Kyle O’Reilly Recalls Watching WWE NXT Locker Room Be “Decimated”
In an appearance on The Sessions with Renee Paquette, AEW star Kyle O'Reilly went into some detail as to why he left WWE for AEW, signing with the promotion in December.
A big selling point for Kyle O'Reilly was the AEW locker room, which is filled with guys he was close friends with in wrestling. In contrast, the NXT locker room, according to O'Reilly, felt like it was being decimated, and the lack of call-ups to the main roster served as writing on the wall for his WWE prospects.
"That was a huge selling point too," O'Reilly said. "The AEW locker room is full of the guys that I came up with in this business, that I've been friends with for years. And there was a lot of that in NXT too, but it seemed every couple of weeks you'd look around and the locker room was getting decimated. It was just not a very good environment I guess at the time. I just wanted to go follow my heart and go where I'm going to be happy and go where I'm going to be utilized.
"I felt to stay with WWE, it was going to be to stay with NXT. And I was like 'okay, well at this point you don't really have a spot for Kyle O'Reilly on the main roster?' I got the vibe there wasn't going to be a spot for me up there."
Kyle O'Reilly also revealed that most in NXT, including Shawn Michaels, were supportive of his decision to leave. While he believes there was still a place for him in NXT, O'Reilly admitted he wasn't ready to be a "glorified coach", felt AEW was getting hot, and wanted to work once again with long-time friends/tag team partners Adam Cole and Bobby Fish.
"Everybody was really supportive," O'Reilly said. "At the time Hunter was off with his health issues, so I hadn't really had the chance to see or talk with him. But Shawn had been super supportive and just 'you've got to go where your heart leads you.' And they understand that, and I think they could tell too that 'as much as we want you here Kyle, we want you to be successful. And Kyle O'Reilly as a character on NXT might not be super successful right now.'
"And that's cool. I'm happy to help guys grow. I just wasn't ready, at the point of my career, where I was going to be a glorified coach, where I was going to be training people. I'm sure I still would've had a spot on TV to some degree. But I wanted to go where the getting was good, and AEW definitely has a lot of guys I'd really love to work with. And a lot of tag teams and my tag team partner is in AEW for one, and Adam Cole is in AEW, one of my best friends."
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit The Sessions with Renee Paquette and provide a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription