Jordan Devlin has been one of NXT UK’s best properties since its inception and now the world is discovering what many British fans have known for some time.
The Ace is the Cruiserweight champion and has grown steadily stronger in recent months.
Before NXT UK’s shows in Coventry this weekend, talkSPORT caught up with the Irishman and got a glimpse of his WWE gold climb.
Hi Jordan! How does it work with Shawn Michaels? We hear that NXT UK is essentially her baby, so how did it go for you?
It’s good. In my opinion, Shawn Michaels is the best at it. I may be totally wrong here, but I think he sees a lot of him in me in terms of; smallest guy, thrown around the ring by heavyweights, a workaholic, wants to be the best, ready to outdo anyone and have the best game on the map on any given night, whether in front of 500 fans in Coventry or 100,000 to a WrestleMania, you know?
I just think if you put your hand in your pocket and you’re ready to see Jordan Devlin, you should go home happy. Whether it means booing, waving or cheering – that’s what you want. I will send you home with a memory.
Like me, you grew up on Triple H and WWE in the early 2000s. What does he like as a boss and what influence does he have on you?
It’s surreal. And sometimes you’re going to have a conversation with him and you have to catch up to keep yourself from marking his face [laughs].
But it’s cool. Triple H is so invested and involved in NXT and he will be attending meetings with talent downstairs and they are something special. It really makes it clear that it’s really, really important that with every record we have, with every TakeOver we have, we have to deliver because we’re building something special here.
When you won the Cruiserweight title at World’s Collide, it was part of a fantastic four-lane game. Who helped you organize this match or was it mainly due to the competitors?
I think when you get four guys as talented as [Angel] Garza, [Shane] Lurching [Strickland], Travis [Banks] and I’m always going to have a good game. Really creative guys, innovative in our movement sets, so when you get all four of us in the ring at the same time, you’re going to get fireworks and I was really happy with the game.
I thought it was fast, there were some really exciting moments, a pretty innovative fight and not a lot of downtime for 18 minutes or whatever.
Have wrestlers left you a little dismayed at WWE?
The thing is, my favorite wrestlers that I work with now. My favorites were Shawn Michaels and Triple H, so you can’t really be too struck by the stars.
They always give you directions or tell you something important, so you can’t really spend too much time with the fans when they talk to you or you will forget something they want you to do!
I was quite dismayed when I walked behind the scenes of Brock Lesnar. It was a big problem when I was a young wrestling fan – the Next Big Thing, of course – so, so many years later, you see it and it’s still at the top of the industry. It’s really cool. And it’s absolutely huge [laughs].