Aleister Black has opened up on his journey to the WWE.

The WWE NXT Champion spoke with Iain Chambers about various topics while working NXT live events at the Download Festival in the UK last weekend. During this interview, he was asked if the sports entertainment company was his end game when he first started wrestling.

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“No. When I started back in 2000 – which is now 18 years ago – WWE was the land of the giants and I am no shape or size, a giant. I’m 6-feet, 250 lbs. now, back in the day I was barely 140 lbs. and I wanted to do what was obtainable. Was I a fan of WWE?

Yeah, of course, but I knew it was not going to be a thing for me, until NXT came to the foreground and a lot of my friends who I was competing against on the independent scene were getting signed. And I was like, ‘Wait a minute? Something’s changed.’ The landscape of professional wrestling really changed when NXT was brought in.”

Blast is slated to make his next title defense at Saturday’s (June 16, 2018) WWE NXT TakeOver: Chicago II event in Chicago, Illinois at the Allstate Arena on the WWE Network against Lars Sullivan.

In this interview, he talked about the pressure of holding the NXT Championship.

“It’s definitely a lot of pressure because the people who have held this belt, you look at Shinsuke Nakamura, Bobby Roode, Finn Balor, Samoa Joe and even traveling back to Seth Rollins and Big E, the heritage that this belt has is endless. And it’s heavy, so I have a big responsibility to do right by this belt and do right by NXT.”

H/T to Wrestling Inc for the transcript

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