Cody Rhodes. Seth Rollins. Roman Reigns. Brock Lesnar. Drew McIntyre. What do all these Superstars have in common? Well, for starters, all five have had a hand in skyrocketing the landscape of WWE that we see now. Yet, for some, retirement may be on the horizon soon. While there is still some juice left to squeeze in their careers, the future of this business is now. However, the rate in which these young prospects are coming up through the pipeline of “WWE NXT” to the main roster are slower than in years past. WWE President Nick Khan weighs in on what he and other head figures are trying to do to mold today’s wrestlers into immortal named stars of the future, and when the gears for these decisions started grinding.

“So, right after WrestleMania last year, Triple H, and I got together and we said, ‘Okay, let’s take a look at the future,'” Khan said on “The Bill Simmons Podcast.” “We went down to our Performance Center to see Shawn Michaels and Matt Bloom…[we asked] ‘Why is it taking longer?’ And Shawn said, ‘There’s one thing we could really use the company’s help on. We need to be able to tour ‘NXT’ because doing from the studio every week, you don’t get the authentic fan response that young wrestlers need to know if their work is working or not…’ He said, ‘We need to be able to take ‘NXT’ on the road.’ Great. No problem…Let’s take it on the road starting in a month or whatever it was. And then you saw the quick acceleration of Oba Femi, Trick Williams, Je’Von Evans, soon to be others coming from ‘NXT.'”

Not only are they scouting for future in-ring greats, Khan mentioned that he has asked Triple H, Michaels, and Bloom to keep their eyes and ears open on managers and announcers too. Speaking of accelerating stars, Femi, Williams, and Evans will make their WrestleMania debuts tonight. As for other “NXT” talents, there’s backstage discussion that several highly esteemed wrestlers from that brand will make their main roster call-ups post-‘Mania, such as Ethan Page, Ricky Saints, Blake Monroe, Jacy Jayne, Sol Ruca, and Joe Hendry.

If you use any quotes from this article, please credit “The Bill Simmons Podcast” with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.