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good interview
On WWE Network and the UK:
"NXT Takeover: R Evolution will take place Thursday 8pm Eastern. If you are in the UK and unfortunately the Network is not there yet, which we're feverishly working on, you can check it out on Sky Sports 3, Saturday night at 11pm."
On Indy stars being made over by the WWE:
"You look at a guy like Kevin [Owens] who has 14 years of prior experience at some level in the business. You don't want to make like that didn't ever happen. You want to give him the ability to showcase what he does.
"At the same point in time you need to make it a WWE product. It's a fine line of keeping a bit of both. Sometimes you can't do it, and it's a wholesale start-over... it just really depends.
"Sometime the fanbase is more angry! The talent come in here and they wanna start over and they wanna make a wholesale change and they wanna change every single thing about them. It's like a fresh coat of paint and a new day starting for them...
"They're so excited about it, and fans are crapping all over it. 'How could they do this?' and 'Why would they change?' It's interesting to see that perspective sometimes.
"It's not about denying what anybody's done or their success. It's about helping them to grow and be the best performer that they can, and doing it within the business environment, which is massive, of the WWE."
On WWETV vs The Indys
"The bigger thing for a lot of them is getting up to speed that we're a television show... a couple of months ago we were going through all this stuff with Finn Balor and working on entrances and camera spots.
"At the end of the day he looked a little frazzled. I said, 'Are you doing alright with all this?' He was like, 'Yeah, it's overwhelming sometimes... I've never had anybody ever talk to me about production of an entrance, or hitting music cues... I just walked to the ring and they did what they did and they shot it and that was the end of it'.
"We're trying to put on a platform in the biggest way possible. It's not easy to see when you're watching Raw or SmackDown, the things that we do and how we try to present the product, but it does create a big difference for the things you see and don't see.
"We're a TV show, and we want to get every little nuance and every moment and every facial reaction and all those things to make it as big as possible, and that's probably the biggest challenge."
On the rise and fall of Adam Rose:
"If people just thought we were going to take Adam Rose off of NXT - in the brief time that character was on NXT - throw him on Raw and it was going to be the exact same reaction and exact same way the entire time - that wasn't what we thought.
"We knew what it was and we knew how it was going to be received more than likely. That it was a work in progress and it still is. No matter what you do and where you go it's going to be slightly different.
"It's tough to do. It can be debated afterwards, and hindsight's 20/20 on whether decisions were made the right way or the wrong way. But you're constantly trying to look at the environment and the reactions and tweak accordingly for the talent and the characters to succeed in the best way possible.
"Live events and TV, giving them as much opportunity to do this every single night, get different reactions, tweak the character, change what they need to change in order to make it successful is their best opportunity to succeed, there's no denying it."
On NXT General Manager William Regal returning to Raw or SmackDown:
"I don't know if you've ever seen the WWE - never say never, right! Crazier things have happened. The success for William Regal who is an amazing asset to the WWE, to NXT - you can see what's on camera - but the massive success for me with him is the recruiting process.
"He's one of my tools of recruiting. I have these other guys bringing in all these people from all these different places and all different walks of life and getting them interested in who we are and what we are.
"Regal is the guy in a big way saying, 'This guy has got something athletically' or, 'He's good' or, 'This guy might struggle with the in-ring stuff, but god, what a personality'. He is such a big component of that for me, and me knowing him so well is good.
"I know what he looks at, I know what he thinks is great, he knows what I think works. Together there's a great synergy there. I can read into what he's telling me about a talent and say Yes or No really quickly... he has been a phenomenal part of the success of this."
On over-scripted promos and using NXT to help ad-libbing:
"Absolutely. It's one of the biggest things that we look at here - trying to re-engineer where we are now. We've come to a point where a lot of the guys we have to script it out for them, because they can't do it any other way, or they don't have that ability to do it the other way.
"Here we try to be much more open to giving them concepts, ideas and letting them go. But also we're working with guys where if we have to script it... it's fine for them to be scripted as long as they can emotionally connect with it
"If it sounds like you're reading it off a script then it doesn't work. You have to emotionally connect with the things that you're saying. They have to come from inside and be emotional. I've seen guys that are phenomenal promo guys word-for-word off a piece of paper.
"I've seen other guys where not a bit of it is scripted and they're both awesome. They both have merit and they can both work if done in the right way. For us, no matter how we get there it's just making them great.
"Sami Zayn is a guy that just knocks it out of the park. Same with Neville. Adrian Neville was a guy we really couldn't put a microphone in front of when he first got here. He'd never done it before. Now he's good at it. It's a work in progress, but it's definitely something that we do."
On convincing Vince to put NXT stars on Raw:
"The writers are dealing with Vince on a daily basis. I have a creative team as a department that works under me... I've given them the direction of 'When possible, try to get these things in there, especially with an NXT special coming up'.
