Robert Stone spoke with Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com ahead of night two of WWE NXT Halloween Havoc 2023 in Orlando, Florida.
During the discussion, the WWE NXT performer spoke about his match against Bron Breakker, his role in WWE NXT, the WWE Performance Center and the Halloween Havoc main events.
Featured below are some of the highlights from the interview.
On learning that he would be facing Bron Breakker at NXT Halloween Havoc 2023: “So, this you know, when I first heard getting back in the ring, the first thing is excitement. You know, I can still do this. I’m still in great shape. I could get it done. But then when reality sets in, I am not going to lie that I’ve had my moments of okay, this is Bron Breakker. He’s, you know, almost half my age. He’s a former NXT world champion. He almost ended my best friend’s career, you know, is this the right guy that I should be going in the ring with? I don’t know but it’s happening. And you know now I’ve gotten to a point where I’m kind of empty minded about it. I’m just, I’m excited about it. I’m going to see what happens and I think I am going to be able to perform at my best. And I think, you know I think I’m gonna shock a lot of people.”
On building the match with some very personal comments on social media: “Well, that’s what this is, there’s so much going into this match. It is being a father because it’s, you know, one of the first matches that my twins will ever really get to see me in, so a lot is on the line there. I want them to see me win, I want them to see me do a good job. Same for my wife who doesn’t want me to do it because she’s scared I’m going to get hurt. I want to, you know, prove her wrong. For my best friend Von who’s hurt. I want to, you know, let him have a little smirk on his face when he sees that I tried to fight for him. The NXT locker room – I want them to see that I could still go. Like there’s just so much I’m putting into it. It is the real me. You said it. You nailed it. And you know, as far as the stuff I’ve been tweeting all week, Instagram…it’s just kinda like to remind myself, to remind the world that like I’ve done it, and I can do it again. You know what I mean? Sometimes you just gotta have it out there in the universe. Those positive vibes just for everyone to kind of go wow, I forgot that that happened or I didn’t know that that happened. And now I think everyone’s behind it. Let me tell you something. I think this was a match that people might have slept on, but I think it’s the match that like, people didn’t realize that they needed to see. There’s gonna be a lot of eyes obviously on the whole show tomorrow. What a show it’s going to be – Halloween Havoc Night 2, but I just feel like you know people are really into seeing Bron Breakker versus Mr. Stone because you know what, what the hell is gonna happen? I don’t know what’s gonna happen. You don’t know. Anything could happen in this crazy situation with me versus Bron Breakker. It’s just such a wild pairing. And so unexpected. I think it’s bringing a lot of excitement to the show.”
On his role in WWE NXT alongside Von Wagner and keeping the art of the manager alive: “I think the cool thing about it was you know for a while, I mean obviously managers have always existed in sports entertainment, but for a while, you know, they were kind of not, you know, compared to what they were I guess in the 80s and early 90s. They weren’t so much of a focus right. Would you agree with that? Yeah, so like it was kind of like in a part of where, you know, Triple H and HBK were kind of like, you know, we’ve always liked managers and we want to bring them back. So, to kind of be at the beginning of this rebirth of managers was cool and I feel I was the right guy for the job. I feel like I’ve done a good job. And it was cool to learn something new and you know to think that you know, you look at someone again, he’s who I watched to learn from and he is my favorite manager of all time, Bobby “The Brain” Heenan, it’s cool to have that role of just being able to check every box, you can do everything. Bobby was able to do everything and that is what I am attempting to do. You asked me to do this, I can do it. No matter what it is. If it’s involved on our TV show or sports entertainment of any kind. I want to be able to do it and that’s my goal. And to even think that maybe at some point I can be compared to Bobby “The Brain” Heenan, I mean, what an accomplishment.”
On the WWE Performance Center: “Every day is a grateful moment. I mean, just to watch it all go down, to watch people come in from scratch,, who you know, aren’t very experienced or don’t know anything about the industry and then learn it and learn to love it and just grow in it. Just seeing all that go down on the regular is such a cool experience to see. And you know, just there’s so much like you said, I’m there all the time, I still use it because you could go there and practice commentary. You could go there and do practice matches, get in the ring, go on the interview set and do interviews. We’re obviously there every week for live TV, which is so cool just to see the arena regularly. So, there’s just so much going on there but I think obviously the best and most rewarding thing is just to see, you know, people’s journey starting from nothing and moving on. I’ve literally…I’ve seen people who know nothing. Oh, so you know people who knew nothing in this industry I have seen go from walking in on day one to moving on through and becoming WWE Superstars and to see that all go down first hand – it’s wild, you know, just to see people live out a dream they might not have even known that they had or to see people without dreams that they did know they had, whatever it is, it’s cool to see people live out their dreams.”
On the Halloween Havoc main events: “I mean, Carmelo Hayes and Ilja Dragunov off like I mean, it delivers before it even delivers, you know that’s going to be, you know, a memorable match, one that you won’t forget for a while. There’s just something about Dragunov. When you could bring that intensity and those facial expressions and that realism when you watch him. You feel the pain that he’s going through. It’s almost like you’re a part of a match. It’s almost like you’re feeling hurt when he hits someone. It’s just wild, the roller coaster that he brings you on when you watch him, so he’s obviously a favorite of mine to watch and him and Carmelo are going to tear it up. Dominic Mysterio, Nathan Frazer is going to be off the charts like it always is. Obviously, everything Dominic Mysterio touches now turns to hatred because everybody hates him. But you just, you don’t want to take your eyes off him because you just want to watch him get beat up because everybody hates him so much. You got the finals of the woman’s breakout tournament Lola Vice. She’s been doing such a great job, she’s going up against Kelani. That’s going to be, I mean, whoever wins that tournament is I mean, their career is going to change. So that is going to be cool to see who wins that because that is a life changing moment right there. And what else women’s… Women’s Tag Team Championships, Piper Niven and Chelsea Green are on. It’s just, it’s gonna be such a stacked show.”
Check out the complete interview at PWInsider.com.