Heath Recalls Being A Part Of Gameshow Version Of WWE NXT
Impact Wrestling's Heath recently appeared on Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw. During the interview, he reflected on the NXT gameshow experience. Heath admitted that the talent were scared because after being eliminated, they would return to developmental.
"We were so scared too," he said. "Because it was like, 'this might be yall's last little chance to succeed, you are getting this push, you are getting this.' Once you got released from NXT, not released but like out of the whole gameshow thing that they were doing, you were put back down to developmental thinking, 'oh shit, what's going to happen?' You didn't know, they didn't tell you nothing."
WWE opted to tell the talent nothing about what was going on at the time. This included the various games that they would be involved in each week. Because of this, they would just find out in the moment, much like the fans, according to Heath Slater.
"They didn't even tell us the games that we were doing," he revealed. "We would show up and the next thing you know, we've got an obstacle course that you've got to run. Then we got to be in front of the O2 Arena, which holds at least 50,000 people and it's already sold out. We would be in the middle of the ring and they would say, 'Alright Heath, you've got one minute — a promo about cereal.' I am like, 'Um, I like cereal, I eat it with milk,' you know what I mean?"
When it comes to the gameshow concept, Heath Slater does not believe WWE knew exactly what they wanted to accomplish. However, he believes the only time they looked stupid was during the game elements.
"In my way of thinking with the whole NXT thing, I don't think they knew exactly what they wanted to do but they had a good idea. But thank god we knew what we were doing while we were out there so we didn't look stupid. That was a fact," he claimed. "The only time we looked stupid was when we had to do the game stuff, you know? Because it was right on the fly, on television."
If you use any quotes from this article, please credit Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.