"At this point, he's seen most of the stuff on NXT. He's so busy he doesn't get to see all of it. But he knows who's doing well and who's succeeding and who can handle a spot on Raw. If the suggestion is made and it fits in the show, he's more than happy to do it."
On featuring NXT matches on the main roster PPVs:
"We've talked about various things, from sometimes doing things in the kick-off or moving it up. I'm thrilled right now that the brand itself is getting that kind of recognition... we're hyping ourselves up a lot and that's great for me.
"My goal is to get as many eyeballs on NXT as possible to create a buzz about the future so that when our stars from NXT come up to the main roster they're already stars and people are excited about what they can do."
On using acting coaches in NXT:
"Especially people who have never been on camera before... to try to find something they can tap into inside themselves as a character. It's just constantly a work in progress."
On NXT champ Charlotte losing to Natalya in two minutes on Raw:
"One of the difficult things about live programming is that it's live! Times are crunched, times are tweaked. Having been in a million different things going on that night, I can't speak to the exact amount of time that they were given or had, but the show was in flux, it's live.
"I know they were given more time than that, but by the time they get there, things go over, things get crunched. We have a lot of responsibilities to make within that show... commercials. We can't just throw things on the air and they are what they are.
"Would we have preferred to give them more time? Hell, I'd have loved to have given them the time I gave them at the NXT special and be able to showcase what they do.
"As far as the decision of who went over - Nattie or Charlotte or anything like that - those decisions are heavily debated and made. It is what it is
"At the end of the day, for me it's about promotion. When you look at what they have done in NXT and every place else, the amount of people that will see them there compared to the amount of people that will see them on Monday Night Raw with the whole world watching, the difference is mind-boggling.
"Just for them to be exposed in that vein is massive. A lot of people going, 'Oh, it was her debut' and all those things. It was in some way, but it's not like she's going to be there next week.
"By the time she's back on Raw and ready to be competing on Raw on a regular basis and performing on Raw, you'll see a different Charlotte and you'll see it presented in a different way. It was really just exposure.
"As far as what the outcome was, that can be debated. It is what it is. I put out a picture afterwards of she and I afterwards, because she was so emotional when she came back.
"It was just such a positive for everybody involved. For Nattie, for her, they were so excited about the opportunity and just getting to do it and do it in the way they did.
"You can go back and pick apart bits and pieces of it all. But when you overall look at it in the bigger plan six months from now, a year from now, two years from now, whenever it is, no-one's going to go, 'They killed her on her debut'. The bigger picture is involved."
On Adrian Neville and Sami Zayn moving on to the main roster soon:
"Sooner than later you're definitely going to see them making the move. That's the whole point of NXT: to percolate these guys up to the top and then once they're there, to let them stay and continue to gather that experience while the right opportunity becomes available for them.
"[Sami Zayn] is so good, and so captivating as a performer. You've got to remember that this is a guy that came out of a mask. His facial expressions and the way he can captivate you emotionally and the way he does things.
"It's extraordinary where he's come from with none of that from where he is now, it's amazing. I do think he could succeed. I think it would take some time. He's the slow build kind of guy that as a fan, there's not a flash on him.
"Even though he does amazing stuff, he's not that 'holy cow', right at the get go guy, but every time you see him he wins you over with that emotion and that quality and that realness and he lets you inside of who he is as a person.
"It's very Steamboat-esque, that level of emotional connection to a talent that takes you and really invests you in him as a person and as a character. It might take him longer to get there but once he does get there and he does emotionally suck you in, you're in."
On the "two year waiting period":
"We're honest with people about the process and what it takes, but you can't put a timeframe on anybody... let's go back in time and give you an example like Kurt Angle. I've never seen anybody pick this up faster in my life.
"He went from one day never doing it to all of a sudden, 'This guy's awesome'. You get that, then you get guys where it takes them a long time. We have guys that are coming in who have never stepped through the ropes before.
"For guys that are coming in here with a massive amount of experience: Finn Balor, Kevin Owens, Hideo [Itami] - those guys are at a different level. Now it's adapting culturally, if you want to say it that way, to the WWE style.
"It's different playbooks. We run a playbook a certain way and that's what we need them to adapt to, but when they do, they become ready to go much faster and then it becomes about the spot opening up.
"You come in here with all the experience in the world. If it happens fast, great. If it happens slow, that's where the opportunity is. Then you have to make the decision. If it's not working out for you, we'll discuss it, we'll part ways amicably.
"If you're cool with the wait and you're still enjoying the process and the work, great, that's awesome too. I can't say to somebody, 'You come in here and you'll be out of here in three months'. You can't say it. It's a living, breathing organism. All of it."
