Amir Jordan opens up about his time with WWE.
Last week, WWE pushed out the announcement that in 2023, they’ll formally be launching NXT Europe. The NXT UK brand is going on hiatus after the Worlds Collide event on September 4th.
Talents such as Tyler Bate, Blair Davenport, Mark Coffey, Joe Coffey, Wolfgang and Nathan Frazer have migrated over to the NXT 2.0 brand. There are a handful of wrestlers who have finished up with the company as a result of NXT UK going on hiatus and one of those names is Amir Jordan.
Shortly after being let go, Jordan sat down with Cultaholic for an extensive interview. He shared that his contract was set to expire in May 2023. There had been moments throughout his time in WWE when Jordan had self doubts and questioned if he is where he should be. There were people around him who convinced him to stick it out.
It’s just that thing of if that’s the system that they’ve set and you’re in that system and you signed a contract to be in that system, well you’ve gotta be a professional, right? There were so many times I’d say that, like, I might have considered, ‘Oh, I don’t know if this is for me,’ you know, with all the self doubts and stuff but, at the end of the day, I always knew that my contract is up in May of next year. It’s not now obviously [Jordan laughed]. But it was up in May of next year and I’m a professional. At the end of the day, it’s professional wrestling, right? At the end of the day, you signed a contract and you’re in a system and that system as we all know, as I’ve learned, it’s fluid. As much as yesterday [WWE release] happened, it could have also happened they might have needed someone on SmackDown three weeks earlier and I’d be right there right now, do you get what I mean? I can go either way and that’s why — even through all my self doubts and stuff, I always thought, as long as I’m in the game, there’s a chance because if you’re not in it, there’s definitely not a chance.
So, a few people talked me down and stuff and was just like, ‘Stick at it. You still got something there.’
He went on to state that although there are a lot of things said about NXT UK, it afforded him the opportunity to purchase a home and live a good life. He added that WWE took care of the medical expenses for his shoulder surgery and he did not pay for anything concerning that.
Overall, Amir is thankful to WWE. He did say within the last few months or so, he was preparing for the possibility of his time with the company coming to an end.
Over the last few months, I’ve kind of been preparing myself and keeping my options open anyway [in case I got let go] because you never know. At the end of the day, we all have the internet, we all read stuff, we all know what’s going on, we all have — and when you’re in there internally, you can obviously see how things are going but obviously, you never want it to happen, you know what I mean? It’s still fresh. It’s not been 24 hours, but, from everything that I’ve talked about, what I’ve gone through and stuff, I’m of the opinion of, oh, okay cool. How can you make this into a positive? Because now there’s been things you’ve not been getting from your life that you can now get and I know they will make me happy, do you know what I mean? So, really it’s that thing of wherever you are, as long as the lads that have left and stuff can pay their bills and they’re all — honestly mate, sometimes I’d be at the P.C. and I’d look around and be like, every one of these guys is absolutely class.
Everyone’s always said stuff about NXT UK and this and that but you’ve gotta understand, some of us, we’ve bought houses, me included. We’ve been able to live our lives and live good lives from what the WWE has given us and bloody hell, they are like three-bedroom… they’re decent houses [Jordan laughed]. You look at the house and you’re like, oh, they’re doing well and stuff and like, there is something to be said for that because we are all — we’re adults now. We’ve got a life to set up for ourselves and I’m very thankful for WWE for doing that for me overall. They paid me for two times I was out injured with my shoulder surgery. I’ve not paid a penny for this shoulder surgery because they covered it all. Again, I know sometimes it can be easy to say whatever but like, they were class to me.
There was a point in Amir’s career when he was wrestling every weekend and while being under contract to WWE, that prevented him from working most independent dates. He understands why that was the case but admitted that it was a bit frustrating.
I don’t know if this is gonna be popular or what but like, it is that thing of if you’re an asset for a company, they’re gonna want to protect the asset. As much as people might not like it and it might not be the popular thing to say or whatever, it was that because if I was running a business and one of my guys that I put investment in went off and got hurt and I couldn’t use him, if we all took a second to put ourselves in the shoes of if we were running a small business where we were employing people… it was [frustrating at times] but I’m the type, I need to go, go, go. Ever since I left [university], I’ve always been go, go, go, go so like, looking back at it now, at that point, up until this year as well, it got to a point where it did get a bit frustrating for me personally.
Episodes of NXT UK are still airing on Thursdays on Peacock/WWE Network. On the 8/23 NXT 2.0, NXT UK Women’s Champion Meiko Satomura appeared to set up a Triple Threat unification match at Worlds Collide that will see Satomura, Blair Davenport and NXT Women’s Champion Mandy Rose compete for the belts.
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.
