PJ Black, formerly known as Justin Gabriel, recently reflected on the original season of NXT.
The show paired rookies with veterans in search of the next WWE Superstar and aired on Syfy. Black, who was paired with Matt Hardy, was eliminated in the final week of the competition. In an interview with Steve Fall of WrestlingNewsCo, Black shared his thoughts on the experience.
He explained that at the time, being on TV was the main goal for him and the other rookies. Despite having ten years of wrestling experience under his belt, Black didn’t mind what he was doing on TV. The opportunity to be on the road and wrestle full-time was his main aspiration.
At that time, it was cool because we just wanted to be on TV. We were a bunch of rookies. Well, in the storyline. I had been wrestling for 10 years at that time. Honestly, I didn’t care what I was doing on TV. I was like, oh cool, I’m on TV, I’m on the road.
However, Black revealed that the original plan for NXT was quite different from what actually transpired. The initial idea was for the contestants to live in a house similar to the reality show The Ultimate Fighter and engage in proper athletic challenges. However, due to time constraints, the show took a different direction. On the day of filming, the producers had to come up with a new plan on the fly.
The original plan was for us to live in a house like the Ultimate Fighter and actually compete and do proper athletic challenges. But as the wrestling goes, time ran out, and on the day, they were like, ‘Oh, let’s write a show,’ and then they were like, ‘Oh, we don’t even have time to write a show.’ So we kind of free-styled pretty much everything. It was pretty much all on the fly.
Despite the challenges, Black remained with WWE until 2015, continuing to make a name for himself in the wrestling industry. As for NXT, the show transitioned from a competition format to a developmental system and eventually evolved into a third brand for WWE.
Which WWE Main Roster Stars Appeared On NXT Recently?
Carlito and Kevin Owens recently made appearances on NXT. Carlito and Owens appeared on the January 2nd New Year’s Evil episode as Carlito competed in a six-man tag match and Owens helped Trick Williams pick up a win over Grayson Waller.
H/t to Fightful.com