SmackDown Ring Announcer Mike Rome Recalls Joining WWE NXT At Hectic Time

No matter what you do in the world of professional wrestling, it's pretty much a given that you can expect a hectic schedule. But when you join WWE, that madness gets elevated to a much higher level. So when Mike Rome joined the company, he had some expectations. But he didn't anticipate that "WWE NXT" would explode the way it did and suddenly become much more than just a developmental brand.

On the "Out of Character" podcast, Rome shared that his introduction to WWE was a baptism by fire because he started his career in 'NXT' during a time of exponential growth for WWE's Florida territory. For starters, they would film multiple episodes per taping at Full Sail University. Then, in addition to touring around the Sunshine State, they started holding events all over the country. The small, local operation turned into a worldwide phenomenon, so the backstage correspondent's schedule suddenly became more frenetic.

"It was crazy," he said. "I did the first WarGames down there. I got to experience pay-per-views outside of Full Sail. Then we started going on the road. The only one we did at that point was [NXT Takeover: Brooklyn in 2015]. It was seeing this evolution doing all these outside shows and realizing all these people know all this stuff. Pretty much everybody that's currently on 'Smackdown' or 'Raw' was on 'NXT' at that time. We just had a banger show. It was just wild."

"Banger" is quite an understatement. During his time there, Rome remembered that Shinsuke Nakamura, Kevin Owens, Finn Balor, Sami Zayn, American Alpha, and The Revival (now known as FTR in AEW) were all part of the roster. Plus, the entire women's roster from that time went on to revolutionize women's wrestling.