Road Dogg Says New WWE Directive Is A Weight Off People's Shoulders

"Road Dogg" Brian James is back with WWE, rehired by the company recently for the role of Senior Vice President of Live Events. But in a conversation with Josh Martinez of "Superstar Crossover," the former Creative Director of Character Development in "NXT" spoke about how much previous name or persona changes had affected those called up to the main roster in the past.

"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," James explained. During his time backstage in "NXT," he and the talent collaborated together on those personas. Now with Triple H in the role of Chief Content Officer, James knows that keeping that continuity is a part of the overall game plan.

"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," James continued, "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." 

James thinks talent will prosper now going back to old names and characters. "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," he stated.

We've seen Karrion Kross go back to his old "NXT" identity after returning to WWE, and, just this past Friday on "WWE SmackDown," fans saw LA Knight dispose of his Max Dupri name. James himself just donned his old D-Generation X gear as he, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, and Sean Waltman reunited on "WWE Raw" to celebrate the 25th anniversary of DX.