WWE star Apollo Crews recently spoke with WrestleRant to hype up this Saturday’s NXT Deadline premium live event, where he will be challenging Bron Breakker for the NXT championship.
During the interview, Crews discussed his return to NXT over the last couple of months, and how he’s rebuilding his image. Highlights can be found below.
On his return stint in NXT:
I’m the type of individual [that] if I have to show that I’m deserving of something, I’m okay with that because that’s what I’ve done my whole life. It’s nothing new. It’s been a fun ride, though. Casket match was something different and something that I really enjoyed doing, and got the victory out of that, which set me up for this match this Saturday.
Says he has his eyes set on becoming NXT champion, adding that the feeling of winning gold is unlike anything else:
It’s insane because I’m facing someone who I can say is very similar to me, as far as in-ring abilities, right. [He’s an] extremely athletic guy, powerful. I’m strong, quick, agile. He’s done a lot in such a short amount of time, which is insane to see. All respect to Bron Breakker, no heat there. Went fishing, enjoy his company, but I feel like for me, it’s weird. I don’t feel any pressure, but there’s a lot that I have to prove. I’m coming back, I said this is what I want to do, and it has to be done. I feel like this is the icing on top of the cake. This will make the return to NXT complete, and looking forward to fulfilling that. The feeling of being champion, you never forget what that feeling is like of winning a title. I’ve won two here, and I remember what the feeling is both times, and I look forward to feeling that feeling again and accepting everything that comes with being champion. It’s something that I’ve never had the chance to accomplish the first time around.
Changing his image from someone who used to lose all the time:
I feel like there was a a certain point where every time I got to the ring, people knew that, okay, this guy’s gonna lose, right. [laughs] It’s like man, how do you change that? In a world where the way that people respond to you is such an important thing, how do you change that? How do you make them believe in you again? I feel like it’s just not losing that belief in yourself, and that’s one thing that I struggled with for a while is the belief in myself. I’m like, ‘Okay, if I don’t believe in myself, why should anybody else?’ I think it comes back to having that belief in yourself and knowing what you’re capable of, how good you are, and going out there and showing it time after time, and that’s what I’ve had the opportunity to do here these last six months. It’s like okay, here’s something. Now I’m gonna go out there and crush any expectation that you had. You might have had an expectation here, but I’m gonna go up here just because that’s what I’m gonna do. So I look forward to doing that again this Saturday and not just that, but coming home with the gold as well.
(H/T and transcribed by Fightful)