Link: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s216/...#ixzz3NTjZelGr
On WWE Network and the UK:
"NXT Takeover: R Evolution will take place Thursday 8pm Eastern. If you are in the UK and unfortunately the Network is not there yet, which we're feverishly working on, you can check it out on Sky Sports 3, Saturday night at 11pm."
On Indy stars being made over by the WWE:
"You look at a guy like Kevin [Owens] who has 14 years of prior experience at some level in the business. You don't want to make like that didn't ever happen. You want to give him the ability to showcase what he does.
"At the same point in time you need to make it a WWE product. It's a fine line of keeping a bit of both. Sometimes you can't do it, and it's a wholesale start-over... it just really depends.
"Sometime the fanbase is more angry! The talent come in here and they wanna start over and they wanna make a wholesale change and they wanna change every single thing about them. It's like a fresh coat of paint and a new day starting for them...
"They're so excited about it, and fans are crapping all over it. 'How could they do this?' and 'Why would they change?' It's interesting to see that perspective sometimes.
"It's not about denying what anybody's done or their success. It's about helping them to grow and be the best performer that they can, and doing it within the business environment, which is massive, of the WWE."
On WWETV vs The Indys
"The bigger thing for a lot of them is getting up to speed that we're a television show... a couple of months ago we were going through all this stuff with Finn Balor and working on entrances and camera spots.
"At the end of the day he looked a little frazzled. I said, 'Are you doing alright with all this?' He was like, 'Yeah, it's overwhelming sometimes... I've never had anybody ever talk to me about production of an entrance, or hitting music cues... I just walked to the ring and they did what they did and they shot it and that was the end of it'.
"We're trying to put on a platform in the biggest way possible. It's not easy to see when you're watching Raw or SmackDown, the things that we do and how we try to present the product, but it does create a big difference for the things you see and don't see.
"We're a TV show, and we want to get every little nuance and every moment and every facial reaction and all those things to make it as big as possible, and that's probably the biggest challenge."
On the rise and fall of Adam Rose:
"If people just thought we were going to take Adam Rose off of NXT - in the brief time that character was on NXT - throw him on Raw and it was going to be the exact same reaction and exact same way the entire time - that wasn't what we thought.
"We knew what it was and we knew how it was going to be received more than likely. That it was a work in progress and it still is. No matter what you do and where you go it's going to be slightly different.
"It's tough to do. It can be debated afterwards, and hindsight's 20/20 on whether decisions were made the right way or the wrong way. But you're constantly trying to look at the environment and the reactions and tweak accordingly for the talent and the characters to succeed in the best way possible.
"Live events and TV, giving them as much opportunity to do this every single night, get different reactions, tweak the character, change what they need to change in order to make it successful is their best opportunity to succeed, there's no denying it."
On NXT General Manager William Regal returning to Raw or SmackDown:
"I don't know if you've ever seen the WWE - never say never, right! Crazier things have happened. The success for William Regal who is an amazing asset to the WWE, to NXT - you can see what's on camera - but the massive success for me with him is the recruiting process.
"He's one of my tools of recruiting. I have these other guys bringing in all these people from all these different places and all different walks of life and getting them interested in who we are and what we are.
"Regal is the guy in a big way saying, 'This guy has got something athletically' or, 'He's good' or, 'This guy might struggle with the in-ring stuff, but god, what a personality'. He is such a big component of that for me, and me knowing him so well is good.
"I know what he looks at, I know what he thinks is great, he knows what I think works. Together there's a great synergy there. I can read into what he's telling me about a talent and say Yes or No really quickly... he has been a phenomenal part of the success of this."
On over-scripted promos and using NXT to help ad-libbing:
"Absolutely. It's one of the biggest things that we look at here - trying to re-engineer where we are now. We've come to a point where a lot of the guys we have to script it out for them, because they can't do it any other way, or they don't have that ability to do it the other way.
"Here we try to be much more open to giving them concepts, ideas and letting them go. But also we're working with guys where if we have to script it... it's fine for them to be scripted as long as they can emotionally connect with it
"If it sounds like you're reading it off a script then it doesn't work. You have to emotionally connect with the things that you're saying. They have to come from inside and be emotional. I've seen guys that are phenomenal promo guys word-for-word off a piece of paper.
"I've seen other guys where not a bit of it is scripted and they're both awesome. They both have merit and they can both work if done in the right way. For us, no matter how we get there it's just making them great.
"Sami Zayn is a guy that just knocks it out of the park. Same with Neville. Adrian Neville was a guy we really couldn't put a microphone in front of when he first got here. He'd never done it before. Now he's good at it. It's a work in progress, but it's definitely something that we do."
On convincing Vince to put NXT stars on Raw:
"The writers are dealing with Vince on a daily basis. I have a creative team as a department that works under me... I've given them the direction of 'When possible, try to get these things in there, especially with an NXT special coming up'.
