Mike Kanellis Discusses Whether He Should Have Gone To NXT First

When he came into the company, Mike Kanellis debuted straight onto WWE’s main roster. In an interview with the Smarks and Stripes podcast, Kanellis addressed whether he believes he should have gone to NXT beforehand.

“I think about this a lot,” Kanellis confessed. “I always constantly go back and I think to myself, ‘well, had I’d just gone to NXT, maybe things could have been different,’ but then, I think, like, ‘yeah, but they pushed me right to the main roster, which was really cool – there [are] not many guys they did that with.’ Yeah, so I wear that as a badge of honor, where I was like, ‘yeah, maybe I came out and it was cold, and I fell flat on my face,’ but, again, I started – maybe I sound like this friggin’ guru – I don’t know. I don’t really care.”

He continued, “I started taking so much personal responsibility and accountability for my actions and some people might say, ‘well, WWE screwed up my debut.’ Maybe, but I look at it as I screwed up. I came to WWE and I was out of shape and I wasn’t prepared. I was addicted to drugs. Maybe they lost faith in my right out of the gate and I had to earn it back. So I wish it went better. Maybe in retrospect I should’ve gone to NXT, but I wasn’t ready period, so I don’t know if NXT would’ve made things any better.”

Looking to the future, Kanellis shared he has plenty of ambition left to fuel his WWE dreams. He shared how he would love to one day WrestleMania and be a world champion within WWE.

Kanellis revealed how he would like to eventually earn veteran status within WWE and be regarded as a locker room leader. He pointed to Roman Reigns and the way “The Big Dog” motivates his fellow WWE Superstars, admitting he would love to emulate what Reigns has accomplished both backstage and in the ring. Kanellis stated that he is also open to the idea of going to the NXT Performance Center to coach, adamant in his goals of working hard and giving back to the wrestling industry.