During Monday’s media call, Triple H said he didn’t expect NXT to be part of the upcoming WWE Draft. WWE NXT makes its weekly debut on the USA Network starting tomorrow night. The first hour will air live on USA at 8PM EST while the second hour will air on the WWE Network:
“Everybody is gonna have to wait and see. I don’t foresee [NXT being part of the draft]. Right now, the main focus of the draft itself is Raw and SmackDown. As October 4 comes along and moves forward, with Fox broadcast taking SmackDown and us staying with USA and NBCU, those become two competitive landscapes. I’m of the opinion that the NXT brand would continue to grow. Down the line, you will see — NXT has grown to where it shouldn’t be referred to as a developmental brand, even though we tend to debut newer stars, especially over the years. I think people lose perspective of the amount of stars that are homegrown that have never stepped into the ring before, that stepped into the Performance Center, made their mark in NXT, and moved up the line and are now on Raw and SmackDown. I think [NXT] needs more time to be considered in the same breath (as Raw and SmackDown), hopefully over the next few months we’re going to get there. The draft is much more about creating the brand split, having two distinct rosters between Raw and SmackDown. That’s what this draft is about.”
