10 Major Differences Talents Face Transitioning From NXT To WWE

10. Learning Curve

One of the first major differences between NXT and WWE has to do with the company's expectations. Most of the athletes at the Performance Center are there because, on some level, they are still learning. In the case of a brand new NXT recruits like recent Tough Enough winner Josh Bredl (Bronson Mathews), he's learning almost everything there is to learn about professional wrestling from the ground up. For veterans like Hiedo Itami or Finn Balor, the opportunity to learn always exists, but their education is more centered around understanding the WWE way of things. In other words, the more experienced workers may be learning where the WWE positions their cameras, how to pace out their matches and segments in order to hit their critical time queues, developing more of an illustrated character, working on various facial expressions, and so on. The WWE main roster talents have already proved themselves to enough people that they were ready for the major league. Because of this, the producers and powers-that-be at WWE shows may have less tolerance for ignorance or mistakes simply because, to them, any major bumps in the road should've been smoothed out down in Orlando. The difference might be similar to that of coaching college/university sports versus professional sports. Coaching young men and women in the early 20s requires a different strategy and approach than coaching fully grown and (hopefully) mature adults that conduct business and operate on a professional level. So while this isn't to say that the main rosters are know-it-alls (because you can never stop learning), there is an understanding that WWE is home to the elite and not necessarily all that tolerant of a learning curve.