Apollo Crews Explains How His Return To WWE NXT Came About

After losing the WWE Intercontinental Championship on "WWE SmackDown" in August 2021, Apollo Crews saw a drastic dip in his primetime television outings. The "Nigerian Prince" would soon be moved over to "WWE Raw" during the WWE Draft, racking up sporadic appearances, but found himself mostly on the red brand's secondary, streamed show of "Main Event" until May.

In June, Crews received the opportunity to change his fate, as he dropped his Nigerian accent and reintroduced himself to the company's developmental brand, "WWE NXT." During an exclusive interview with Wrestling Inc. Senior News Editor Nick Hausman, the former champion explained how his return to the third brand came to fruition. "It was something that I had asked [to do], because we were doing the Nigerian character, and it'd gone so well for a while," he said.

After "a while," Crews noted that his character "got stale," and he didn't "want to just be doing 'Main Event'" anymore. With those combined factors, Crews drew up the idea to return to "NXT" to "get away from the character and kind of get a reset or a restart." The idea was approved, and now Crews is able to be more of himself onscreen. Since coming back to "NXT," Crews feels the viewers "are getting to see a side of me that should have been shown all those years ago when I first originally debuted" on the show. Through his return, the former "Nigerian Prince" has his eyes on gold, with a chance to claim some this weekend at "NXT" Deadline. There, he receives a title shot for the "NXT" Championship against Bron Breakker.