Ridge Holland went back to NXT looking for a fresh start, but according to him, not everyone behind the scenes was ready to back the move.
During his conversation with Sports Jedi Network, Holland talked about the period after the Brawling Brutes lost direction. He said he and Pete Dunne were getting beaten down creatively, and he felt like he needed to step away from the main roster to rebuild himself. Holland said he did not want Pete Dunne dragged down by the negative perception around him, so he pushed for an NXT reset.
“So we were just. We were just kind of getting beat and. And getting booked, like, beaten into oblivion, and. And there was no real direction. And obviously things had happened with myself that I felt I needed to prove something, and I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to wear Pete down with the negative image that I had. So I. I thought, look, I need to go. I need to step back. I need to go and re. Kind of reinvent myself. Yeah, reinvent myself in nxt.”
He said he spoke with William Regal and Triple H, and the idea was for him to go away for six months and return with a new coat of paint. Then things got messy. Holland said there was someone very high up in the office who did not like him, and he felt that played into him being pulled out of things.
“So I had a conversation with Regal. I had a conversation with Triple H. He thought it would be a good idea. He said you could get it, go away for six months and come back with a new coat of paint. Okay, cool.”
“But then from there, it was like, you know, I don’t want to be negative, but there was someone in the office who was very high up that didn’t like me for. For obviously things that happened in the past and I’d been told that previously in the in meeting and stuff.”
Holland said he would get removed from plans and did not feel full faith from the people making decisions.
“I get, I get kind of booked out of things I pulled out and then have the greatest faith in me, let’s, let’s say.”
The former Ridge Holland said his NXT return had strong ideas, including a character route where he was trying to redeem himself but kept hurting people. The plan was to blur the lines and eventually have him embrace that darker side. He said the idea was for the turn to come when his character started wondering if maybe he was supposed to be dangerous.
“So I ended up going back down to nxt and it just again, all the great ideas and everything, and it was my idea to go down the injury route and to try and like, my, my point there was, okay, I’m going down as a baby face trying to redeem myself and do good, but just for the life in me, I can’t get out of my own way. I’m kind of snake bit. I, I always keep hurting people and I’m, I’m frustrated. I’m trying to kind of prove myself that I am worthy. I’m a good competitor. Trying to blur the lines a little, right?”
“And then the, the turn would come where like, maybe I would have a conversation like, maybe, maybe I’m supposed to do this. Maybe I like it. I’m good at it, actually. Yeah, I do like it. So you kind of embrace it and then the heel turn will come.”
Holland said the Ilja Dragunov injury angle got big ratings for a taped show, but Shawn Michaels later told him they had to cool him off because it was too close to the bone from the top down. Holland saw that as another stop sign during a run where he was trying to rebuild his WWE career.
“But we had the thing with Ilya where he hurt his neck and like Sharon Bashan pulling me. It got great, great, like, kind of like ratings. It was a tape shown. It got really high ratings, which is unusual for a tape show. And Sean pulled me kind of like the week after, said, hey, we’re gonna have to call you off because it’s a little bit close to the bone from the top down.”
“So I’m like, again, just someone just pouring, pouring water on the fire, you know, you know, just trying to stifle, stifle the flames.”
Holland’s comments paint a rough picture of a wrestler trying to reinvent himself while feeling like someone backstage already had their mind made up.
Do you think WWE should have gone all in on Ridge Holland’s NXT reset, or was the company always going to hesitate because of his past? Leave your take in the comments.
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