By James Caldwell, PWTorch assistant editor

NXT stars Neville, Kalisto, Sami Zayn, and now NXT champion Kevin Owens have been featured prominently on WWE television in the last two months since WrestleMania. That group, plus future NXT stars, seem to be the beneficiaries of what happened WrestleMania Weekend.

Triple H revealed during an NXT conference call on Tuesday that the last-minute NXT show in San Jose, California during Mania Weekend was a "game-changer" and "paradigm shift" for how WWE management views the NXT brand and the roster.

"We were making some waves and they (WWE executive team, including Vince McMahon) saw the success of what we were doing from a WWE Network (perspective). There were little bits and pieces that kept boiling up," Hunter said. "San Jose, though, was a little bit of a tipping point."

Hunter said the San Jose show came together last-minute when the building became available. "I had to jump through a lot of hoops to convince some people that it was a smart thing to do. There was a lot of concern from the exec team. We have a lot of things going on WrestleMania Week. I pushed for it hard and then executed it," Hunter said.

Even in the days leading up to the event, Hunter said, "There were still a lot of people not convinced. Vince not being one of them. He was on-board, but he was getting a lot of push-back on it. I think somewhere in his mind, he was hoping, 'Geez, I hope this goes well.'

"And then when we got to WrestleMania Week and the buzz was so big and everything was going on - I didn't even know he was going to come. He dropped me a note, and said, I'll be by in a little bit.' But, a lot of that exec team came and were blown away by the fans, the energy in the building, the performances they saw, and the brand that they saw in front of them.

"That was the game-changer for a lot of people. A lot of people came out of that going, 'Holy cow, why aren't we doing more with this?' (laughs) But, a lot of people came out of there with that (mentality). It was a paradigm shift and everyone changed. I think for Vince, you couldn't be in that building in San Jose - I don't care you who are - Vince has seen it all, done it all. You could not not stand in that building watching that show and not think, 'Holy s---, this is something special.'"

Now that the game seems to have changed and NXT stars are part of the main shows on a regular basis, Hunter says there is a collaborative effort trying to weave NXT stars into storylines, such as Kevin Owens suddenly in a feud with John Cena.

"There's a lot of collaboration. I'm constantly in Vince's ear on who is ready," Hunter said. "I show him something or if I feel like he needs to take a look at something. Sometimes he'll say, 'I need something for this.' And I'll bring him a video of someone. So, the Kevin Owens situation, and even the Sami Zayn situation, those were collaborative efforts."

"Clearly in something like that, Cena is a big supporter of NXT and what we do," Hunter added. "I'm sure at some point in time, John weighed in. It's not like we surprised that on him (Monday) or anything. It's part of a larger process in bringing guys up. You want to carefully manage all of that system so it's not just haphazardly thrown together at the last minute."

***

Support PWTorch by shopping at Amazon using our ID when shopping. Just click This Link and whatever you buy costs the same, but it helps support PWTorch!

Livecast Special - Try Audible.com's audiobook service and get two free audio books when you sign up. Simply visit http://amzn.to/1ILScJ5

We suggest these recent related articles...

WWE NEWS: Superstars SPOILERS - Results from Chicago Raw

WWE NETWORK: Monday, Oct. 12 Schedule - Raw pre-show, Sting DVD preview

WWE NEWS: Lana & Rusev reportedly engaged - follow the interesting 2015 timeline