Joe Hendry has opened up on his path to the NXT Championship.
On the February 3rd edition of NXT, Joe Hendry captured the NXT Championship in a chaotic seven-man Ladder Match. Towards the end of the bout, Ricky Saints thought he had the title won, but when he reached the top of the ladder, he was confronted by Hendry.
The two fought over the title belt until Hendry hit Saints with it, knocking him into another ladder. This left Hendry able to unhook the belt to claim victory and the championship.
On Busted Open After Dark, Hendry explained how much the championship meant to him.
“I’m feeling so many different emotions. I have so much to say, and I will do my best to get it out here coherently, but… in my life, we have different goals, different challenges and this particular championship means so much to me. This championship represents what the last six, eight months here full-time at the Performance Center has been for me. I made the choice to come here to WWE and I made the choice to come and train at NXT.
“I get in the ring every day with those top-level, first-class athletes and I knew I had to push my cardio and my conditioning to a new level and I knew I just had to keep acquiring new skills and there were days when it was just so tough and I just felt like I was just pushing things forward inch by inch and there were moments where I was frustrated, I wanted to progress and then, things just started to click.”
Joe Hendry Had To “Truly Humble Himself” To Become A Championship-Calibre Athlete
Joe Hendry credits the environment in the WWE Performance Centre for helping him achieve his goal of becoming as good a pro wrestler as he can be.
“I started to learn more and more and more and when you’re around this environment at the P.C. every day, you can’t help but get better, and that was my only goal, was just to get as good as I could possibly be at professional wrestling because the last couple of years was a marketing exercise for me, right? It was to tell the world who Joe Hendry is and now, the journey was for me to step up to a championship-caliber athlete that can go to the very top of this business and in order to do that, I had to truly humble myself and I’ve been training every day, giving absolutely everything
The star finished by saying he is honored and privileged to represent NXT.
“To have that goal realized and actualized in this championship title that’s been held by some of the most prestigious names in the business. I’m so honored and privileged to represent this brand.”
Joe Hendry’s NXT Championship victory is the culmination of two years of work since he first debuted on the developmental brand in 2024 as part of WWE’s partnership with TNA. Since then, he made multiple appearances for the company, including facing Randy Orton at WrestleMania 41. He officially signed with WWE on November 13th, 2025.
H/T to Fightful for the above transcription.
