Heath Slater Says WWE Thought He "Looked Too Much Like Edge" Before NXT Run

Former WWE Superstar Heath Slater has opened up about the early stages of his career in WWE, particularly his time on the first season of NXT, often referred to by fans as the “Game Show Era.” In an exclusive interview with Kenny McIntosh of Inside The Ropes, Slater recalled how being chosen for the show came with unexpected challenges — including a forced change to his appearance due to his resemblance to WWE Hall of Famer Edge.

“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,” Slater explained. However, what followed came as a surprise. WWE officials felt Slater’s look was too similar to Edge’s and asked him to completely alter his presentation.

“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 noted the shift extended beyond aesthetics. While he had been working as a heel in developmental, he was instructed to transition into a babyface role for the show, which left him feeling disoriented and disconnected from his character.

“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,” he said.

Reflecting on the structure of the inaugural season of NXT, Slater described the show as chaotic and confusing. Originally pitched as a points-based competition, it quickly devolved into unpredictable segments that varied wildly from week to week.

“But 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,” he recalled.

“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.”

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