I don’t have a dog in this fight but was Trips running NXT when Keith Lee was NXT and NXT North American champion or was that after HBK took over?
HHH was big on Keef, but between the COVID health troubles and Vince deciding to put the man in a skirt, it basically torpedoed the top guy they'd planned Keith to be. I mean, homie had a face-off with Brock when Brock was BROCK, and Keith was still in NXT. That callup did
damage.
That said... as much as I don't care for the lack of melanin in top positions in the company, my bigger issue is that everyone of a certain race seems to only be allowed to orbit each other, and with the titles all on light people... only light people stay in the title picture. THAT bothers me more than an individual black person to point to like 'HE made it!'. I want them to stop letting Wingstop sponsor matches centered around black people. I want that.
unrelated: none of this will matter in a few years. Oba gon be a star whether Hunter wants him to or not. Trick gon get chants and love - homie got his chant going while Dwayne was in the ring ffs. Wes is everything they see in Melo while being inherently face-aligned whereas Melo's best work will be as a heel. Lucian Price gon end up breaking out from OTM and probably ends up a regular around the US/IC scene within 3-5 years.
And... that's before we point out that literally every female of note coming out of NXT for the next 5 years is going to be biracial, non-native English-speaking, or tanned so goddamned dark they'd get arrested by mistake in the 60s
Whether its intention or it isn't, there is definitely a dearth of darkness at the top of the card on these shows... but there's a whole mess of good talent just champing at the bit there.
Every other company that could be used as some counter to this has one top black talent and literally zero people waiting in the wings behind them. Whether Levesque wants it or not, somebody who don't sunburn gon be helping hold up this company within the next 5 years. It's functionally undeniable.