Nina Samuels On How NXT UK Was Affected By COVID, Possible NXT Europe Return

Nina Samuels was a part of the NXT UK roster, and she recently weighed in on how the brand was affected by COVID as well as a possible return for NXT Europe. Samuels spoke with Steve Fall for Ten Count and talked about the UK brand’s end as announced in August, how the pandemic hurt the brand and what she’s heard about the eventual return as NXT Europe. You can check out the highlights below:

On NXT UK being cut short: “I don’t — I think our brand, more than any, was really, really affected by COVID. Just before the pandemic, we’d had Finn Balor on one of our tapings. They were setting up a match between him and, his name at the time was WALTER, which was going to be huge. We had a Takeover coming up. We were about to do tapings at WrestleMania — which was going to be my first WrestleMania week. We were going to be going, we were going to be doing tapings at Axxess. You know, really expanding the brand, getting more eyes on it.

“I feel like we were on such an upward trajectory. And then COVID really slowed it down for us. Because the venue we were in had such strict COVID rules, so even after a lot of other independent shows in the UK were getting crowds back, we still weren’t allowed. So it felt like we were behind the curve and we felt like, ‘No, we’re WWE. We need to be leading the curve.’ So it was very frustrating from that perspective. It was no one’s fault, we had the partnership with BT who were great partners for us. It was just unfortunate that the rules of their building were very strict.”

On a possible return to NXT Europe: “Yeah, so we were told there was an open door, but at the same time we were told, ‘There’s no guarantees, no promises.’ Which you know, they they can’t they can’t promise anything because they’re building this brand from scratch again. They need to decide what it’s going to look like. And also, you know, they’ve sent all of us off into the wild. So who knows who’s going to be available when it comes back around? All of us are taking on different projects, doing different things. So you know, that’s going to be for them to see, who do they want — but also, out of who they want, who is around and who is who is free. Who is available to answer that call?”

If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit Ten Count with a h/t to 411mania.com for the transcription.