Breeze on the disconnect between NXT/main roster: “You’re not wrong on the disconnect”
Tyler Breeze’s interview with Newsweek:
On The Disconnect Between NXT and The Main Roster: “You’re not wrong on the disconnect. You can even look at some numbers. When you look at Tyler Breeze on RAW or SmackDown over the past year or so, especially with Dango, I will be very realistic—I’m at the bottom of the barrel in terms of how I’m used and stuff like that. But that doesn’t mean by any means that the people are not stars. When I came back to NXT, I did an interview segment with Dream where I hit him with the phone and left him laying. The usual NXT stuff when it gets put on YouTube does like 60-70 thousand views. They uploaded me and Dreams segment and it got over 600 thousand views. If you want to attribute that to both of us or the combination of star power that RAW or SmackDown gives [someone like me] that’s a big thing.
“I don’t think the pressure is there, man. I’m different when it comes to that. I know people say “if you’re not nervous when you go out there then you shouldn’t be doing this.” I’m different, I’m very confident in what I can do, how the crowd will react. I know my stuff. And luckily I have someone across the ring, in Dream, who knows his stuff as well. In terms of going out there with pressure, it’s more I’m going to breathe a sigh of relief. Look around, take it in, smile and enjoy every second of it because I’m not worried about us not delivering. I know exactly what the crowd is going to get and what the crowd reaction is going to be. I’m amped for it. It’s going to be a good form of stress relief for me.”
On Velveteen Dream Using Breeze’s Main Roster Failures in the Feud: “I would be disappointed if he didn’t take the shots that he took. They are wildly obvious. If we ignored them we would be insulting everyone. I lived through it, he lived through it, the fans lived through it. I hear on a weekly basis “why isn’t Tyler Breeze on RAW or SmackDown?” Another thing I hear is “why did he ever leave?”
“I’m not thrown off guard when he says things like “you can’t hack it up there” or whatever. It’s not about not hacking it. There’s categories. You can see how people are used and not used but in the end it’s the exact same story as before. As much as you want to say NXT has changed it is very much the same thing. If you remember my time there I worked with Sami Zayn, Finn Balor, Kevin Owens. I worked with all these guys who ended up winning the NXT championship and then going up to RAW or Smackdown. That’s the story of my career, I’ve never been NXT Tag champion, NXT champion, Intercontinental Champion, WWE champion any of these things, but I’ve also worked with everyone who has.
“Dream may have the North American championship, which is great. It wasn’t around when I was there, which is kind of the reason why I want to go back and get it. I’m used to this position, and that spot, and it feels very familiar. I’m very comfortable there.”
(The Spotlight)
