The Blue Meanie Says NXT Is the New ECW
In an interview with The Mirror, The Blue Meanie said that WWE’s NXT brand is basically the new ECW, giving several reasons why he thinks this. Here are highlights:
On NXT as the new ECW: “Well it kind of did return with NXT, I think. Especially the early days of NXT. Just watching the product and seeing how the crowd was at Full Sail, it was like an ECW arena crowd, very ECW-esque. Now they’re doing the ‘Takeovers’, that first one reminded me of ECW ‘Barely Legal’ – with a better budget! Then they grew, but to me NXT is what ECW was. It started off independently, but Vince helped out. He would send WWE guys to ECW like Droz and a few others just to get some in-ring experience, before he brought them back up – much like NXT now. So to me, NXT, in a way, is the next ECW.”
On NXT UK: “To me, that’s kind of brilliant as it’s like bringing back the territory system. Someone will work in NXT America, if I’m getting stale there, I’’ll go to NXT UK, then to, like you say, NXT Germany or NXT Japan – who knows? Nah, I don’t think it will impact it. Because when ECW, or WCW or WWE would sign somebody away, that was an opportunity for the next guy to step up and take charge. So if there’s one king of the indies, if there’s such a thing anymore, once that guy gets signed up, the second in line becomes the big man. There’s thousands of wrestlers and opportunities. So, if someone gets signed, it’s an opportunity for the next in line to takeover.”
On coaching certain NXT wrestlers: “Yeah, I’d like to say coached. Trainer means you get in the ring but I’m more of a life coach, like Tony Robbins maybe. One of my kids – I like to say kids – is Matt Riddle. He just signed with NXT. There’s also Steve Cutler, who has been there for several years. They’ve taken a liking to him. He’s almost like an honorary trainer there for the newer guys. I also have kids in Ring of Honor. I helped coach the announcer, Ian Riccaboni, and the tag-team Coast to Coast too. What I like to do with the younger guys is mentally prepare them for how to navigate the minefield of professional wrestling, the politics of it. Just to learn from my mistakes, I made plenty of them. There’s definitely ways to maneuver in this business and that’s my goal, to help the younger generation because somebody helped me. So that’s my job, to give support – over at the world-famous monster factory in New Jersey, it’s been around since 1983.”
