Curtis Axel Recalls His Era of NXT, Adopting the ‘Curtis Axel’ Ring Name

– During a recent interview with Monte and the Pharaoh, former WWE Superstar Curtis Axel recalled his time on NXT, referring to it his era of NXT as a “disaster.” Below are some highlights (via Fightful):

Curtis Axel on his era of NXT: “NXT, in my era, was a disaster. They would do crap to us to make us look like crap. It was a shame. It was a shame to all of us. All of us that worked hard like Bray (Wyatt), all these guys worked their asses off. I wanted to get to the WWE main roster. I wanted to do it so bad, but they shit on us. When I found out that Kofi Kingston was on TV and he said, ‘Here’s my pro, son of Mr. Perfect, Michael McGuility.’”

On his reaction to his ring name: “I’m like, ‘F*** this bull****.’ I lost my mind, but I just went with it. I went through it because I have a family. I argued, argued, argued and all this kind of stuff. I just kept going through and kept on performing. I did everything I could. Finally, I lost my mind. I said, ‘Dude, I’m done.’ That’s when Curtis Axel evolved.”

Curtis Axel was released by WWE in April 2020. He has not wrestled since a February 2020 loss to Bryan Danielson (formerly Daniel Bryan) on WWE SmackDown.