1) Vince McMahon’s Influence On Survivor Series
NXT was the big winner at Survivor Series this year. Journalist Tom Colohue recently spoke about the planning that went into the event and the decision to put NXT over.
While Triple H was a big proponent of putting NXT over, it was said to be Vince’s plan all along.
Here is what Colohue had to say:
“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.”
My Take: NXT going over was the right decision. It made NXT feel like a legitimate third brand and it will raise the stakes for next year if WWE does RAW vs Smackdown vs NXT again at Survivor Series. Glad to hear that Vince is on board.
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On a related note, check out our predictions for Wrestlemania 36 here.