Road Dogg has revealed that he “doesn’t disagree at all” with recent comments made by Randy Orton after the veteran criticised a number of NXT Superstars.
During a recent appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, Randy Orton commented on a number of NXT Superstars who have recently graduated to the main roster.
Orton claimed that while he’s trying to preach longevity to the company’s younger stars, some of them “don’t know what the f*ck they’re doing.” The former World Champion said that the main art of professional wrestling is to protect your opponent, and that’s something that’s not being taught in NXT.
Speaking during an episode of his podcast, Oh… You didn’t know, former NXT coach Road Dogg addressed Orton’s comments. The WWE Hall of Famer explained that while he doesn’t necessarily disagree with Orton, the NXT stars do know what they’re doing, they just don’t do everything perfectly as yet.
“I don’t disagree with him at all. For him to say they don’t know what they’re doing, I guess you can say that and he’s right to an extent, but they know what they’re doing. They just don’t do it perfectly yet and I don’t expect them to.”
Expanding further, he explained that it’s important to remember that some of the more recent NXT graduates had never worked in front of a live crowd before coming to the main roster.
“So I totally understand where Randy is coming from. I think Randy is correct, but sometimes guys go up there really early and never worked anywhere before. Some guys started during the pandemic and never worked in front of a live crowd.”
After winding down his in-ring career with one last run alongside Billy Gunn as the New Age Outlaws, Road Dogg moved into a more permanent role backstage in the summer of 2014.
This including work with NXT and later on SmackDown where he acted as a producer before becoming one of the show’s lead writers. In more recent years, the tag team legend moved away from having one fixed position and generally worked with young hopefuls in NXT alongside Triple H and Shawn Michaels.
However, the WWE Hall of Famer was released by WWE in early January 2022 alongside a number of other NXT figures including William Regal.
H/t to WrestlingNews for the transcription.