wrestling / News
Andre Chase Says He Didn’t Get Clear Reason Why Chase U Was Broken Up
Image Credit: WWE
Andre Chase was the head of Chase University during his time in NXT, and he recently reflected on the stable’s end. Chase U was an underdog stable that was popular with the NXT fanbase throughout its lifespan on NXT, which began in fall of 2021 until its disbandment in November of 2024.
The stable would return in a smaller format with Chase, Kale Dixon and Uriah Connors; however, Connors left the group to join BirthRight and Chase’s release officially killed the group. Chase reflected on the group’s 2024 end in his appearance on fellow WWE & Chase U alumnus Duke Hudson’s Between Two Jobs. He noted that Chase U merchandise sold well, and that the creative team couldn’t tell him why they were ending the group. You can see highlights below (per F4W Online):
On Being Told the Group Was Being Broken Up:
“When they tell me what they’re doing, they don’t really tell me why they’re doing it. Which obviously they don’t have to. But because I think this is a conversation, I start from a business perspective, from a numbers and a dollars and cents perspective, I started to say I think this is a bad idea. At Halloween Havoc, the merch guy Teddy pulls me aside and he goes, ‘Hey, I just wanted to let you know you sold just as much merchandise as Trick and Roxanne, the champions. Now that I think about it, you did that at No Mercy, too. I think Heatwave, you had the highest selling shirt.’
“So I talk about that. I talk about how we are the highest selling merch. Also, I talk about how good our ratings are, which they already have to know because they book us in five segments a show. The metrics that they say are important, I’m telling them why we have achieved these metrics. With very little advertising and very little help from them, why does it make sense that we’re selling as much merch as Trick Williams and Roxanne Perez when they’re in every main event, every piece of advertising? It shouldn’t compute and somehow we have done it.”
On the Response He Received:
“I’m telling this to the creative team. ‘From a business perspective, can you please tell me why this is a good idea?’ And they can’t. They just say, ‘This is the direction we’re going.’ And that’s when I realized it wasn’t a conversation. They had already made up their minds and I go, ‘Okay. I can’t do anything to change your mind.’ No matter the ratings, no matter the merchandise sales, no matter the reactions, they were just ready to move on.”
