JONAH, formerly known as Bronson Reed in WWE, was one of the brightest stars during the final stretch of NXT’s black-and-gold era before the brand started changing ahead of the 2.0 revamp. The company released the former NXT North American Champion on August 6, and NXT has firmly left the black-and-gold era behind with the conclusion of WWE NXT WarGames. There, the new stars defeated the faces of the brand’s veterans in the main-event WarGames match to send the clear message that NXT 2.0 is here to stay.
In an interview with Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful, JONAH stated that he still watches the show to support his friends, but he isn’t a fan of the new NXT.
“I’ve watched bits and pieces,” said JONAH. “I try to support my friends like Duke Hudson, Indi Hartwell, Persia Pirotta, Grayson [Waller], like all the Australians, I always support those guys. And I still have other friends obviously that I made there that I always watch. But I don’t particularly enjoy it.”
JONAH then elaborated about why he doesn’t “enjoy” the 2.0 initiative by noting that it has strongly deviated from Triple H’s vision for the black-and-gold era. The fomer NXT North American Champion also shared his belief that this rebranding process and philosophical shift has turned NXT into “just another entertainment show,” whereas it had been WWE’s wrestling show, at least in his eyes.
“I mean I understand what they’re trying to do, and the direction they’re going in,” said JONAH. “I think the thing I like least about it is, Hunter had such a vision for what NXT was. And that whole vision is just gone now, especially after [WWE NXT WarGames], with what seems to be, I don’t know, I’m not there at the moment, but it seems to be the end of black and gold, like that’s it. It’s just disheartening because we were so, the guys that were there for that era, were so much trying to make it that third brand and make it something different.
:But not just that’ when I was there wrestling, I’m a huge pro wrestling fan, and I love WWE, I love what they do, but I saw RAW and SmackDown as their entertainment shows and saw NXT as the pro wrestling show, and now I feel like it’s just another entertainment show.”
Following his WWE release, Reed has been competing elsewhere throughout the wrestling world. He has popped up in IMPACT Wrestling and New Japan STRONG, and PWG announced him as the first entrant in the 2022 Battle of Los Angeles.
The full interview is available here.
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