WWE Hall of Famer Road Dogg has explained why he thinks letting WWE stars stick with their character and name is a “weight lifted off people’s shoulders.”
Towards the latter days of Vince McMahon’s time running WWE, it had become the norm for stars graduating from NXT to undergo either a name or character change before joining the main roster. To some extent Keith Lee, Karrion Kross, and LA Knight were all among those affected with Knight returning to his NXT name now after a spell as Max Dupri.
Speaking on Superstar Crossover Road Dogg – who has recently returned to WWE now it is run by Triple H – explained why he found the character changes to be an issue and thinks fans will see more comfortable performances now that edict has been scrapped:
“All these people come up, and they change their name and they change the character, and I feel like it was problematic from the get-go.”
“I think individually it’s a weight lifted off people’s shoulders. They came up with this character because it was something that they can sink their teeth into and to have it stripped away when they come up to the main roster is gut-wrenching for them personally and I know that from just having conversations with several of them.”
“You’re going to see people get more comfortable with delivering their act because it’s more closely to who they are and I think that’s where we’ll be going in the future.”