Vince McMahon Didn’t See The Undisputed ERA As Main Event Talents

Vince McMahon did not see The Undisputed ERA as a top-tier act in WWE according to a company executive who worked with the group in NXT.

In late 2019 NXT came to the fore in WWE as the developmental brand debuted on the USA Network just a few short weeks before AEW Dynamite premiered on TNT. As part of the push in WWE for the black and gold brand, NXT became a part of the then-annual battle for brand supremacy at that year’s Survivor Series.

The Undisputed ERA team of Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly, Bobby Fish, and Roderick Strong were the biggest stars on NXT at the time with all four men holding all the gold available to them on the brand.

Speaking on his Oh You Didn’t Know podcast, Road Dogg explained at that time the feeling in the NXT office was that the group would soon be lost to the WWE main roster but that didn’t happen. Road Dogg admits he doesn’t think Vince McMahon saw the group as main eventers:

“[Asked if anyone seized their opportunity] So yeah, look, I think all the NXT superstars did, but I think they’ve been doing that [before Survivor Series]. We asked a lot of them early on, and some of these guys were ready and prepared, and some of them were not. We asked a lot when it came to live television when it came to pay-per-views and producing these creative packages and so forth. We ask a lot of the talent. So we knew when it came time to shine, they were going to shine.”

“Look, I thought they [The Undisputed Era] were going to be gone, too. I didn’t think they were going to be the next Four Horsemen because look, I don’t think Vince saw them as the next Four Horsemen. I think that saw them as four smaller guys who cumulatively can do some damage, but I don’t think Vince would see any of those guys facing Brock Lesnar in the main event of a WrestleMania.”

“Now, whether you disagree with that or not, that’s fine, and you can disagree with it all day. But you weren’t the boss of the company at the time. And that’s what he thought. So I didn’t see them as that. I was scared, like I mentioned earlier, that they would be gone, and a lot of our creative content would go with them. And it would be more difficult for us because we’re lazy and want to do as little work as possible.”

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