Westin Blake Recalls Gaining A New ‘Perspective’ In NXT Match Against Shawn Spears, Proud Of Dusty Classic Work
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WrestleZone recently spoke with Westin Blake, who looked back on his recent tag team work in NXT along with some of his singles work that didn’t make it to television. Blake said he really saw a change in himself towards the end of his NXT run, then revealed how an early dark match was an important milestone for him on a personal and professional level.
“I would say, of course, the last several matches of NXT were good. The one with Grizzled Young Vets was a good one, I did one with Imperium that I liked in the Dusty Classic. The ladder match at TakeOver XXV was another good representation,” he proclaimed. “If you go back and watch these, you’ll see an evolution and like a [boost] in confidence level, kinda see me stretch my wings a little bit.
“Singles match-wise, there’s not too much on tape, but there’s a couple that come to mind. I got to wrestle Andrade on an Australian tour this one time, I got to wrestle Shinsuke Nakamura on a live event and we got to have a little bit of fun with that. Another one that helped me as a singles guy, I got to wrestle Shawn Spears before [NXT TakeOver] Brooklyn II on a pre-tape,” he said, before explaining how it resonated with him for many reasons.
“That was the day I found out I was going to be a father for the first time and getting that call before my match, stuff like that really puts into perspective that I really have to show out and make sure I do really well,” he said. “[I thought about how] ‘Now it’s just not me and my wife, it’s me and my family and hopefully, I do well,’ and I think it came off really well working with Shawn Spears. There’s a bunch of matches out there that kinda help show [what I can do] and hopefully I can continue to evolve with more matches coming up in the future.”
Check out Blake’s matches against Austin Aries and Shinsuke Nakamura from WWE Axxess in Dallas below; you can also find more of Blake’s work on Peacock and WWE Network at this link.
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