance Center is one of the main things that drives its success.”

Prior to becoming NXT General Manager, William Regal had a fierce rivalry with Cesaro.