NXT being shifted into 2.0 felt almost like a death to Scott Garland.
As changes to the NXT 2.0 product have been made, changes to the personnel department have changed as well. It was reported by Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp that among the names released from WWE on January 5th were William Regal, Brian ‘Road Dogg’ James, Ace Steel, Dave Kapoor, Scott Armstrong, Allison Danger and NXT writer Ryan Katz.
In November, Scott Garland a.k.a. Scotty 2 Hotty announced that he requested his release from the company and is now back on the independent scene. Garland spoke about the aura of the previous version of NXT during his appearance on Cultaholic’s ‘Desert Island Graps’ show.
He said the shift almost felt like a death, but added that he does not want to take away from the work that is being put into 2.0.
That’s what I said. It’s [that] we had such a special thing with that version of NXT that it was almost like a death. Like going through a death. I don’t wanna compare it to somebody dying but it was. It was like we lost this huge special thing that we all worked so hard to have, you know? And they’re still working hard. You know, I don’t wanna take away from what they’re doing now. They’re still working hard to make it work and you know, the new show, yeah it’s different. They’re giving a lot of young people an opportunity. Go out there on live TV and prove themselves and develop, you know? It’s a lot of pressure on them I guess doing it on live television but, it’s great for them but it’s just different.
As he embarks on his journey back through the independents, Garland is looking forward to sharing the ring with talents who he worked in NXT that were let go by WWE, like Killer Kross, Blake Christian and Alex Zayne.
So I would love to work with all of the guys that I had in NXT, the guys who were in my class that got released, you know? The Karrion Krosses, the Blake Christians, those guys, Alex Zayne. All those guys that got released that never really got a fair shake I don’t think. Those are the guys I wanna work with.
POST Wrestling weighed in on the WWE releases and a clip of that conversation can be found on our YouTube channel.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Cultaholic’s ‘Desert Island Graps’ with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
