Heath Slater Recalls Being Told He Looked Too Much Like Edge in WWE – Former WWE star Heath Slater recently spoke with Kenny McIntosh of Inside The Ropes, discussing his experience on the first season of NXT and how WWE officials forced him to alter his appearance due to similarities with Edge.
Slater was part of the inaugural season of NXT, often referred to as the “Game Show Era.” He was one of eight rookies selected from WWE’s developmental system and recalled how he was informed about the opportunity. However, before his call-up, he was told he needed to change his look:
“Dr. Tom (Prichard) pulled eight of us in the room, and he had an email saying, ‘We need your eight best down there that are ready for TV.’ I was one of the eight. Next thing I know, they thought that I looked too much like Edge. My hair was long, I had the long coat, I had long tights with emblems on the side that resembled, but didn’t look like [Edge’s]. But they told me before I got called up to go to NXT that I need to cut my hair off, gotta go to trunks and all this stuff to where I’m like, are you just changing everything about me?”
Slater explained that he was originally a heel in WWE’s developmental system but was forced into a babyface role for NXT. He felt that WWE stripped away much of what had defined him as a performer:
“I was a bad guy in developmental. They wanted me to be a good guy on television to the point that they were stripping from us everything that we’d done, and now we were going on this game show and being people that we don’t know how to be.”
The Unpredictability of NXT’s First Season
Slater also reflected on the chaotic nature of NXT at the time. He shared how the competitors were initially told that the show would follow a points-based format, but that structure never materialized:
“The way that it was explained to us was that it was going to be like a points bracket system. If you win, you get five points. If you lose, you get zero. If it’s a draw, you get one, stuff like that. But then again, it was nothing like that.”
Instead, the show became a week-to-week mystery, with the rookies having no clue what they would be doing when they arrived at TV:
“It became each week us going to TV not knowing what the hell we’re doing. Not knowing if it’s a match or a keg carry contest, or we’re having a tag match or an obstacle course. It became a running joke, to where each week I’d be like, ‘Gosh, you hear what we’re doing? We’re having a hot dog eating contest!’ I feel like we were guinea pigs on television with a game show that they were trying to make good.”
Slater went on to have a lengthy WWE career, eventually becoming part of The Nexus, The Corre, and later, 3MB, before winning the SmackDown Tag Team Titles with Rhyno. However, his early experiences on NXT clearly left a lasting impression.
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Heath Slater Recalls Being Told He Looked Too Much Like Edge in WWE
