Road Dogg talks about Undisputed ERA's time in NXT and their brief moment in the sun on the WWE main roster in the lead-up to WWE Survivor Series 2019
As The Undisputed ERA, Adam Cole, Kyle O'Reilly, Bobby Fish, and Roderick Strong dominated NXT for two years before everyone went their separate ways. As fate would have it, during their run NXT was allowed to take center stage in the build-up to WWE Survivor Series 2019 as for one night only, WWE Raw, WWE SmackDown, and NXT went head-to-head-to-head in a battle for brand supremacy.
During this time, Adam Cole was featured on the WWE main roster including a headlining match against Daniel Bryan on the November 1, 2019 episode of WWE Friday Night SmackDown in a match for the NXT Championship.
Road Dogg, who appeared on this episode alongside the NXT Superstars in the show-closing moment that would see the NXT roster of the time stand tall in the ring declaring war on the WWE main roster, spoke about his belief that Adam Cole and the rest of Undisputed ERA would be called away from the NXT roster once they were all seen by the main roster staff.
While that ultimately didn't happen, Road Dogg provided some insight, on his Oh... You Didn't Know podcast, into the way that those four individuals might have been perceived in the eyes of Vince McMahon and why he was ultimately happy that they stayed in WWE NXT for a little while longer.
"We knew when it came time to shine, they were going to shine. Look, I thought they were going to be [called up to the main roster], too. I didn't think they were going to be the next Four Horsemen because, look, I don't think Vince [McMahon] saw them as the next Four Horsemen. I think Vince 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 WrestleMania," said Road Dogg. "Now, whether you disagree with that or not, that's fine. 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. I didn't see them as that, but I was scared, like I mentioned earlier, that they would be gone, 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."
Continuing on, Road Dogg stated that he believed names like Damian Priest and Keith Lee were more likely to succeed in the main roster environment and he credited everyone from that era of NXT for competing at a high level in wrestling today regardless of whether or not they have stayed with WWE.
"I think [Undisputed ERA] did have a lot better run in NXT than they would have had on the main roster, maybe for that exact reason," he said. "I loved having them there. I didn't want them to go away. But also to the last guy's question, who stepped up, I thought Keith Lee would be gone sooner rather than later, too, once everybody got eyes on him and his abilities.
"I think everybody, everybody stepped up. You see now a lot of those kids that are still on top in the wrestling game, they may not just work here anymore, but even the ones that work here on top. The Rhea Ripleys, the Damian Priests, you know, all of these guys that we're talking about are, are still stars today on a bigger stage. So this was the first introduction to some of these NXT characters for a lot of mainstream wrestling fans, and I think it's paid dividends," Dogg said.
Today, Road Dogg is working for WWE as the SVP of Live Events. Adam Cole and Kyle O'Reilly are currently contracted to AEW but both are sidelined with injuries. Bobby Fish was briefly with AEW but is currently freelancing, recently winning a boxing fight.
Roderick Strong is the lone member of the Undisputed ERA still contracted to WWE. He currently is a part of Diamond Mine in the present-day iteration of NXT. He has also been sidelined with an injury.
This year, WWE Survivor Series is taking a page out of NXT's playbook and presenting WarGames. Thus far, many former NXT WarGames veterans have been added to the lineup of this year's event. Fans can check out the full card for Survivor Series here.
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