Tony D’Angelo & Stacks reflect on their journeys through NXT, D’Angelo comments on 2022 knee injury

Photo Courtesy: WWE

The Family chats all things NXT. 

This past Sunday at NXT Great American Bash, the sole title change of the night saw Tony D’Angelo and Channing ‘Stacks’ Lorenzo defeat Gallus (Mark Coffey & Wolfgang) to become NXT Tag Team Champions. 

It was the first title win of both D’Angelo and Lorenzo’s respective careers. The newly crowned champions joined Dave LaGreca and Bully Ray on Busted Open Radio and reflected on their journeys through NXT. 

D’Angelo brought up the knee injury he suffered in the fall of 2022. He added that he’s happy with how his time in NXT has panned out. Stacks chimed in and said it feels like they’re finding their flow. 

D’Angelo: Well you know what’s funny? I was just talking to the head writer Johnny Russo the other day and he came up and he showed me my first promo that I did when I got here and he was like, ‘Look at this’ and I don’t even sound the same. My mannerisms were a little different and I was just like, ‘Wow.’ To see the character grow from that to what we’re doing now. We got the NXT Titles and all the ups and downs. I had an injury with the knee. It kind of slowed progress a little bit and… I’m happy. Always pushing for more, always grinding, trying to learn and I think it’s going to take some time. I’ve only been doing this for two-and-a-half years now so, I don’t know. From where I started, to where I’m at now, where we’re at now, I’m really happy with how it’s going. 

Stacks: So I came in when we were feuding with the Legados and to me, I look back at me and his dynamic then and when we were on the yacht down in Miami together and just, to me, now, I think not just in the ring, behind the scenes, we’re finding our flow. I definitely think we’re finding our flow. I think we’re just starting to scratch the surface. We’re young, we’re good looking men, I think. I think we got a lot to learn but I also think we’re going this way and that’s what we want. 

Earlier in their chat, Stacks expressed that he feels the current NXT product is inching closer to having TakeOver level matches. 

Stacks: I think NXT’s putting on a product that’s unlike any other TV show on right now. I think me and this guy (Tony D’Angelo), I mean we’re Leonardo DiCaprio every week. He’s in jail, I’m sitting there talking to him. There’s a lot of emotion and great story being told before these matches even happen and then we’re going in and having — in my opinion, we’re getting to the point where we’re having those TakeOver level matches that you were familiar with in the black and gold. We’re getting to that point. We just tore it up with Gallus in Texas. So I think the brand trajectory is in a good place. 

The fallout from Great American Bash will be covered on the 8/1 NXT on USA Network. The Poisonrana Podcast is going to be reviewing the show here on POST Wrestling

If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Busted Open Radio with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.

About Andrew Thompson 9725 Articles
A Washington D.C. native and graduate of Norfolk State University, Andrew Thompson has been covering wrestling since 2017.