"At this point, he's seen most of the stuff on NXT. He's so busy he doesn't get to see all of it. But he knows who's doing well and who's succeeding and who can handle a spot on Raw. If the suggestion is made and it fits in the show, he's more than happy to do it."
On featuring NXT matches on the main roster PPVs:
"We've talked about various things, from sometimes doing things in the kick-off or moving it up. I'm thrilled right now that the brand itself is getting that kind of recognition... we're hyping ourselves up a lot and that's great for me.
"My goal is to get as many eyeballs on NXT as possible to create a buzz about the future so that when our stars from NXT come up to the main roster they're already stars and people are excited about what they can do."
On using acting coaches in NXT:
"Especially people who have never been on camera before... to try to find something they can tap into inside themselves as a character. It's just constantly a work in progress."
On NXT champ Charlotte losing to Natalya in two minutes on Raw:
"One of the difficult things about live programming is that it's live! Times are crunched, times are tweaked. Having been in a million different things going on that night, I can't speak to the exact amount of time that they were given or had, but the show was in flux, it's live.
"I know they were given more time than that, but by the time they get there, things go over, things get crunched. We have a lot of responsibilities to make within that show... commercials. We can't just throw things on the air and they are what they are.
"Would we have preferred to give them more time? Hell, I'd have loved to have given them the time I gave them at the NXT special and be able to showcase what they do.
"As far as the decision of who went over - Nattie or Charlotte or anything like that - those decisions are heavily debated and made. It is what it is
"At the end of the day, for me it's about promotion. When you look at what they have done in NXT and every place else, the amount of people that will see them there compared to the amount of people that will see them on Monday Night Raw with the whole world watching, the difference is mind-boggling.
"Just for them to be exposed in that vein is massive. A lot of people going, 'Oh, it was her debut' and all those things. It was in some way, but it's not like she's going to be there next week.
"By the time she's back on Raw and ready to be competing on Raw on a regular basis and performing on Raw, you'll see a different Charlotte and you'll see it presented in a different way. It was really just exposure.
"As far as what the outcome was, that can be debated. It is what it is. I put out a picture afterwards of she and I afterwards, because she was so emotional when she came back.
"It was just such a positive for everybody involved. For Nattie, for her, they were so excited about the opportunity and just getting to do it and do it in the way they did.
"You can go back and pick apart bits and pieces of it all. But when you overall look at it in the bigger plan six months from now, a year from now, two years from now, whenever it is, no-one's going to go, 'They killed her on her debut'. The bigger picture is involved."
On Adrian Neville and Sami Zayn moving on to the main roster soon:
"Sooner than later you're definitely going to see them making the move. That's the whole point of NXT: to percolate these guys up to the top and then once they're there, to let them stay and continue to gather that experience while the right opportunity becomes available for them.
"[Sami Zayn] is so good, and so captivating as a performer. You've got to remember that this is a guy that came out of a mask. His facial expressions and the way he can captivate you emotionally and the way he does things.
"It's extraordinary where he's come from with none of that from where he is now, it's amazing. I do think he could succeed. I think it would take some time. He's the slow build kind of guy that as a fan, there's not a flash on him.
"Even though he does amazing stuff, he's not that 'holy cow', right at the get go guy, but every time you see him he wins you over with that emotion and that quality and that realness and he lets you inside of who he is as a person.
"It's very Steamboat-esque, that level of emotional connection to a talent that takes you and really invests you in him as a person and as a character. It might take him longer to get there but once he does get there and he does emotionally suck you in, you're in."
On the "two year waiting period":
"We're honest with people about the process and what it takes, but you can't put a timeframe on anybody... let's go back in time and give you an example like Kurt Angle. I've never seen anybody pick this up faster in my life.
"He went from one day never doing it to all of a sudden, 'This guy's awesome'. You get that, then you get guys where it takes them a long time. We have guys that are coming in who have never stepped through the ropes before.
"For guys that are coming in here with a massive amount of experience: Finn Balor, Kevin Owens, Hideo [Itami] - those guys are at a different level. Now it's adapting culturally, if you want to say it that way, to the WWE style.
"It's different playbooks. We run a playbook a certain way and that's what we need them to adapt to, but when they do, they become ready to go much faster and then it becomes about the spot opening up.
"You come in here with all the experience in the world. If it happens fast, great. If it happens slow, that's where the opportunity is. Then you have to make the decision. If it's not working out for you, we'll discuss it, we'll part ways amicably.
"If you're cool with the wait and you're still enjoying the process and the work, great, that's awesome too. I can't say to somebody, 'You come in here and you'll be out of here in three months'. You can't say it. It's a living, breathing organism. All of it."
Link: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s216/...#ixzz3NTjZelGr