WWE Rumors: Vince McMahon's big backstage plan for NXT revealed
NXT got a massive push at Survivor Series as the yellow brand convincingly won the battle for brand supremacy. Many NXT Superstars shone under the bright spotlights of a big-time WWE PPV and came out looking as major stars in the process.
Going by what went down at the PPV, it's easy to conclude that Triple H may have been the man behind NXT's strong showing at Survivor Series. However, it was not The Game but Vince McMahon's vision that truly saw the light of day at the show.
The latest edition of Sportskeeda's Dropkick DiSKussions podcast saw Tom Colohue and host Korey Gunz discuss the Survivor Series PPV in length.
Gunz brought up the topic of NXT's surprising dominance and asked Colohue about the planning that went into showcasing NXT as a top brand.
Colohue revealed that while Triple H did encourage WWE to push his brand, it was Vince McMahon's plan to put over NXT strongly at Survivor Series.
He even added that the Executive Directors of RAW, SmackDown and NXT worked towards executing the WWE boss' vision.
Colohue even highlighted the fact that Vince was the man behind various decisions that were made in the build-up to the show, which included Adam Cole's victory over Daniel Bryan, the impressive booking of Shayna Baszler and a tag team win for Rhea Ripley and Tegan Nox.
Here's what Colohue had to say about Vince McMahon's influence on Survivor Series:
"There is no doubt that Triple H did a lot of prodding and poking and a lot of encouragement but he said himself it is a collaborative effort. The three Executive Directors in charge of each brand got together and decided how we were going to do this. But when it comes to the decision to put NXT over this strong, that comes down to Vince McMahon.
"Vince McMahon wanted NXT to look strong, and he was also the deciding factor behind, for example, Adam Cole beating Daniel Bryan, a lot of moments along the way, tag team looking good, Shayna Baszler looking fantastic coming in to attack, Rhea Ripley and Tegan Nox getting a tag team win. These were Vince McMahon decisions.
"He was the one who wanted NXT put over this strong. I don’t know how strong of an influence Triple H had on that, but the three executive Directors got together to execute Vince McMahon’s vision.
"So Vince said, this is what I want, they went away and decided how they were going to make that happen. I think the exception to that, is the SmackDown show, the night after Crown Jewel, that was written very much on the fly, there was no time to really be collaborative. But that was a template they followed going forward."
WWE's team did indeed succeed in putting over NXT as a force to reckon with and that should positively impact the ratings of the NXT TV show on Wednesday nights as the company goes head-to-head with AEW Dynamite.
All said and done, Vince actively pushing NXT is a great sign of things to come.
Bray Wyatt's new character, the Mauro Ranallo situation, Seth Rollins' heel turn and a lot more topics were a major focus on the latest episode of SK's Dropkick DiSKussions with host Korey Gunz and WWE insider Tom Colohue.
As always, it was a stacked show full of insightful discussions and backstage revelations which you can check out below: