WWE NXT Writer: Living With The Idea That Your Writing Will Get Changed Is Important… You Can’t Be Egotistical About It

Insight into the NXT writers’ schedule.

There’s a feature story on Full Sail University’s website with Colby Applegate, who is a writer for WWE’s NXT brand.

In March, Applegate announced that he had been promoted to writer for NXT. During the interview with Full Sail, Applegate detailed the NXT creative team’s schedule.

“(The writers) come in on Wednesday and that is our primary creative day where we just go through all our stories and start putting the script together for the following week. We usually spend eight to nine hours doing that. Then we come in on Thursday, kind of do the same thing, finish the script, start looking at future stories, and start planning for the next week. So when we’re going to film certain things, or if we need props, we have to let the props team know to order things for us, and then we write our segments and stuff on Fridays, and then Monday we come in and it’s kind of our pre-production day to go over the script one more time.” He continues, “It’s like a table read. Then we make sure we record everything, make any last-minute changes, and then Tuesday is show day where we just spend all day filming our backstage segments. Then the show goes live at 8 PM Eastern on the CW, and we do it all over again the next week.”

Applegate went on to state that it’s key to know how to live with the idea that your writing may get changed. He added that you cannot have an ego about it.

“Living with the idea that your writing will get changed (is important). It’s a team effort. You have a vision for it, but at the end of the day, you have to work with the other writers… and the wrestlers will come up with different lines to say, different things to do. So it is a super collaborative process, and you can’t be egotistical about it. (To do this type of writing), you have to be willing to put in the work and make sacrifices, and I feel like that’s something that gets said a lot, but I’ve also seen people who say they want it, but don’t put in the work to actually do it… You just have to take it seriously.”

The next episode of WWE NXT on The CW is airing on May 5th. A preview of the show can be found here.