Kevin Owens: WWE NXT 2.0 is So Different That It Should Have a Different Name

Kevin Owens was a guest on Anti-Pods de la Lutte this week and was asked about his reaction to all of the changes NXT has undergone since the NXT 2.0 reboot took place back in September. WWE's developmental brand has gone quite a number of changes since the former NXT Champion was on the brand in 2014-15, to the point where he feels the show should have been given a new name. The reboot saw NXT reaffirm itself as WWE's developmental brand rather than WWE's third brand, change its TV presentation and put a great emphasis on homegrown talent trained at the WWE Performance Center over stars that made names for themselves on the independent scene. 

"Today's NXT is very different than the NXT I was part of, to the point I believe it should have a totally different name," Owens said (h/t Fightful). "I don't think it's better or worse, but it's just too different. So when I'm watching NXT, I don't see the NXT I was part of. It's not the same thing. It's a little bit like Ring of Honor. The ROH of old days and the ROH now, it's just not the same thing. So to me, it's completely two different products, so when I'm watching it, I put myself in the mindset we had when I was at NXT and the mindset there seems to have right now, it's completely different. It's very hard for me to compare them. I don't even consider that to be the same show. I don't really feel any attachment to NXT now. 

"Listen, there are very talented people working there, and I have watched the last TakeOver show they did and there were parts of it that I thought was really good, but it's like a few years ago, if they had asked me to go back to NXT, I would have said yes," he added. "But f they would ask me that now, I don't think I would be as receptive to go back, because it's not the same thing. I don't think I fit in the new NXT as I was fitting in the NXT I was part of, with guys like Sami, Finn, Samoa Joe and Nakamura. When I watch NXT now, I don't feel the same thing I felt when I was watching NXT two years ago."

Owens made a one-night return to NXT in 2019 at that year's TakeOver: WarGames pay-per-view and has confirmed there were talks of him jumping back to the brand around that time. However, nothing ever materialized.