Ricky Saints has spoken about “WWE NXT’s” role in developing stars, stating that he was sure that a few call-ups would do well in the big leagues of “WWE Raw” and “WWE SmackDown.”

Saints, who himself has been touted as a star to look forward to in the future, has discussed how “NXT” is proving to be a solid training ground for future main roster stars, naming the likes of Je’Von Evans, Oba Femi, and Trick Williams as examples of “NXT” graduates who have succeeded on the main roster.

“So those three [Je’Von Evans, Oba Femi, and Trick Williams] have gone up there and done a lot of great things. And I think what it has created at NXT is more opportunity for people to step up and show up, so to speak. And I think it’s a great time too for those types of talents, excluding myself and other people, to rise to the occasion basically. Because I think Oba, Trick and Je’Von are all great examples of what NXT is able to offer, deliver, and produce,” he said on “Going Ringside.” 

While many predicted the aforementioned stars would do well before they were called up to the main roster, not many would have predicted the kind of success they have had. However, Saints stated that he was always sure the trio would do well.

“Not at all [surprised by their success]. Sometimes when you see certain talents, you just get it. It’s an immediate light bulb that goes off your head. It’s the same thing you see when you see me on screen. It just makes sense that they are gonna be stars no matter what. So me personally, I’m actually really glad to see them after working with all three of them, and seeing the growth that they’ve had too, and the success on the main roster is incredible.”

He highlighted how the rise of stars like Oba Femi, Williams, and Evans showcases what a wrestler can do when they pass through “NXT.”

AEW CEO Tony Khan has spoken glowingly about Sting’s son, Steve Borden, following Borden’s recent matches in AEW. 

Borden, who appeared alongside his father for his final match, began training to be a wrestler in 2024, and has featured in some dark matches in AEW. Khan, in an interview with “TMZ Sports,” spoke highly of the legendary wrestler’s son and recalled how he saw him as a prospect in football, well before Borden’s journey into pro wrestling.

“He’s fantastic. I’m getting very excited about Steven. And Steven Bordon, you know, he played football at Kentucky. He was a great prospect. I first saw him as a football player working at the Jaguars as a tight end coming out of Kentucky. And my first thought was, ‘Wow, he looks awesome.’ And, of course, with his family connection in pro wrestling and given that he’s Sting’s son, a lot of the genetics are there. And not only is Steven a great football player, he’s becoming a fantastic wrestler,” Khan exclaimed. “And we saw a little bit of it when he got involved in Sting’s last match against the Young Bucks and he came out looking like Sting and it gave me the thought, ‘Wow, I’d love to see more Steven as a wrestler,’ and he’s doing a great job. He’s wrestling in the dark matches and getting experience, but I think he has the potential to be an excellent wrestler.”

While he’s excited to see more of Borden, Khan explained that AEW is going to be taking it easy with him and not throw him in the deep end of live television. Borden debuted in pro wrestling last year for ACW, where he teamed with AEW’s Darby Allin in a tag team match and has since and has featured in several dark matches on “AEW Dynamite” and ROH, facing off against the likes of Jay Lethal and Aaron Solo.

Dana White emphatically denied any interest in cross-over fights between UFC and Zuffa Boxing.

Zuffa Boxing is still in its infancy relative to the UFC, having launched with the Terence Crawford versus Canelo Alvarez fight last year. But it has dominated headlines with the $15 million signing of Conor Benn, sparking uproar between critics and UFC fighters alike. 

One way many thought that issue could be remediated is by giving certain fighters the opportunity to box if they so choose, with the likes of Alex Pereira and Max Holloway making it clear they would if they could.

White was asked on Saturday following Fight Night in London whether that could be the case, and he was certain that it would not.

“No way in Hell,” he said. “The cross-over fights suck.”

He was asked if that extended to a fight on the scale of Pereira against Oleksandr Usyk, to which he simply repeated “No.”

“That’s not what we do,” he continued. “I want to see the best fighters in the world fight the best fighters in the world. I mean, I’d like to see Jai Opetaia fight Usyk… There’s other networks and other people that do that s***, it’s not what I do.”

Of course that’s not entirely true, since White backed Conor McGregor versus Floyd Mayweather Jr. in 2017. But he alluded to that anyway: “I did it once… It was financially unbelievable, but how many times can you keep fooling people with that?”

White continued to say that the only attraction fights that pull big numbers are the ones involving Mike Tyson, and echoed that “It’s just not what I do.”

There has been a swathe of MMA fighters over the past half-decade to cross-over to boxing, mostly for the larger pay-day, including undefeated UFC Heavyweight Champion Francis Ngannou and innovator of the BMF moniker Nate Diaz. Though they had to leave UFC before stepping into the squared circle, and have yet to find any real success.

If you’ve been a fan of WWE for a while, you’ll know that the company has a little tendency to stretch the truth and rewrite history. After all, history is only ever written by the winners, and when the person with the pen in their hand is someone like Vince McMahon who literally bought his biggest competition at the start of the 21st century and ruled over wrestling like some deranged overlord, the past is always going to look favorable on WWE.

WrestleMania 30 is a prime example of this, because WWE has made it very clear that Daniel Bryan walking out of New Orleans with the WWE World Heavyweight Championship was the culmination of a two year story… except it wasn’t, not even close.

The tale WWE likes to tell is that Bryan lost the World Heavyweight Championship to Sheamus in 18 seconds at WrestleMania 28, and started his redemption arc almost overnight. The “NO!” chants that were lobbied at him were a response to the “YES!” chants that Bryan had been doing, but they organically became positive chants over time that resulted in a movement which took Bryan to the pinnacle of professional wrestling. What actually happened is very different. Bryan was always seen as a solid hand, but never a main event star. He was seen as a “internet darling,” a term WWE liked to use for anyone the fans cheered for because they worked in Ring of Honor or in Japan, rather than the fans cheering for them because they liked the wrestler’s work.

Because of this, Bryan was always positioned in and around the title picture, but was never actually going to be given the ball. It got to the point where Bryan’s “YES!” chants were what WWE thought was over and not the man himself, so the company tried to give the chants to someone they wanted in the main event scene, The Big Show. The whole “B+ Player” mantra was the one thing that was actually true about the whole thing, and let’s be honest with ourselves; had it not been for CM Punk walking out of the company, Bryan would have never won the big one at WrestleMania 30. If you need evidence for this, Punk still has the original rundown of what WrestleMania was going to look like, and he was going to face Triple H while the main event was going to be Orton vs. Batista. Where was Bryan? Wrestling Sheamus of course!

WWE has toned down on the rewriting of history somewhat in recent years as they realized that people could probably just do their own research and find out what the past actually looked like. With that said, it’s still frustrating that this is one of those situations where they bend over backwards to tell you that the company “listens to its fans,” when in reality, WWE would have bent over backwards to keep Bryan as far away from the WrestleMania 30 main event as humanly possible.