WWE Legend, Hall of Famer and WrestleMania icon Ricky Steamboat sat down with John Pollock of
The Fight Network this week to discuss the future of WWE's developmental territory NXT. According to Steamboat - whose own son Richie is on the NXT roster - says that WWE has big plans for the Florida based group and sees it becoming the company's third legitimate brand on television right up there with Monday Night RAW and Friday Night Smackdown.
"NXT is a new, young program hoping to become a third brand with WWE. The focus and the push is to go in that direction. What it also is going to do is jump start a lot of young talent coming from the school to NXT, get their feet wet, and hopefully that will carry over to them getting on Smackdown or Raw."
NXT Wrestling - formerly Florida Championship Wrestling - has quickly become a hot topic of conversation amongst the Internet Wrestling Community since it changed from FCW in August 2012. The man in charge is currently Steve Kiern who formerly wrestled in WWE as Skinner making a brief losing appearance at WrestleMania 8 against the late Owen Hart and again at WrestleMania 9 under the guise of Doink number 2. He is joined by Ricky Steamboat, Bill DeMott (Hugh Morrus in WCW), Billy Gunn, Dusty Rhodes and Norman Smiley amongst others who all work to get the roster up to WWE TV standards. News that NXT could be given a huge push is great news for the talents involved who have already watched so many fellow NXT stars join the main 2 rosters recently. NXT Alumni include AJ Lee, Big E Langston and The Shield all of whom are in the midst of mega pushes that will continue to grow once WrestleMania season has played out and the same could be on the cards for many more. With such quality output it seems that NXT's spot as WWE's developmental territory is safe for now but if Steamboat's words become true then it could become something else entirely. With the quality of names currently involved in NXT wouldn't it be something if the group actually became a bigger deal than TNA making themselves the number 2 wrestling organisation in America? Sure they're owned by WWE but with their own writers and their own ideas Steamboat, Rhodes et al could change the face of wrestling as we know it forever.