Sean Waltman Says WWE NXT 2.0 Needs “Young, Fresh Blood” Making Creative Decisions
On the latest episode of Pro Wrestling 4 Life, two-time WWE Hall of Famer Sean "X-Pac" Waltman and Wrestling Inc. Managing Editor Nick Hausman discussed the latest news of the week. WWE NXT is currently going through a reboot in the form on NXT 2.0 where they hope to give younger talent more opportunities and develop them for the main roster. It was recently reported that another goal for NXT 2.0 is to attract younger viewers. However, the median age for NXT 2.0 is 62, and Waltman reacted to the disparity in vision and reality.
"Who's in charge of the creative direction of of NXT? You can't have 60+ year-old people in charge of the creative direction of a show that's geared towards young people," Waltman pointed out. "Maybe oversee it but you got to let young, fresh blood make those decisions. We got to be self aware enough to know that we don't and I'm including me too as a 50-year-old man, we don't f**king know what they (young people) want. We might think we do or we might think we know what's best for them, but we don't f**king know. We need to f**king listen to people that do."
NXT 2.0 made headlines after mainstream outlets covered Joe Gacy's character as an attack on the "woke left". The character has undergone a slight shift from its debut and Waltman gave his thoughts on the initial introduction of the character.
"That was f**king brutal," Waltman stated. "If you're doing that to specifically get at a certain group of people, you lost the f**king plot. That was f**king rotten. Some of the worst sh*t I've ever seen on a wrestling TV show."
In other WWE developmental news, the company has recently hired former Spirit Squad member Kenn Doane as a Performance Center coach. Waltman commented on the hire and his brief experience working with Doane.
"I have a limited experience with Kenn Doane," Waltman admitted. "We had a match one time on a show. It was a crazy show. I don't want to get into all the hijinks that happened but I had a really nice match with him. He impressed me. He knows what's up in there. He's a good guy to have. I would be very comfortable having him as one of the coaches if I was running the Performance Center, very solid. Here's the thing, not every coach has to have been in the main event and have drawn all the money. Other people that were maybe just mid-card guys still have a lot to offer."
A new episode of Sean Waltman's Pro Wrestling 4 Life drops every Wednesday morning on all major podcast platforms. It is also released in video form on FITE and YouTube.com/XPac Wednesdays at 3 pm EST!