Fans have wondered what Vince McMahon might have said or was thinking when he met with the crew from NXT just prior to the brand making a massive shift in their presentation and branding and becoming NXT 2.0. There was a rumored visit to the WWE Performance Center by Vince, followed by a number of releases and then the promotion changed gears quickly.
Details of that meeting are now out there.
Thanks to the comments of former NXT producer Cornell Gunter, it's known what McMahon focused on when he came down to the PC and talked to everyone from NXT. Gunter appeared on The A Show on RNC Radio podcast and said that it wasn't a feeling of nervousness like 'Oh, our parents are coming home, be on your best behavior.' Instead, it was a feeling of excitement, especially for those newer NXT talents who hadn't really had a chance to meet Vince yet.
For producers and creative, it was also exciting because Vince talked about his love of wrestling, how he got into the business and turned WWE into what it is now. He then challenged everyone to think about how they produce shows and laid out his vision for a new NXT. "He said he wanted to change the look, the feel of NXT. He wants it to feel like NCAA-type stuff," commented Gunter.
Felt Like Vince Just Snapped His Fingers And Change Happened
He added that Vince and his guys, including Triple H, all presented a unified front and pitched a common understanding of how NXT might look and feel different. And, immediately following that pitch, things started changing and changing quickly.
There was a ton of respect shown to Triple H and never a feeling that everything was being taken away from him. It was more about an exciting opportunity, lots of talents leaving and this being the right time to shake things up. Vince was selling the fact, 'We got these stars. It’s time to start thinking about the future’ and everything he said in that meeting came to fruition, and we all left that meeting being like, ‘Wow, a change is coming.’”
h/t to PostWrestling.com for the transcription