Mojo Rawley: Guys In NXT Have No Desire To Move To Raw Or SmackDown, Viewed As A “Horizontal Move”

Mojo Rawley talks NXT. 

In NXT, Mojo Rawley was staying hype every night. He hasn’t quite found the same success on Raw or SmackDown, rarely making his way onto television nowadays. Rawley is the latest in a long line of superstars who fans view as “wasted” on the main roster compared to their run in NXT. 

With NXT set to move to USA Network, many are now considering NXT as part of the main roster. And those in NXT don’t care to move to Raw or SmackDown.

“They are as unique as it comes and that’s why they’ve been upgraded to this platform,” Rawley told Sporting News. “Then, NXT was essentially a stepping stone, an opportunity to showcase what you’ve got with the only goal to get to the main roster. Now, there’s guys on NXT that have no desire to move to ‘RAW’ or ‘SmackDown’ because a lot of people don’t consider moving to ‘RAW’ or ‘SmackDown’ a vertical move anymore. A lot of people now consider it a horizontal move. I wrestled in front of seven people one time, If you go from that to a main roster show or pay-per-view, it’s a whole new game. You really have to transform every aspect of your game in that sense. It’s a whole new game and where NXT is now, they’re about as prepared as you can be for the transition to ‘RAW’ or ‘SmackDown.’”

Rawley has transformed his character over the last year, turning into a self-reflecting broken man. Despite weeks of vignettes on television, the character has never really gone anywhere.

“You’re constantly evolving your character and changing things up. It has been a process of self-reflection. I’m still working through it right now and we’ve been working on some really cool things on live events, fine-tuning some stuff so when it’s time to put it on ‘RAW,’ it’s going to be a hit and I believe in it. I think everything has been going really well for me and I can’t wait to share all my changes and everything I’ve been working on. It’s going to be good — I guarantee that.”

Rawley last wrestled at a WWE live event on July 6. He was recently called out by his good friend Rob Gronkowski, who continues to tease the possibility of a WWE match.