Blake Monroe Defends NXT After WWE Moves Stand & Deliver Away From WrestleMania Weekend

Blake Monroe is speaking up about NXT’s future after the brand made a major scheduling change this year.

This news comes after NXT moved Stand & Deliver out of WrestleMania weekend for the first time in years, a shift that caught attention across the wrestling world. Instead of running alongside WrestleMania festivities, the show is now positioned on its own, putting more focus on NXT as a standalone brand.

During a recent conversation with ReviewSTL, Monroe was asked directly about the change and whether moving Stand & Deliver away from WrestleMania weekend affects how the show is viewed. She didn’t hesitate to defend the decision and made it clear she believes NXT is strong enough to carry its own major event. She explained that while WrestleMania weekend once helped bring extra eyes to NXT, the brand has grown to the point where it no longer needs that support.

“I mean, it's always business as usual, but I think for me, I always believe we call NXT the developmental, but I strongly believe we're a third brand. We're on the CW every Tuesday. We get a fantastic rating. We get a lot of social buzz. And I feel like we were attached to WrestleMania because we, you know, it used to be cool to take over as, you know, and it was kind of like to help NXT because we had so many people from all over the world coming to town to see WrestleMania. WrestleMania is like the Super Bowl of WWE, just takes over a city. So I think it was so beneficial for NXT to get that kind of all of that influx of people."

"I now do believe that NXT has built itself to be such a strong brand and I think we can show we can hopefully bring some people to St. Louis, we can have this amazing show. I think the matches that we have so far, Joe Hendry, we've got JC Jane, myself, Tatum, I think we are going to have an amazing show and I don't think that we need help in doing that. And I think this is a chance for us to prove ourselves as a third brand and show that we can run a huge event, run a huge show, have our own version of WrestleMania. And then we do have WWE World, which happens in Vegas on WrestleMania week. So I'm sure you will see some of the NXT talents. We still get to be a part of it, but I'm excited to kind of show like we can do our own thing.”

Monroe’s comments make it clear that the move away from WrestleMania weekend isn’t seen as a setback inside NXT. Instead, she framed it as a chance to prove the brand can headline its own major event without relying on WrestleMania crowds.

With Stand & Deliver now standing on its own calendar spot, the pressure is on to show that NXT can draw attention without the built-in momentum of WrestleMania week. Monroe’s confidence suggests the locker room sees this as a moment to prove exactly how far the brand has come.

Do you think moving Stand & Deliver away from WrestleMania weekend helps NXT stand on its own, or does the WrestleMania connection still matter? Drop your thoughts in the comments and let us know what you think.

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