As PWMania.com previously reported, Mick Foley became a trending topic on Twitter after commenting on how WWE “is no longer the place for talents to aspire to.”
During an appearance on Busted Open Radio, Foley went into more detail about his thoughts on the WWE product and NXT:
“Theoretically NXT is its own show, and I think for a long time their shows have stood out and been amazing on their onw. But on paper, they’re a developmental group. So they would be like a feeder system. And if a guy is hitting .360 and driving in runs, hitting home runs in minor league baseball, it should be a given that he will be given that same opportunity with the big league. But I’m thinking if I’m Adam Cole, and I’m looking what just happened with the guys who made their debuts. Not just Karrion Kross, but even going back to a talented guy like EC3, who could’ve been a major player and was made a joke to some extent, I’d have to seriously consider if WWE was the place where my dreams were going to come true. Adam probably looked at his size relative to the type of people that Vince likes on the main roster. I don’t think it hurt at all that his girlfriend, Britt Baker, was in AEW and he made the choice that he thought was right for him. When you put all these things together and you see that people are now departing what they see for greener pastures, that’s a problem for WWE.”
“I thought Ruby [Soho] stood out. I thought she was excellent in WWE. She had a nice run there. I don’t think they got everything they could’ve out of here, and that’s why when she left I tweeted out ‘I don’t think we’ve seen the best of her’ or ‘the best is yet to come.’ And I think it is. I think one of the things you risk when you have a developmental system and a way of doing things specific to your business model, is that you lose a bit of individuality. And so you tend to have a lot of people who can do great moves, have very good matches, whose names you can’t remember after they’ve wrestled. Unless you’re tuning in every week. That was the problem with me. I would tune in sporadically and go ‘whoa, look at that guy. Good shape, looks great, handsome guy, wearing trunks, great moves. Can’t remember his name.’ A lot of guys tend to fall into the same pattern of looking and wrestling the same. So when you have someone like Ruby, who is very original and brash in the ring, I think you tend to lose a little bit of that. WWE used to be the place where characters came to life, and now I think it’s a place that (characters go to die) in a sense. Obviously that’s not the case all the time because you have breakthrough character, guys like Bray Wyatt who is no longer there. There is still some great storytelling. I look at that Smackdown roster and it’s just stacked from top to bottom. The stuff Roman Reigns is doing with Paul Heyman as that ultra subservient second is really great stuff. But there’s only so many spots on the card. And that’s an issue AEW is going to have to address. Not address but they’re going to have to deal with, because there’s a lot of talent in one promotion there as well. It’s a good problem to have if you’re a wrestling fan, or a wrestler.”
