10 Major Differences Talents Face Transitioning From NXT To WWE

4. Venues

Currently, the NXT tapings emanate approximately once a month from Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida. The WWE schedule spans the entire globe, with televised programs mostly taking place in either North America or Europe. Some superstars connect to audiences differently depending on the city. For example, earlier this year Roman Reigns was booed heavily and treated like a heel in much of the Northeastern U.S. markets but was not receiving the same negative reaction outside of this region. Not withstanding any hometown heroes, talents really have to bring their A-game to get the reactions they seek in US cities like Philadelphia, New York, and Chicago, as these locales have a history of being tough crowds and making the talents really work for a response. Meanwhile, some NXT talents have stated how they view the Full Sail crowd almost as a motivational partner, and often feel the crowd trying to support the talents and will them along, rather than simply react to them like dancing monkeys. Although the job of a sports-entertainer is, among many others, to generate a strong reaction from the crowd, these two environments are vastly different from one another. In NXT, you have a television show that is performed in front of pretty much the same crowd every month, and non-televised events take place not too far from Winter Park. In WWE, you may be performing coast-to-coast or in front of people from different countries within a matter of days. There's a big difference there that often isn't truly felt until experienced.