Jacy Jayne Says Going Through NXT Shift To 2.0 Era Made Her Learn To Adapt

Jacy Jayne emerged from the NXT 2.0 era as a mainstay of the brand, and she recently reflected on the “crazy” time of that changeover. WWE turned NXT into the more colorful “2.0” era in September of 2021. It was a drastic shift away from the famed “Black and Gold” era that preceded it, and was still early into her TV run when it happened.

Flash-forward four years later, and Jayne is now the NXT Women’s Champion in the midst of a 151 day reign. She will defend her title against Tatum Paxley at NXT Halloween Havoc tomorrow, and she spoke with SI’s The Takedown for a new interview. Jayne was asked about the change to 2.0, and you can see some highlights below:

On the Move To NXT 2.0:

“I feel like there was that shift, and it was almost overnight. I technically debuted on Black and Gold, but I think I was on TV for maybe two weeks before we switched to 2.0. So to be fair, I didn’t really have a huge grasp on how things were working in Black and Gold, because I was very new. I obviously watched the product as a fan. But behind the scenes, I don’t know how it was run. I’ve heard it was very different, but I wasn’t really a part of it, so I don’t know.

“I feel like I was learning everything for the first time basically through 2.0. And it was different, because it was people on TV that like had just started wrestling. Who had like no experience at all and they’re having like their fifth, sixth match on TV. Like, that’s crazy.”

On the Change In the On-Screen Product:

“It was very different; it was trial and error. It was very character-based, it was about creating new characters. I feel like the brand at a time was a lot of indie wrestlers or wrestlers that people had already known for a long time. And they’re coming here and just putting on crazy matches.

“And then it shifted to people that you might not know, but you’re going to learn through character development. And I feel like 2.0, that was the highlight of it. We had so many great workers come out of 2.0. But it was very different, it was.”

On What She Remembers About the Changeover:

“I just remember everything happened so fast. And I remember like, they redid the arena. And we came in and it looked completely different. We were super colorful all of a sudden. I feel like it was — some of the character story lines were very playful, rather than like serious. It was all very different.

“But like I said, I was still learning at that time. So I was just going with the flow. I’m like, ‘Oh, this is how this works. This is what you want. Oh, okay. Cool.'”

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