Current champion predicts where WWE's next John Cena and Roman Reigns will come from
Karrion Kross is confident that NXT Superstars will follow in the footsteps of John Cena, Roman Reigns, The Rock, and Steve Austin in WWE.
The Rock and Austin were widely regarded as WWE’s top two stars in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Cena took over as WWE’s marquee name for over a decade before Reigns became the company’s star attraction.
Speaking on Corey Graves’ After The Bell podcast, the current NXT Champion predicted that the popular WWE brand will create more megastars in the future.
“To me, NXT has always been the face of the future,” Kross said. “I really truly believe that. I believe that anyone that’s going to do anything in WWE for the future, to be the next Cena, to be the next Reigns, the next Steve Austin, the next Rock, that whole line-up of people. I feel like these people are gonna come from NXT."
Bray Wyatt, Drew McIntyre, Jinder Mahal, Roman Reigns, and Seth Rollins all appeared in NXT before winning the WWE Championship. The Universal Championship has also been held by former NXT stars including Finn Balor and Kevin Owens.
Karrion Kross on WWE stars honing their skills in NXT
The majority of WWE’s main-roster superstars featured on NXT television before moving to RAW and SmackDown.
Karrion Kross believes NXT is the perfect place for superstars to become the best version of themselves before joining Vince McMahon’s main roster.
“I feel like NXT, if you’re not willing to meet the standard there - and the standard is very high, and it gets higher and higher and higher every few months or so, there’s a lot of hungry people there - you’re gonna get swallowed up.
"It forces you to be the best version of yourself. You gotta find it. Even when you think you’re the best version of yourself, you gotta dig a little bit deeper. You gotta find more. That’s what that place does.”
Kross is set to defend his NXT Championship in a Fatal 5-Way match at NXT TakeOver: In Your House on Sunday. Adam Cole, Johnny Gargano, Kyle O'Reilly, and Pete Dunne are all hoping to win Kross’ title.
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