Ahead of his Takeover 31 title showdown against Finn Balor NXT star Kyle O’Reilly spoke with TalkSport to discuss his upcoming singles-opportunity, as well as talk about the chemistry of the Undisputed Era. Highlights can be found below.
On getting a chance to shine as a solo star:
I’m extremely excited. I wanted some singles opportunities for a while, as wrestlers we’re always up for challenges. But for the betterment of the greater good of the Undisputed Era, me and Bobby [Fish] were like we’ll do the tag thing. We’ve been tagging for a long time, we’ve been successful at it and if we’re going to get all the gold in the company, me and Bobby, let’s tag, Adam, you be the best NXT champion this company has ever seen, Roderick Strong you be the best North American champion this company has ever seen. We played those roles, but now I feel I’ve stumbled into this singles opportunity and want to make the most of it. Outside of WWE, I’m not stranger to singles success but I’d also be able to juggle success. So when I am the NXT champion, Bobby and I will lace up the boots again and go for the tag team titles too.
Says the opportunity was not a long-term plan:
A lot of things in this industry tend to be short-notice so you learn to just roll with the punches. That said, I feel that these opportunities are few and far between, you have to make the most of them because you don’t know when they’ll happen again.
On the chemistry of the Undisputed Era:
We’ve kind of being the flag bearer for NXT since coming into this company. The NXT brand is something we truly, genuinely believe in and we’re proud to be apart-of. There’s something about this place that is special. That said, we’re team players and we’ll do whatever the powers-that-be think is best. And I think there’s a lot of interesting matchups for Undisputed Era on RAW or SmackDown, but we’re interested in doing this together, first and foremost, and just being the best possible group we can be. Who knows what the future holds, but I’m certainly happy where we’re at at [as a group].
On possible booking for U.E. on the main roster:
You never know what will happen outside of NXT or outside the company in general. We’re being taken care of here and used well in my opinion, so I certainly don’t want to sacrifice that because I feel we have a good thing going. There’s still so many good matchups in NXT for us. If I’m doing the singles thing right now, that’s just a whole other avenue to go down.
On working with British-Strong Style in the UK:
The night before we dropped the tag titles to Moustache Mountain, I believe we worked British Strong Style in a six-man. Anytime you get to work with Trent Seven, Tyler Bate and Pete Dunne is like a night off in terms of easiness. I mean, the matches are extremely hard and physical, but that’s what I love about wrestling! And those guys certainly bring the thunder in everything they do. They’re so good. I have nothing but fond memories about working with those guys. We did tear the roof off the Royal Albert Hall and the reaction… oh, god. That’s what I love about wrestling. Getting a genuine response from a fanbase like that. So frigging cool, man.
