While publicly HHH will say Vince loves NXT, the internal perception is very different, seeing it as a touring brand filled with so many guys Vince doesn’t believe are money. We do know there was a lot of heat on HHH and complaints for not selling the Reigns beating in public, because he had to get his face on the NXT show in London knowing it would be a super show in front of that crowd and he didn’t want anyone to not know it was his creation and baby. The questions regarding Reigns given how he’s not gotten over with HHH as his adversary for so long has led to plenty of finger pointing, although a lot of people pointed to the crotch chop on Raw as the sign HHH is no longer really behind the cause of getting Reigns over as a face. Perhaps that’s just paranoia and frustration, but the way Reigns was eliminated at the Rumble and the HHH/Reigns interaction with him has been curious to say the least. However, the one point that everyone talks about is the treatment of Breeze on the main roster. It created an issue that a lot of NXT talent, while the goal is the main roster and the money on the main roster, they are loving it in NXT, and they see Breeze as someone who was an NXT star who was ready to be a WWE star and then got treated the way he did. It led to a lot of questions regarding whether people wanted to be brought up. Don’t get me wrong, people do because the money difference is huge, but there’s also the feeling that NXT is really fun and the main roster is the culmination of a lifelong dream but very frustrating. In particular there was the heat because of the timing of the “Breaking Ground” show on the network where they made it such a big deal how Breeze was moving to the main roster, and that by the time that segment aired, he was getting buried like a job guy on the main roster.
From a public standpoint, Vince, on HHH, said in an Orlando Sentinel interview, “He’s done so well. I’m so proud of him, not just the years he’s spent in the ring and I don’t know how many more year that’s going to last. This may be his last WrestleMania. I don’t know. He’s a little long in the tooth as I say to his face and we all laugh about that now because I’m 70 years old. Nevertheless, corporately the growth over the last two years has been exponential and Stephanie’s part has been even more of a meteoric rise. What she does in terms of representing the brand, no one can represent the brand in all aspects, in all facets of our business, and she fits everywhere. Talk about an ambassador. She’s obviously beyond an ambassador and her growth corporately has been great. On Shane: “Whether or not there’s a corporate place, we’ll wait and see. From a performer standpoint, I so enjoy performing with him. And when the three of us are out there, Stephanie and Shane and me, and throw in Paul because that has happened in the past, oh my God. We could say out there and entertain each other, much less the audience, for an hour. It would be easy. It’s just so much fun because we can ad lib and entertain ourselves. I think if you are entertaining yourselves and you’re having fun that projects and the audience is having fun with you.