Former WWE star Joe Coffey appeared on the Refin’ It Up podcast and discussed various topics, including Gallus’s release by WWE.
Coffey said, “I mean, it’s unfortunate. It happens and it’s the nature of the business. I’d literally just finished a (workout) on the stairmaster so I was delighted that that was finished, and then I got the number from Connecticut and I just — you know, you know, and you’re just like, ‘Ah well,’ and it was pretty short in the conversation because I was just frustrated about it. My brother was sitting outside. He just finished a tan session and he was in the car and the door opened and I went, ‘Well, I’ve just been released so, if you get released, I’m sorry. If not, good luck and stay out and smash it’ so, I was a bit angry about it.”
On being thankful for the opportunity:
“Went home… Frustrated about the way it panned out because moving your life over here from overseas isn’t an easy task, and you know, I’m always thankful for WWE and NXT for the opportunity. Learned so much, it was great. All the staff there are fantastic, the coaches are top-notch. I can’t say enough good things. I just wish things had panned out a little bit differently and we heard for a long time we may be going to the main roster and doing something with Drew (McIntyre). Who knows? I understand Drew is on the run of a career and he’s doing some amazing stuff. But, we had little teases of it. We’re brought in to Survivor Series program and the Royal Rumble program as Gallus, the only NXT people and like, that’s really strange, and a lot of people were talking about it and we thought, oh, maybe it’s gonna happen soon. But it didn’t happen.”
On what was frustrating about their time in WWE:
“It was just a little bit frustrating. For myself, I feel a little bit personally frustrated because I feel as if I didn’t get to scratch the surface of what I can do in NXT. We were holding a lot of hands at times, which is totally fine and there’s a lot of people who aren’t from this world who are trying to learn and we were essentially helping teach them in the ring and so it was just a little bit frustrating, especially the body of work I had done up until then from NXT U.K. and I’ve been on TakeOvers and featured on TV quite a lot to my independent career where all over Europe, I was doing main events after main event and you know, was very much comfortable with that, and so it was a little bit frustrating that way but, it’s one of these things and it’s just on to the next chapter. If I ever make my way back there — I’d like to think we’re on great terms. I was always very professional. Sometimes maybe a bit too professional and not being selfish enough. But, unfortunately, that falls under the good little soldier… which is a shame. But, even throwing it back to the WrestleMania weekend with The Rock, we were seen as very professional. We have done this job, we’re very mature and I think that’s one of the reasons why we got sent there because we’re very reliable, we’re very safe and we know what we’re doing.”
On if he was surprised about their release:
“50/50 to be honest (Coffey said when asked if he was surprised by WWE release). We’d been off NXT TV since December and we were doing EVOLVE which is like another kind of an offshoot show of NXT to help younger talent and we’d been asked, ‘Hey, we need some experience on the show’ and we’re like, ‘Yeah. No problem. More than happy to. We just wanna work.’ I’d work every show, every night if I could, twice on Sunday and so we kind of cooled off on TV for a little bit and we’d been brought back and it was really good… but then we’re kicked off and you just start to think, could get released here. So it’s always in the back of your mind. But, knowing what I can offer, I was not shocked but just disappointed. I was like, hmm, you’ve maybe missed the trick here.”
You can check out the complete podcast below.
(H/T to Fightful for transcribing the above quotes)
